Climate change increases the severity of droughts as humans are finding out to their dismay. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in an Ugandan group have taken up a learned behavior brought in by a female immigrant named "Onoyofi". Primate researcher Catherine Hobaiter of St. Andrews University in the UK watched as Onoyofi dug a small hole and waited for ground water to fill it. Rewarded for her efforts, she tne drank from the well. This was unusual behavior in a rainforest where surface water is common. Well digging has been observed in more arid habitats, like savannas. This Budongo rainforest group did not dig waterholes before Onoyofi joined the Waibara group in 2014. It was not until 2017 that observers saw them digging for water. The researchers findings are published in the journal Primates.
Knowng the origin of a learned or cultural behavior is rare. But the hypothesis that immigrante females pass along new behaviors is becomimg more accepted among primatologists. An expirament was conducted in Guinea, West Africa where a unfamiliar nuts were introduced to a group by researchers. One immigrant female readily cracked open the new nut, suggesting she was familiar with it from her birth community.
Chimps do not readily adopt new behaviors. Betweem 2013 and 2019 56 instances of well digging by twenty different Waibara members were observed, mostly by females. Onoyofi was the most prolific with 14 waterholes to her credit. Caputred videos show other Waibara members observing Onoyofi carefully as she dug her 'magic' waterholes. Well-digging took place in the dry season when the chimps rely heavily on a water source that is seasonal in the middle of their home territory. Currently the Waibara chimps do not have to concern themselves with droughts, bu the new behavior may help them adapt to drier forest conditions in the future. Scientists are making plans for long-term observation of this clever group of primates. Watch the action on this Mongabay.com video