By watching a skilled female, jungle primates learned a rare skill common among their savannah relatives to gain access to clean, filtered soil water.
Chimpanzees from Wabira
Only a few species of animals have shown the ability to burrow into the upper layers of soil and reach water. This behavior is well known in ungulates - horses, zebras, donkeys - African elephants, warthogs and, of course, humans. Now, humans' closest relatives, the chimpanzee, have been added to this list. Primates living in the jungles of have learned to dig "wells" to get water, and scientists know who to get it from. They talk about this in an article published in the journal Primates.
The East African subspecies of chimpanzees inhabits the tropical rainforests of equatorial Africa from Congo to Tanzania. Catherine Hobait of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and her colleagues are studying communities of these animals living in the Waibira Game Reserve in Uganda.
As early as 2015, there was an "immigrant" among them - a young woman from the area. After the female joined the residents of Wabila, scientists nicknamed her Oniofi. Even so, she still demonstrated her ability to dig in the soil to find water with great skill and confidence. According to biologists, this suggests that Oniophi comes from a community that mastered the skill long ago.
Chimpanzees, as well as individuals, take great interest in adults, watching closely to dig and subsequently drink from the well. Over time, local primates also mastered the digging technique. Curiously, digging has been recorded in young chimpanzees and in some adult females. Males have not yet learned this, although they can use water seeping into a ready-made "well".
Digging is often associated with water shortages, and so far, experts know of only three groups of chimpanzees that dig the earth for water—all of which, like elephants and warthogs, live in arid savannahs. Not surprisingly, primates living in the humid forests of Uganda have not yet used this skill. Still, it seems to have brought some benefits in the jungle.
First, there are several months of the year during the dry season, when moisture becomes scarce. Second, scientists have noticed that chimpanzees often place "wells" near open water. Apparently, their main task is not to provide water, but to filter it.
"Chimpanzees have access to cleaner, different-smelling water, which is very attractive," adds Peter Schira, one of the authors of the new work. "We look forward to the young men who have mastered digging as adults. Perhaps they will become acceptable role models to adult men and they will no longer rely on others to dig wells for them.
