From Ed Prior, Poquoson, Virginia, US
Your article on chimpanzees losing culture brought back memories (16 March, p 16). I took an elective course in anthropology as a freshman at the University of Illinois in early 1961, but I had no real interest in the field.
One day, our professor came in with a burly gentleman, who he introduced as the anthropologist Louis Leakey, who was travelling to California to announce a major discovery by a student named Jane Goodall. We were astonished as he showed us Goodall’s photos of chimpanzees using branches to catch termites and ants – clearly demolishing what we had learned in class a few weeks earlier, which was that humans are the only species to use tools.
If chimpanzees are losing their culture, the idea that they may eventually lose their tool-using skills is very sad.
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