Active sharing of a novel, arbitrary innovation in captive cotton-top tamarins?

What is it about?

Many primates, and especially great apes, engage in traditions or cultural behaviours: innovations or new behaviours that are socially learned from others in the group. These behaviours are usually beneficial in that they provide food or comfort, but sometimes cultural behaviours can be arbitrary and have no obvious function. In this anecdotal report, we describe arbitrary object manipulation in two captive cotton-top tamarins, small monkeys (<500g) that live in Columbia. Two individuals living in adjacent enclosures were observed manipulating the woodchips that are found on the floor of their enclosures. More specifically, one individual would repeatedly get a woodchip from the ground, bring it over to the border and show her neighbour, and then manipulate it with her fingers and teeth. This is especially interesting because she was actively showing her neighbour the woodchip. After a week, her neighbour also retrieved a woodchip and brought it to the mesh, showing her the woodchip and manipulating it in the same manner. Cotton-top tamarins show high levels of cooperation and are very social, making way for the sharing of information and social spread of behaviours. It is possible that, like humans, cotton-top tamarins (and other monkeys) have cultural variations in their behaviour.

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