New research suggests chimpanzees pass their fashion sense onto others in their social groups, just like humans do. Scientists came to this fascinating realization after observing that chimps living together at a sanctuary in Zambia began copying each other by wearing blades of grass in their ears . . . and in their butts. And scientists say there’s no apparent reason for this behavior other than fitting in with the group.
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“The famous grass-in-ear behaviour has become grass-in-rear,” wrote Jake Brooker, a researcher from Durham University who participated in the study with chimps at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust. Brooker is co-author of a new study published this month in the scientific journal Brill.
“Like us, many animals learn behaviours from observing others,” he continues in an Instagram post sharing the research. “Much research in this area has focused on behaviours with clear survival benefits, for example foraging skills like nut-cracking in chimpanzees.”
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But a decade ago, a team of researchers realized one female chimp at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust was wearing grass in her ear, and then they noticed something interesting—other chimps in her social group started doing it, too. Believe it or not, the chimp started a trend that persists today among a whole new group of animals at the sanctuary. But this group added its own bit of flair to the fashion trend; blades of grass in the butt is also cool now.
Wearing Grass = Social Tradition
Researchers concluded that chimpanzees adopted this “fashion trend” as a sort of social tradition among this one particular group.
“We have previously documented a tool-use tradition without discernible function in which chimpanzees replicated the practice of inserting blades of grass in their ears from one persistent inventor,” the research study explains. “Now, over a decade later, we have observed an unrelated group of chimpanzees at the same African sanctuary, where five out of eight individuals began wearing grass in their ears and six out of eight from their rectums within a short period of time.”
See chimps with grass in their ears here:
Read the full research study here.
Header stock image by Levana Sietses/Getty Images
