Researchers have found that chimpanzees deliberately teach their young to use tools by demonstrating the behaviour before handing the implement over so infants can copy the motions themselves. Published in Frontiers in Psychology, the findings suggest this "tool transfer" acts as a genuine form of teaching, combining modelling, observation and supervised practice, with mothers acting as the primary instructors for their offspring.

The study, based at the Dindefelo Community Nature Reserve in Senegal's Kedougou region, drew on nearly 15 hours of camera-trap footage gathered between 2017 and 2025 across 14 locations. Analysis identified 33 confirmed instances of tool transfer, three failed attempts, and four cases of baobab fruit transfer, where chimps use stones or wood to crack the fruit open. More than half of the tool transfers, 58 percent, occurred during "ant dipping," in which chimps use a twig to scoop up ants to eat.