'Monkey see, monkey do' has been proven to happen among wild chimpanzee communities, says a new research published Tuesday on PLOS Biology.

Evidence of new behavior being socially adopted and transmitted from one chimpanzee to another has been observed for the first time by an international group of scientists while studying the Sonso chimpanzee community in Budongo Forest, Uganda.

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The team, led by primatologist Catherine Hobaiter of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, was able to document the first direct evidence that may prove chimps do learn from each other.

"We were incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time to document the appearance and spread of two novel tool-use behaviors, something that is extraordinarily rare in the wild," said Hobaiter.

The researchers followed the spread of a new form of 'leaf sponges', tools commonly used by Sonso chimpanzees to dip into water for drinking. The chimps make these by chewing leaves to fold them.

Hobaiter and team observed Nick, a 29-year-old alpha male chimp, as it developed a moss sponge while being watched by a dominant female called Nambi. In the course of six days, seven other chimps began making similar moss sponges.

Among the seven, six directly observed the use of the new tool before adopting it, while one learned the new technique by reusing a discarded moss sponge. The scientists noted that the animal might have learned the new behavior this way.

A new trend was born after other chimps observed and reused the new tool.

The scientists noted that neither the moss sponge nor the reuse technique have been observed among the Sonso chimps in the last two decades, indicating that chimpanzee cultures evolve over time.

Dr. Thibaud Gruber, a fellow at the University of Neuchâtel and a member of the research team, explained that early human cultures may have developed in a similar manner.

For decades, researchers have known that different chimpanzee groups display sets of distinct behaviors that seem to form a specific culture. Researchers earlier theorized that most of these behaviors are socially acquired.

Prior experiments found that chimps in captivity adopt new behaviors learned from other chimps, but until now, scientists have not been sure if this also occurs in the wild.

Researchers say the ground-breaking study on chimpanzee social learning also provides evidence for the spread of culture among early humans. 

TagsSonso chimpanzees, chimpanzees, social learning behavior in chimpanzees, Budongo Forest, uganda