Even bumblebees and chimpanzees can master their skills

Like us, bumblebees and chimpanzees can hone their skills. Bumblebees and chimpanzees can learn skills from their peers that are so complex that they could not have developed them alone, an ability previously thought to be unique to the human species, according to two studies published Wednesday. The evolution of human civilization will depend in part on the accumulation of innovations and their transmission through social learning, which makes it possible to improve performance from generation to generation. And the techniques are so elaborate to arrive at that one cannot discover independently.

“Imagine the children are cast away on a desert island. With a little luck they will survive but will not be able to learn to read and write on their own., in a video accompanying the publication, summarizes Lars Chitka, professor of ethology at Queen Mary University of London and co-author of the nature study. Some experiments already show social learning abilities in animals. whereby some of their behaviors may be perfected over time, suggesting that they have a form “Accumulated Culture”

: Cracking of almonds in chimpanzees, change of direction in pigeons… But scientists do not exclude that these faculties can also emerge spontaneously. “Secret Solution Zone” in the brain

The researchers decided to test it on bumblebees, social insects trained in laboratory training. They first subjected the group to a sophisticated two-stage course for sweet reward: first they had to push a blue tab, which, once released, allowed pushing a second red tab and opened the way to a sweet reward. A tough test for the eyebrows from the first step did nothing. “We asked them for apprenticeships without compensation, they hated it”, says AFP Alice Bridges, a doctor at Queen Mary University, co-author of the study. The unlucky ones struggled with the red tab, not realizing that they had to unlock the blue tab first to get their earnings. Frustrated, they gave up.

Social Education

To re-motivate the soldiers, the researchers introduced a temporary reward from the first phase, which was gradually withdrawn, which eventually helped the participants to solve the puzzle. The “Exhibitors”

were then arranged in pairs with conspecifics “naive” Unaware of the problem, those who personally observed their manuals before training. Results: 5 out of 15 observers completed both phases immediately without an intermediate reward. “We were so surprised, we almost went crazy in the lab!”, remembers Alice Bridges. The sample is certainly small “But the conclusion is clear: the task was exceptionally difficult and yet some beetles were able to accomplish it through social learning”Alex Thornton of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at the British University of Exeter notes in a commentary accompanying the study.

This work is the first to demonstrate the phenomenon of cumulative culture in invertebrates, emphasize the authors. According to another study published in Nature Human Behavior led by Edwin van Leeuwen of Utrecht University (Netherlands), a faculty that seems to be possessed by chimpanzees, our closest relatives as well. Primates at the Chimfunshi Sanctuary in Zambia had a peanut dispenser in their enclosure that required a three-stage ball and drawer manipulation. A complex system inspired by natural behaviors, when chimpanzees equip themselves with tools – sticks – to collect termites. For three months, 66 individuals searched for the device without understanding how it worked, a sign that it was not possible to do it alone.

The researchers then successfully trained two chimpanzees to spread their new skills to their groups. After two months of observation, 14 naïve primates had mastered the apparatus. And the more they saw their performers, the faster they were able to solve the problem, the authors explain. They conclude that chimpanzees use social learning to acquire further skills “Primary Sites Associated with Latent Solution Zones”. For Alex Thornton, “The strength of these two studies lies in what they reveal about humans overestimating their abilities compared to other animals”.