Nest architecture as an overlooked material culture: what deconstruction of orangutan nests reveals and the case for systematic study across nest-building primates

What is it about?

Every great ape builds a fresh sleeping nest every night and has done so for millions of years. Yet nobody had systematically examined how one is actually built, until now._x000D_ I took apart 184 wild orangutan nests in Sumatra and Borneo, branch by branch, in the order they were built, recording what I found at each step. The nests are not random piles of branches; they followed consistent architectural patterns. The most common design, a lattice reinforced by a rim, appeared in both populations, and match written descriptions of chimpanzee nests recorded over half a century ago. That could mean orangutans and chimpanzees inherited this design from a shared ancestor millions of years ago, or that they both independently arrived at the same solution to the same engineering problem. Either answer would be remarkable._x000D_ The most complex building techniques were almost completely absent in young orangutans, even when their mothers use them all the time. It takes years of watching and practising to build a nest; a slow apprenticeship similar to what is seen in other complex skills across great apes._x000D_ Frans de Waal spent his career showing that animal minds are richer than we give them credit for, and that the evidence was there all along, we just had to look. Orangutan nests are built every day, by every wild adult. We've studied them for decades without once asking what is. inside. Now that we have, the answer is clear: architecture, by design.

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