Authors: Satoshi Hirata Tetsuro Matsuzawa
Publish Date: 2001/07/17
Volume: 4, Issue: 3-4, Pages: 285-295
Abstract
Five dyads of chimpanzees were tested in a competitive situation as a pilot study to examine chimpanzees’ understanding of conspecifics’ knowledge A human experimenter baited one of five containers in an outdoor enclosure Chimpanzee A witness could see where the food was hidden while chimpanzee B witnessofwitness could not see the baited place but could observe the chimpanzee A watching the food being hidden Then the two were released into the enclosure This procedure was repeated for a certain number of days along with a control condition in which neither could see the baited location The witnessofwitness developed tactics to forestall the witness in two pairs The witness misled the witnessofwitness by taking a route to an empty container in several cases These episodes might represent examples of deception Tactics and countertactics thus developed through the interaction between the witness and the witnessofwitness illustrating the high social intelligence of chimpanzees An examination of the changes in tactics suggests a possibility that the witnessofwitness understands the witness’s knowledge of the location of hidden food
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