CHIMPS can learn how to make their own tools from watching "Blue Peter-style" demonstrations on video, Scots scientists have revealed.
Researchers from St Andrews University trained a chimpanzee to make a long pole for prizing out-of-reach fruit from a tree.
They then filmed the animal constructing the handy tool from a variety of different parts.
Other chimps that watched
a video of the feat were then able to make their own similar tools.
Lead researcher Elizabeth Price, from St Andrews University's School of Psychology, said she wanted to discover whether chimps could learn to make a tool from separate parts after watching other animals use materials to improve their lives.
Some birds are able to use twigs to pull grubs out of hiding places, and monkeys have been known to strip leaves from branches to fish for termites.
She said the findings were "the first evidence that chimpanzees can socially learn how to construct tools" and showed the animals were more intelligent than previously thought.
She said: "It is very exciting as we didn't know chimps could do this.
"You could say the videos were like Blue Peter and 'Here's one I made earlier'.
"The chimps really needed to see the full instructional video to learn how to make the long tool and gain the reward.
"Most of those who didn't watch the video, couldn't make the tool."
Ms Price and Professor Andrew Whiten of St Andrews University led an international team of primate experts to uncover the remarkable learning feats of the chimpanzees.
In the experiment, chimpanzees in a primate centre at the University of Texas were presented with a grape that was just out of reach.
Some chimps were then shown a video of another chimpanzee expertly slotting one stick into another to create a rake, and then using the tool to get the fruit.
Others were shown a shorter video showing a chimpanzee using a ready-made tool.
The researchers found chimpanzees that watched the full video demonstration were able to copy what they saw and make the tools themselves.
In a follow-up test, the grapes were put within reach, making the use of a longer tool unnecessary.
The chimpanzees that had learned the skill by watching the full video persisted in making the rake, which in the new scenario was more awkward to use.
However, a few individual chimps that had watched the shorter video but still managed to make a tool, did not do so when the grape was close enough to reach without help.
Ms Price said: "These results are important not only because they provide the first evidence that chimpanzees can socially learn how to construct tools, but also because they suggest that social learning can have a potent effect on how an individual approaches related problems later."
The results suggest that learning from others can lead to a less flexible approach to novel situations, she said.
The researchers are now planning to discover the extent to which our own species is vulnerable to a similar effect, by looking at children's abilities.
Ms Price added: "Social learning plays a major role in the spread of complex technologies in humans."
The research is published today in the online Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
