Chimpanzees observed making fashion choices

[n2doc]

By Ben Guarino

It’s a trend that’s taken a troop of chimpanzees by storm: a blade of grass dangling from an ear. The "grass-in-ear behavior," as scientists have termed it, seems to be one of the first times that chimpanzees have created a tradition with no discernible purpose -- a primate fashion statement, in other words.

There’s no doubt that chimpanzees have culture, as different chimp groups will use unique tools: to groom, to crack open nuts, to fish for termites.

But, according to a study in the journal Animal Cognition, chimpanzee culture now includes something that seems altogether arbitrary: ear accoutrements.

“Our observation is quite unique in the sense that nothing seems to be communicated by it,” says study author Edwin van Leeuwen, a primate expert at the Max Planck Institute in The Netherlands.

To figure out if this was really a tradition, and not just chimpanzees sticking grass in their ears at random, van Leeuwen and his colleagues spent a year observing four chimp groups in Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust, a sanctuary in Zambia. Only one troop performed the grass-in-ear behavior, although all of the chimps lived in the same grassy territory. There’s no genetic or ecological factors, the scientists believe, that would account for this behavior -- only culture.

more

https://www.thedodo.com/for-the-first-time-chimpanzees-605888880.html

[LeftofObama]

1. This is something up with which I shall not put!

The next thing you know they'll be hanging out at the drug store drinking soda pop and listening to rock and roll records.


Put a stop to it now, I say!

[shenmue]

2. It looks good on him

[ladjf]

3. Spare termite straw? nt

[hunter]

4. Member of the grass-in-ear tribe.

I was a member of the one pierced ear and ponytail tribe for a long time.

But then my hair grew too thin for a ponytail and my parrots invented this game they thought was hilarious, of sneaking up on me pretending to want my company, and then suddenly stealing whatever ear decoration I was wearing, often in painful ways.

[VanillaRhapsody]

5. I think they noticed humans wearing them along the way....

and this is what it looks like to them...

[greiner3]

8. How about glimpsed human earrings;

Everyone needs to accessorise.

[progressoid]

6. That is soooo last year.

All the fashionable chimps are wearing leaves in their ears now.

[MisterP]

7. "fads go in a cycle! In another ten years we'll be back in style"