Contact with Human Facilities Appears to Enhance Technical Skills in Wild Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops)

Technical abilities of primates are typically tested in the laboratory. It has been argued that close contact between animals and humans may lead to an increase in skills due to an 'enculturation' of subjects. Here, we provide evidence that exposure to human facilities may improve wild vervet monkeys' technical skills in a social learning task using the 'artificial fruit' approach. Two of our 6 study groups had access to human facilities within their territories. Only members of these 2 groups were likely to open successfully 'artificial fruit' during their first attempt. Success appeared to be independent of individual sex or the type of task. Our results highlight the possibility that human enculturation may allow captive monkeys to acquire more technical skills than their wild counterparts, and we suggest that this possibility should be tested in further field experiments. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel