Table 1 Evidence for Animal Teaching.

From: Tool transfers are a form of teaching among chimpanzees

Defining Criteria

Meerkats15

Ants16

Pied Babblers17

Macaques41,42

Callitrichids43,44

Felids8

Chimpanzees24,40

Functional

Occurs in the presence of a naïve learner8

E

E

E

E

N, E

N

N

At some cost or at least no benefit to teacher8

E

E

E

E

?

N

N

Facilitates learning in another individual8

E

E

E

?

?

E

N

Sensitivity to learner competence15, evaluation16

E

E

?

?

N, E

?

N

Ostensive cueing18

—

—

—

—

—

—

?

Cognitive

Ability to attribute knowledge to others12

—

—

—

?49

—

—

N, E 46

Deliberate intention to facilitate learning11

—

—

—

—

—

—

N, E47,48

  1. Included are cases where evidence for satisfaction of teaching criteria is strong in either a captive or an experimental (E) or a natural (N) setting, or present but inconclusive (?); - indicates that there is presently no evidence for a criterion. The context of teaching behavior is indicated by; bold = foraging; italics = communication, and underlined = locomotion. Plain text indicates evidence derived from studies that did not specifically assess teaching criteria. More exhaustive coverage of evidence for possible cases of animal teaching is reviewed elsewhere8,9,10,19. Chimpanzee data come from this study and the others referenced.
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