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The Chimps Who Would Be Chefs
The Chimps Who Would Be Chefs
Chimpanzees not only prefer cooked foods versus those that are raw, but they also can cook, and elect to do so, when presented with easy-to-operate devices, new research finds.
The surprising findings, outlined in a study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, demonstrate that our closest evolutionary relatives have nearly all of the inherent skills necessary to accomplish basic cooking. This, in turn, suggests that the skills were present in the common ancestor of chimps and humans.
But don't expect a chimp-hosted cooking show anytime soon.
"There are some ethical issues with providing the chimpanzees access to actual fire -- given the danger," co-author Alexandra Rosati of Yale University's Department of Psychology told Discovery News. She explained that the cooking devices used in the study were chosen and presented with chimp safety in mind.
The study, co-authored by Felix Warneken of Harvard University's Department of Psychology, actually consisted of nine different experiments. In the first, chimps were presented with a raw or cooked sweet potato at room temperature, to see which type they preferred. The vast majority went for the cooked potato.
Experiment 2 determined that chimps have patience when waiting for cooked food, while experiments 3 and 4 found that chimpanzees choose to cook their own food when presented with simple cooking devices that they figured out how to operate. Experiment 5 replicated that discovery. Experiment 6 determined that their rudimentary cooking skills generalize to other foods–in this case, carrots. Experiment 7 found that they selectively can cook edible items (the chimps cooked raw potato slices versus inedible wood chips that they were given).
The final experiments demonstrated that chimps will transport food in order to cook it, and that they will save their food for future cooking. All of these skills represent fundamental psychological abilities necessary to engage in cooking. The common ancestor of chimps and humans therefore likely possessed these very same skills.
Warneken added that other studies have found "that cooking allows animals to extract more energy from food than when it is raw." He continued, "Given that brains are an energetically expensive tissue – and humans have brains that are both relatively and absolutely larger than other primates – the shift to a cooked diet may have been a critical factor in the evolution of larger brains in the human lineage."
It's often convenient for us to stress the differences between ourselves and other species. When we embrace the similarities between us, it becomes much more difficult to subjugate them. Or to eat them!
If you'd rather move toward a more plant-based diet – whether raw or cooked – see what we have to offer this week at http://KindMeal.my.
(Talented as they might be, we promise there are no chimps in the kitchens!)
Source: http://goo.gl/qULXc4
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