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user-inactivated  ·  4379 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are Chimpanzees Cultural?

How do y'all distinguish between a courtship ritual that is "traditional" as opposed to instinctive? (About 4:15 in the video.) Many species have courtship rituals, but I was under the impression that they were inborn. It makes sense that chimps would be different, I just don't know how you would tell or what parameters you would set to differentiate between the two.

Second question: you say that chimps have a level of culture unparalleled in the animal kingdom -- exactly how far beyond, say, gorillas, are they? Or dolphins? Elephants?

And finally, you might want to pick back up with the intro song for those last twenty seconds of silence, unless there was a reason for that. Oh, and a "thanks for watching" at the end would wrap things up nicely, at the moment it's very abrupt.