Object manipulation and the use of tools by infant baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis)

Infant baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis) in a captive peer group used objects as containers, drinking utensils, and sponges in the context of play. The baboons later used paper, browse, and other materials as tools to extract sweet liquids from apparatus designed to accommodate sponging and probing behavior. The results of this study demonstrate flexible combinatorial manipulation and spontaneous use of tools by infant baboons. These data are consistent with hypotheses that (a) an evolutionary history of omnivorous extractive foraging is associated with the use of tools and (b) free play in an object-enriched captive environment may facilitate combinatorial manipulation in nonhuman primates.