New research revealed that chimpanzees possess the concept of cooking. Researchers suggest that humans’ closes primate relatives have the mental skills on cooking when presented with simple cooking devices.
According to PBS NewsHour, chimps can appreciate cooked dishes. Felix Warneken of Harvard University and Alexandra Rosati of Yale University conducted nince experiments on two dozen wild-born chimps at the Tchimpounga Sanctuary in the Republic of Congo. Their goal is to test the cognitive capacities of chimps toward cooking.
Their first experiment involved a slice of sweet potato in a hot pan, without butter or oil. They presented it to the chimps together with the raw sample. Chimps chose to get the cooked sweet potato over its raw counterpart.
Second experiment found out that chimps acquire patience while waiting for the cooked food. On the third and fourth test, researchers discovered that chimpanzees opt to cook their own food after presenting with simple cooking wares. Researchers did the same procedure in the fifth experiment.
The sixth experiment found out chimps’ rudimentary cooking skills towards to other foods such as carrots. Experiment 7 revealed that chimpanzees can cook selective edible items and the last experiment showed that chimps only placed the food in the container, according to Discovery News.
Human ancestors passed on these psychological abilities needed to employ in cooking. Researchers said that these cognitive abilities toward cooking is also visible in chimpanzees. However, chimps cannot cook in the wild because they were not able to master fire, unlike humans. Discovering fire may be the back story of cooking, said Warneken.