Academic Reading Test 17.2

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

The culture of Chimpanzees

Humankind's nearest relative is even closer than we thought: chimpanzees display remarkable behaviours that can only be described as social customs passed on from generation to generation.

A.   Researchers have studied the similarities between chimpanzees and humans for years, but in the past decade they have determined that these resemblances run much deeper than anyone first thought. [Crack IELTS with Rob] For instance, the nut-cracking observed in the Tai Forest is far from a simple chimpanzee behaviour; rather it is a singular adaptation found only in that particular part of Africa and a trait that biologists consider to be an expression of chimpanzee culture. Scientists frequently use the term “culture” to describe elementary animal behaviours, but as it turns out, the rich and varied cultural traditions found among chimpanzees are second in complexity only to human traditions.

B.   During the past two years, an unprecedented scientific collaboration, involving every major research group studying chimpanzees, has documented a multitude of distinct cultural patterns extending across Africa, in actions ranging from the animals’ use of tools to their forms of communications and social customs. [Crack IELTS with Rob] This emerging picture of chimpanzees not only affects how we think of these amazing creatures but also alters human beings’ conception of our own uniqueness and hints at ancient foundations for extraordinary capacity for culture. Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes have coexisted for hundreds of millennia and share more than 98 percent of their genetic material, yet only 40 years ago we still knew next to nothing about chimpanzee behaviour in the wild. That began to change in the 1960s, when Toshisada Nishida of Kyoto University in Japan and Jane Goodall began their studies of wild chimpanzees at two field sites in Tanzania. Goodall’s research station at Gombe—the first of its kind—is more famous.

C.   In these initial studies, as the chimpanzees became accustomed to close observation, the remarkable discoveries began. Researchers witnessed a range of unexpected behaviours, including fashioning and using tools, hunting, meat-eating, food sharing and lethal fights between members of neighbouring communities. [Crack IELTS with Rob] In the years that followed, other primatologists set up camp elsewhere, and, despite all the financial, political and logistical problems that can beset African fieldwork, several of these outposts became truly long-term projects. As a result, we live in an unprecedented time, when an intimate and comprehensive scientific record of chimpanzees’ lives at last exists not just for one but for several communities spread across Africa.

D.   As early as 1973, Goodall recorded 13 forms of tool use as well as eight social activities that appeared to differ between the Gombe chimpanzees and chimpanzee populations elsewhere. She ventured that some variations had what she termed a cultural origin. But what exactly did Goodall mean by “culture”? [Crack IELTS with Rob] The diversity of human cultures extends from technological variations to marriage rituals, from culinary habits to myths and legends. Animals do not have myths and legends, of course. But they do have the capacity to pass on behavioural traits from generation to generation, not through their genes but by learning. For biologists, this is the fundamental criterion for a cultural trait: it must be something that can be learned by observing the established skills of others and thus passed on to future generations.

E.   What of the implications for chimpanzees themselves? We must highlight the tragic loss of chimpanzees, whose populations are being decimated just when we are at last coming to appreciate these astonishing animals more completely. [Crack IELTS with Rob] The bushmeat trade is particularly alarming: logging has driven roadways into the forests that are now used to ship wild-animal meat - including chimpanzee meat - to consumers as far afield as Europe. Such destruction threatens not only the animals themselves but also a host of fascinatingly different ape cultures.

F.   Perhaps the cultural richness of the ape may yet help in its salvation, however. Some conservation efforts have already altered the attitudes of some local people. A few organizations have begun to show videotapes illustrating the cognitive prowess of chimpanzees. One Zairian viewer was heard to exclaim, “Ah, this ape is so like me, I can no longer eat him.”

G.   How did an international team of chimpanzee experts conduct the most comprehensive survey of the animals ever attempted? Scientists have been investigating chimpanzee culture for several decades, but too often their studies have contained a crucial flaw. [Crack IELTS with Rob] Most attempts to document cultural diversity among chimpanzees have relied solely on officially published accounts of the behaviours recorded at each research site. But this approach probably overlooks a good deal of cultural variation for three reasons.

H.   Firstly, scientists typically don’t publish an extensive list of all the activities they do not see at a particular location. Yet this is exactly what we need to know - which behaviours were and were not observed at each site. [Crack IELTS with Rob] Second, many reports describe chimpanzee behaviours without saying how common they are; without this information, we can’t determine whether a particular action was a once-in-a-lifetime aberration or a routine event that should be considered part of the animals’ culture. Finally, researchers’ descriptions of potentially significant chimpanzee behaviour frequently lack sufficient detail, making it difficult for scientists working at other spots to record the presence or absence of the activities.

I.   To remedy these problems, the two of us decided to take a new approach. We asked field researchers at each site for a list of all the behaviours they suspected were local traditions. With this information in hand, we pulled together a comprehensive list of 65 candidates for cultural behaviours.

J.   Then we distributed our list to the team leaders at each site. In consultation with their colleagues, they classified each behaviour in terms of its occurrence or absence in the chimpanzee community studied. The key categories were customary behaviour, habitual, present, absent, and unknown. [Crack IELTS with Rob] We should note, however, that certain cultural traits are no doubt passed on by a combination of imitation and simpler kinds of social learning. Either way, learning from elders is crucial to growing up as a competent wild chimpanzee.