Chimp-Made Toolkit Most Complex Ever Found

June 2, 2009 -- Central African chimpanzees crave honey so much that they've invented the animal kingdom's most complex known set of tools to get it, according to researchers who found many of the tools still slathered with the syrupy liquid.

A new study on the findings, accepted for publication in the Journal of Human Evolution, is believed to be the first to compare such a sophisticated chimp tool set with Stone Age human technologies. Hunger for honey appears to have motivated both species.

"Tools are used to solve ecological challenges," lead author Christophe Boesch explained to Discovery News. "The more complex and rewarding a challenge is, the more complex the solutions are going to be."

Boesch, who is the director of the Department of Primatology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, added that Central African tropical forests are full of bees and their honey, so "humans and chimpanzees living in such an environment would face similar challenges and, with both having extended learning abilities, would rely upon tools to overcome the challenges."

A similar phenomenon appears to have occurred in West African forests, since chimps and humans there make hammers for cracking the region's plentiful, nutritious nuts.

WATCH VIDEO: View chimps crafting and using a specialized tool for scooping up termites.

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For this latest study, however, Boesch and colleagues Josephine Head and Martha Robbins observed chimpanzees at Loango National Park on the coast of Gabon, Africa. They identified at least five different types of chimp-made honey extraction tools used in sequence.

The tools consist of pounders, enlargers, collectors, perforators and swabbers. Chimps, suspended in acrobatic positions on branches, might first pull out a thick stick pounder to break open beehive entrances. They then reach for another stick, the enlarger, to perforate and widen different honeybee hive compartments. Next comes the collector, used to dip or scoop out honey.

Different tools and methods are needed to obtain underground bee honey. The chimps wield a perforator to penetrate the ground, locate a honey chamber and dig into the soil. They then pull off strips of bark to "dip and spoon the honey out of the opened beehive."

Obtaining honey from an underground hive isn't easy. Aside from dealing with angry, stinging bees, the chimps must dig narrow sideways tunnels, maintain perfect aim and prevent soil from falling into, and ruining, their desired sweet reward.