Protocultural Aspects of Chimpanzees’ Responsiveness to Novel Objects

19 juvenile chimpanzees, most of them with extremely limited previous social and object experience, were housed together in 17 successive groupings of 3 animals: the 1st trio consisted of indivduals A, B and C ; the 2nd of B, C and D ; the 3rd of C, D and E, and so on. Each such ‘social generation’ was tested with the same two toys. Initially both objects were avoided or approached with caution. In the 3rd trio, however, individual E habituated to one object and in the 5th trio individual F habituated to the other object. An enduring tradition of boldness and play then ensued for each object separately. The traditions were more stable across groups as a whole than within individuals.