- Visitors & Friends - About the University Chimps show food
link to walking Pete Wilton | 20 Mar 12 A study of chimpanzees
gives tantalizing evidence that humans may have evolved upright
walking in order to carry more food. A team of scientists from
Oxford University, Cambridge, and Kyoto University tested the
theory that two-legged (bipedal) walking should occur more of
the time when animals are carrying prized but rare resources.
The researchers put groups of wild chimpanzees in Bossou,
Guinea, through their paces. First they provided either
commonly-available oil palm nuts or both oil palm nuts and some
rare coula nuts in a forest clearing. They found that when more
of the prized coula nuts were available the chimps concentrated
on carrying these away in preference to the oil palm nuts.
Whilst overall the chimps still mostly used all four limbs,
bipedal walking increased by a factor of four when coula nuts
were present. The chimps also carried twice as many items when
walking on two legs – often using not