Tag: genetic  The genetic side to chimpanzee culture  By Ed Yong
| August 18, 2010 8:41 am  Chimp_babiesIf you watch chimpanzees
from different parts of Africa, you’ll see them doing very
different things. Some use sticks to extract honey from
beehives, while others prefer leaves. Some use sticks as hunting
spears and others use them to fish for ants. Some drum on
branches to get attention and others rip leaves between their
teeth.  These behaviours have been described as cultural
traditions; they’re the chimp equivalent of the musical styles,
fashion trends and social rules of humans. They stem from the
readiness of great apes to ape one another and pick up
behaviours from their peers. But a new study complicates our
understanding of chimp cultures. Kevin Langergraber at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that
much of this variation in behaviour could have a genetic
influence.  Read More  Genetic diversity gives honeybees an edge
By Ed Yong | June 18, 2009 8:30 am   Blogging on