Bumblebees and chimpanzees can also pass on their skills

Like us, bumblebees and chimpanzees can pass on 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 considered unique to the human species, according to two studies published Wednesday.

The evolution of human culture is based in part on the accumulation of innovations and their transmission via social learning, which makes it possible to improve performance from generation to generation.

And to arrive at techniques so elaborate that an individual could not discover independently.

“Imagine children dumped on a desert island.

With a little luck they will be able to survive but not learn to read and write on their own

,” summarizes Lars Chittka, professor of ethology at Queen Mary University of London and co-author of a Nature study, in a video attached to the publication.

Several experiments have already demonstrated social learning abilities in animals.

Thanks to which some of their behaviors can be perfected over time, suggesting that they possess a form of

: cracking of nuts in chimpanzees, modifications of trajectories in pigeons... But scientists do not exclude not that these faculties can also emerge spontaneously, via the existence of a

in the brain.

Researchers decided to do the test on bumblebees, social insects trained in laboratory training.

They subjected a first group to a sophisticated two-step process towards a sweet reward: they first had to push a blue tab which, once released, allowed a second red tab to be pushed and opened the way to the sweet reward.

A tough test for the bumblebees since the first step led to nothing.

,” Alice Bridges, a doctor at Queen Mary University and co-author of the study, told AFP.

The unfortunate people struggled with the red tab, without understanding that they had to first unlock the blue one to get their pittance.

Discouraged, they gave up.

Social learning

To re-motivate the troops, researchers introduced a temporary reward from the first phase, gradually withdrawn, which ultimately helped the participants solve the puzzle.

The

conspecifics

unaware of the problem, who observed their guides before training individually.

Result: 5 of the 15 observers immediately completed both stages, without intermediate reward.

, remembers Alice Bridges.

The sample is certainly small

, notes Alex Thornton, of the Center for Ecology and Conservation of British University of Exeter, in a commentary associated with the study.

This work is the first to demonstrate a phenomenon of cumulative culture in invertebrates, emphasize the authors.

A faculty that also seems to be possessed by chimpanzees, our closest relatives, according to another study published in Nature Human Behavior, led by Edwin van Leewen of Utrecht University (Netherlands).

Primates from the Chimfunshi sanctuary in Zambia had a peanut dispenser in their enclosure requiring the manipulation of a ball and a drawer, in three phases.

A complex system inspired by natural behaviors, when chimpanzees arm themselves with tools - sticks - to collect termites.

For three months, 66 individuals explored the device without anyone understanding how it worked, a sign that it was not possible to do it alone.

The researchers then successfully trained two chimpanzees so that they could disseminate their new skills within their groups.

After two months of observation, 14 naive primates had mastered the device.

And the more they looked at their demonstrators, the more quickly they were able to resolve the problem, the authors specify.

They conclude that chimpanzees use social learning to acquire skills that go beyond

.

For Alex Thornton,

.