Wild Chimps Teach Their Young Tool Skills, Study Shows

For decades, researchers have debated how chimpanzees pass down their technological knowledge. Do they learn by watching? Do older chimps actively teach? Or do young apes simply figure things out on their own? A new study capturing 15 hours of camera trap footage from Senegal provides compelling evidence for something we typically associate with humans: genuine teaching.

Researchers at the University of Barcelona, led by R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar, documented 33 instances of tool transfer between wild western chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute’s biological station in Dindefelo. The footage, collected between 2017 and 2025, shows mothers and relatives deliberately handing tools to younger chimps, sometimes even guiding their hands through the learning process.

Teaching Through Action

In one striking example, a mother named Soukki inserted a dipping stick into an ant nest, then physically led her baby daughter Saïsaï to the tool. Saïsaï pulled it out and ate the ants clinging to it. This wasn’t accidental knowledge transfer. It was intentional instruction.

The researchers found that 30 percent of tool transfers occurred between mothers and their offspring, with the majority happening during ant-dipping sessions. Ten transfers involved fishing for algae, and four involved termite fishing. These aren’t one-off observations either. The pattern appeared consistently across multiple individual chimps and family groups.

What makes this research particularly significant is that the teachers were actively sacrificing their own feeding opportunities. “This is an important observation because it fits the criteria for teaching used in animal behaviour research,” notes Andrew Whiten from the University of St Andrews. The teacher benefits the pupil’s learning chances while bearing a personal cost. That’s the hallmark of real teaching.

Beyond Simple Imitation

Chimpanzees have long been known as tool users. They fashion leaf or moss sponges to soak up water, craft fishing sticks for army ants and algae, and even make simple spears for hunting. But observing the behaviour isn’t the same as understanding how young chimps acquire these skills.

Team member Andreu Sánchez-Megías emphasizes that the research supports “the idea that tool transfers are a form of teaching that experienced chimpanzees may use to facilitate the learning of young individuals.” This goes beyond passive observation. It’s active pedagogy.

The researchers also documented proto-tool use, where chimps use stones as anvils to crack open hard-shelled baobab fruit. In one example, a mother called Féré placed fruits near her infant son Fotti. A juvenile male picked one up and pounded it against rocks while Fotti watched, then physically guided Fotti’s hand to demonstrate the technique. Fotti eventually managed to crack open a fruit himself.

What This Means for Human Uniqueness

For years, teaching has been cited as a distinctly human trait that gives our science and culture its competitive edge. The implication was clear: other animals copy what they see, but humans alone actively instruct their young. This new evidence chips away at that narrative.

Elliot Howard-Spink from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior calls the findings “very cool and nice,” noting how rare it is to capture genuine teaching events on film. “Showing across many forms of tool use that these tool transfers are indicative of a very simple form of teaching is very cool.”

The research doesn’t suggest that chimpanzee teaching equals human teaching. Human culture is vastly more complex, layered, and sophisticated. But it does suggest that the cognitive and social foundations underlying learning are more shared across the primate family than we’ve been comfortable admitting.

These chimpanzees aren’t just passing on survival skills. They’re demonstrating intentionality, patience, and a willingness to invest in the next generation’s success. They’re showing us that teaching, in its most fundamental form, might be far older and more widespread in nature than we ever realized.

Source: Frontiers in Psychology, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1868894