First evidence of underground extractive tool use by chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda

We are grateful to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology for permission to conduct this research at Sebitoli and to Makerere University for their partnership. We deeply thank Jean-Michel Krief, co-director of Great Ape Conservation Project, the field assistants of the Sebitoli Chimpanzee Project (SCP) Emmanuel Balinda, Deogratius Kiomuhangi, Joseph Alinaitwe, Ibrahim Nyakana, Wilson Muzahura, Edward Kalyegira, Nelson Fawoh, John Paul Okimat, Harold Rugonge, coordinator SCP for their assistance during fieldwork at Sebitoli. We thank Adolph Magoba, Godfrey Mbabazi, Lawrence Ngandizi, Alfred Tumusiime, and Ambrozio Twineomugishu for expert field assistance at Ngogo and Samuel Angedakin for his help with management of the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project. We are especially grateful to the late Jeremiah Lwanga for his long service managing the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, his contributions to research there, and his invaluable contributions to research and conservation efforts in Kibale generally. We are indebted to Richard Wrangham for his comments on the manuscript and for sharing information about the Kanyawara chimpanzee community. We dedicate this article to the chimpanzee Hugo, who loved honey the most. He was slaughtered withmachetes by poachers on April 3, 2026.

Great Ape Conservation Project, Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme, Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco provided financial support for research conducted on Sebitoli chimpanzees and management of the program. Research at Ngogo has been supported by the US National Science Foundation (BCS-0215622 and IOB-0516644), the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Detroit Zoological Institute, the Max Planck Society, Primate Conservation Inc., Yale University, Boston University, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University.

Authors and Affiliations

1. UMR 7206 CNRS/MNHN/P7, Eco-anthropologie et d’ethnobiologie, Hommes et Environnement, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, 17 place du Trocadéro, 75016, Paris, France

   Sabrina Krief, Hugo Magaldi, Raymond Katumba, Julia Dif, Pierre Poquin & Sarah Bortolamiol

2. Great Ape Conservation Project (GACP), Sebitoli Research Station, Kibale National Park, Fort Portal, Uganda

   Sabrina Krief, Hugo Magaldi, Raymond Katumba, Julia Dif & Pierre Poquin

3. National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), Rwebitaba Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute, P.O. Box 96, Fort Portal, Uganda

   Robert Kajobe

4. Directorate of Graduate Training, Research and Innovation, Muni University, Arua, Uganda

   Robert Kajobe

5. UMR 7533, LADYSS-CNRS/Université Paris 1 FR, 93322, Aubervilliers cedex, France

   Sarah Bortolamiol

6. Uganda Wildlife Authority, Kampala, Uganda

   John Justice Tibesigwa

7. Biology Department, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

   Colin A. Chapman

8. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

   Colin A. Chapman

9. Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Northwest University, Xi’an, China

   Colin A. Chapman

10. Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    David P. Watts

Corresponding author

Correspondence to
Sabrina Krief.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix 1: Description of honey extraction from trees at Ngogo

On June 24th, 2016, a party of chimpanzees found an Apis nest in a hole the trunk of a fallen tree. The nest seemed to be old (not many bees were present) and apparently did not contain a large quantity of honey. Adult females CEC and SEN both harvested small amounts of honey by hand. SEN then broke a branch, about 80 cm long, from a small tree next to the fallen trunk. About halfway along its length, this branch divided into multiple smaller branches that had leaves; without removing these, SEN inserted the bare woody half into the hole and used it to scrape out some of the remaining honey. She continued this for four minutes, while multiple other chimpanzees, including her infant and young adolescent sons, watched, before abandoning the tool and moving away from the nest. Adult male GA then picked up her tool and used it in similar fashion for another 10 min, during which time he was also closely watched by other chimpanzees. When he abandoned the tool, young adult male BEN retrieved it and used it for five minutes, after which he abandoned it and his younger brother YY retrieved it and also used it for three minutes. Finally, YY’s infant sister JOY retrieved the tool after he dropped it and moved off. JOY, who was now alone at the bee nest, used it as a probe for another three minutes before moving off rapidly, still carrying the tool, in pursuit of her mother. All five chimpanzees obtained only small amounts of honey by using the tool.

Appendix 2: List of plant species used as tools by Sebitoli chimpanzees (Kibale national park, Uganda)

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