Observation learning of tool use by captive Guinea baboons (Papio papio)

A subadult male from a captive group of Guinea baboons learned, by trial‐and‐error, to use a tool to rake in food. He then used the tool 104 times over 26 days, thereby providing the group with most of its food. No other group member used the tool during this period. The tool user was removed, and the remainder of the group was given access to the display. None imitated his tool use. It took longer for another finally to learn to use the tool than it had for the initial solution. However, compared with the period before initial solution, group members manipulated the tool more frequently and touched the food pan with the tool nearly twice as many times after the tool user's separation. This type of tool use appears to be too complex for baboons to imitate directly. However, as a result of observing successful tool use, they attend more to the problem and manipulate the tool more frequently and more accurately. This increase in frequency and accuracy may, in turn, accelerate acquisition of the response by observers through instrumental trial‐and‐error learning.