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Animal behaviour

Incipient tradition in wild chimpanzees

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The adoption of a new form of tool use has been observed to spread along social-network pathways in a chimpanzee community. The finding offers the first direct evidence of cultural diffusion in these animals in the wild.

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Figure 1: Tools and trends.

A: Catherine Hobaiter/B: Edwin Van Leeuwen

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Correspondence to Andrew Whiten.

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Whiten, A. Incipient tradition in wild chimpanzees. Nature 514, 178–179 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13759

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