families have a new
role to provide emotional
support for mother and baby nothing in
the world is more important or brings
Greater Joy
baby chimpanzees spend years learning
about each other and their
Traditions families are the
schools in central Africa chimps crack
nuts with the trick is passed mother to baby down
the generations it’s part of their culture in East Africa they catch termites using Twigs babies watch and learn they get the basics almost immediately it’s something to do with a stick in some extraordinary footage the mother tries to help and is pushed away by the youngster with endless patience she tries again no not that huge thing here this one is better only humans are supposed actively to teach but textbooks can be rewritten if necessary young chimps get enormous pleasure from termite fishing a hunger to learn and satisfaction with success is also part of our biology it must drive a lot of what we do most primates are born into troops extended families but not all the two kilogram newborn oring utan brings us back to the start fathers and cousins are around but not particularly helpful it’ll be seven or eight years before the next one his mother’s one of the world’s slowest breeders his long childhood gives him time to work things out his mother will help map out where to find food and slowly he’ll become aware of his world and himself it’s not just primates it seems likely all mammals and maybe Birds too feel emotions and make thoughtful choices particularly around B increasingly Bing otan face disaster infants that lose their mothers may be lucky enough to be rescued human stepparents do their best with an orphan they both try to replace a bond that is lost.
