Use of tools by chimpanzees

Chimpanzees in all settings use tools regularly (Beck, 1980;Tuttle, 1986). In the wild they use a variety of tools made from a variety of materials to accomplish a variety of tasks. This is true of the eastern, central-western and far-western geographical races, and is known in habitats ranging from savanna to evergreen forest. Well-known types of tools include probes of vegetation to obtain social insects (Nishida, 1973), hammers of stone to crack open nuts (Boesch, 1978), sponges of leaves to soak up fluids (Goodall, 1968), and weapons of woody branches to deter predators or to dominate opponents (Kortlandt, 1965). Wild chimpanzees also make tools and show flexibility in doing so; they use a variety of raw materials to make the same tool, such as twig, vine or bark to fashion a probe for termite-fishing (Goodall, 1964). Also, they use the same raw material to make various tools; for instance. a leaf may be modified to be a sponge, napkin, probe or billet-doux (Nishida, 1980b)

W.C.McGrew (1992) Chimpanzee Material Culture p.44-5