East African Chimpanzees are digging wells to drink water

Hyderabad: The phrase “survival of the fittest,” popularised in Charles Darwin’s fifth edition of ‘On the Origin of Species’ (published in 1869), stated that animals most adapted to their environment are more likely to survive. The East African chimpanzees living in the Waibira community in Uganda are the best illustration of this phenomenon. Péter and […]

Hyderabad: The phrase “survival of the fittest,” popularised in Charles Darwin’s fifth edition of ‘On the Origin of Species’ (published in 1869), stated that animals most adapted to their environment are more likely to survive.

The East African chimpanzees living in the Waibira community in Uganda are the best illustration of this phenomenon. Péter and his study partners examined the behaviour of these creatures as they dug through the forest to find hidden water sources.

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Onyofi, a young immigrant female who arrived in 2015 and had exceptional skills right away, led to the first observation of well-digging. This suggests that Onyofi may have been raised in a well-digging society. Since then, a number of other juvenile Waibira chimpanzees, as well as adult females, have been spotted excavating wells.

Although no adult males were seen excavating, they frequently use the wells that others have already dug, as per ‘sci-news.com‘.

The other chimpanzees found Onyofi’s well-digging amusing, indicating that the Waibira group had not previously seen this behaviour. She saw that the chimps were drawn to her wells, and they started drinking directly from them or from chewed-up leaves or moss, indicating that well water may have some additional advantages.

Groups like the Waibira may be able to thrive even when their local habitat changes due to behavioural adaptations to variations in rainfall as a result of climate change.

The study was published in the journal ‘Primates’.

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