First PhD publication by Lara Zanutto

Publication on bonobo tool use in iScience

In this first publication from Lara’s PhD, she investigated the individual (i.e., age, sex, and rearing history), social (i.e., past and present exposure to conspecifics using tools), and environmental (i.e., tool availability) tool-use drivers in sanctuary-living bonobos using a novel group-based extractive foraging task. Lara found that tool use was more frequent in adult females than in males, in human-reared than in mother-reared immatures, after greater exposure to tool use, and when tools were provided. Hence, tool use in sanctuary-living bonobos is driven by social learning opportunities and developmental biases, providing insight into the conditions that may have favored the emergence of tool use during hominin evolution.

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