The two primatologists Andrew Whiten and William McGrew stared at the small picture as if electrified. During a conference at which the results of tool use in various "chimpanzee cultures" were presented, a colleague showed them a Liberian stamp from 1906 (Fig):

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Was this supposed to be the first depiction of tool use in a chimpanzee? The stamp was printed in London, but where and by whom did the image originate? The two asked in a letter to the journal Nature (Text 1). In it, they admire the exact depiction of the chimpanzee with the knuckles of the right hand and the flat placement of the feet. They point out that the stick corresponds exactly to the dimensions used by chimpanzees to dig out termites and assume that the stamp depicts a termite burrow of the genus Macrotermes. However, chimpanzee termite burrows have not yet been reported in Liberia. However, the depiction on the stamp is possibly the oldest correct depiction of chimpanzee tool use. It would then date almost half a century earlier than Jane Goodall's famous observations of termite fishing. -
I was browsing for old books in a second-hand bookshop in Vienna. When I first opened a volume by Johannes Ranke, Der Mensch, (vol. 2 1887), a graphic jumped out at me: no doubt the model for the stamp ( Fig):

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The author, Gustav Mützel (1839-1893), noted in his signature: "n d Leben", i.e. he portrayed the great ape from nature, but not in Liberia, but in Dresden Zoo. The original publication can be found in the 2nd and 3rd editions of "Brehms Tierleben". Mützel then added an African environment. The use of tools by captive apes was already known at that time. Of course, the German ape did not dig termites and the supposed termite burrow is more of a tree trunk. I reported this to the journal Nature (Text 2 a) Unfortunately, the illustration of the stamp does not teach us much about chimpanzees, but all the more about human perception and culture. We mainly see what we already know. That is why we see a chimpanzee digging termites on the stamp. The two anthropologists even determine the type of termite and consider the chimpanzee's stick to be one of the same dimensions and characteristics as your digging stick, as used by chimpanzees (which is not the case, see text 3). and finally also consider the stamp's location to be authentic. However, even before globalisation, the cultural flow of information bridged greater distances than we generally assume: A British illustrator took a graphic from a German book, which he thought was a beautiful African scene, and transplanted it onto a Liberian stamp with slight modifications. A century later, two excellent Scottish primatologists were prompted by the image to think about chimpanzee termite burrows in Liberia. - According to my letter, Whiten and McGrew were not yet fully convinced of the refutation of their hypotheses (Text 2 b). It would have been so nice! The two scientists had already made inaccurate assumptions, which also stemmed from their wishful thinking (text 3). However, the size of a 5 cent stamp is probably too narrow a basis for far-reaching scientific assumptions.

Ulrich Kattmann

A Tip: The texts are ideal for bilingual science propaedeutic lessons.