Teamwork in humans may have its evolutionary roots in our nearest primate relatives - chimpanzees - a new study has found.
A series of trials by scientists from the University of Warwick found that chimpanzees not only coordinate actions with each other but also understand the need to help a partner perform their role to achieve a common goal.
Pairs of chimpanzees were given tools to get grapes out of a box. They had to work together with a tool each to get the food out. Scientists found that the chimpanzees would solve the problem together, even swapping tools, to pull the food out.
The study, published in Biology Letters, also included researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
The team sought to find out if there were any evolutionary roots to humans' ability to cooperate and coordinate actions.
"This study provides the first evidence that one of our closest primate relatives, the chimpanzees, not only intentionally coordinate actions with each other but that they even understand the necessity to help a partner performing her role in order to achieve the common goal," Dr Alicia Melis, Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, said.
"These are skills shared by both chimpanzees and humans, so such skills may have been present in their common ancestor before humans evolved their own complex forms of collaboration," Melis said in a statement.
The study looked at 12 chimpanzees at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya.
The chimpanzees were put into pairs, with one needed at the back and one at the front of a sealed plastic box. Through a hole the chimpanzee at the back had to push the grapes onto a platform using a rake.
The chimpanzee at the front then had to use a thick stick and push it through a hole to tilt the platform so the grapes would fall to the floor and both could pick them up to eat.
One chimpanzee was handed both tools and they had to decide which tool to pass to the partner. Ten out of 12 individuals solved the task figuring out that they had to give one of the tools to their partner and in 73 per cent of the trials the chimpanzees chose the correct tool.
"This study provides the first evidence that chimpanzees can pay attention to the partner's actions in a collaborative task, and shows they know their partner not only has to be there but perform a specific role if they are to succeed," Melis said.
"It shows they can work strategically together just like humans do, working out that they not only need to work together but what roles each chimpanzee has to do in order to succeed," Melis added.
