Acquisition of skilled gathering techniques in Mahale chimpanzees

Chimpanzees show a remarkable ability to organize actions into complex programs, shown most famously in their ability to employ tools in many different ways for subsistence. Chimpanzee tool use has been much studied, with an emphasis on the tool rather than the process of use. We planned instead to examine chimpanzee skills in the broader context of plant-processing techniques, with an emphasis on the process. In particular, we focused on the development of infants in parallel with describing the skills of their mothers. Data were collected from M group chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains National Park during February–December 1998 and the