This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT.

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Orangutans are great apes thatlive in coastal jungles on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. A teamof international scientists has found evidence that some orangutanshave developed their own culture. They found evidence that orangutangroups have different ways to communicate, eat and use tools.

The findings suggest that the animals' early ancestors may havecreated their own culture as early as fourteen-million years ago.That is when orangutans and other great apes last had a commonancestor. Earlier studies had shown that great ape culture had beenin existence for up to seven-million years.

For scientists, culture is the ability to invent and learn waysof doing things. These methods must not be the direct result ofbiology or the environment. They are learned from others and passedon to individuals.

Science magazine published the study about orangutans. Thescientists collected evidence from years of observations in sixareas on Borneo and Sumatra. The scientists found that the animalsdemonstrated a total of twenty-four signs of cultural activity.Several actions were demonstrated in some orangutan groups, but notothers.

For example, members of some groups make a kissing noise bytightening their mouths and sucking in air. Some groups use leavesto clean themselves or protect their hands from sharp objects. Yetother groups use leaves to crush insects or gather water. Thescientists found that some of the animals use sticks as tools toremove insects from holes in trees. Other orangutans use sticks toremove seeds from fruit or to touch their bodies.

The study also found that some orangutan groups play a sport forfun. The animals climb up a dead tree and ride on the tree as itfalls down. They hold onto another tree just before the dead treehits the ground. Other orangutans often watch this activity.

For years, scientists thought that only humans had cultures.However, evidence for socially-learned traditions among animals isincreasing. The best evidence came from a study of chimpanzees inAfrica in nineteen-ninety-nine. Scientists say the growing amount ofevidence about animal culture reduces the differences between humansand animals and between culture and nature.

This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.