As a first outline of the extent of the role of individual learning in animal tool-use, a literature review of reports of the spontaneous acquisition of animal tool-use behaviours was carried out across observational and experimental studies. On the other hand, a growing body of observational and experimental data demonstrates that various animal species are capable of acquiring the forms of their tool-use behaviours via individual learning, with (non-copying) social learning regulating the frequencies of the behavioural forms within (and, indirectly, between) groups.
However, concrete evidence for a widespread dependency on social learning is still lacking.
We argue that the current animal behaviour literature is biased towards a social learning approach, in which animal, and in particular primate, tool-use repertoires are thought to require social learning mechanisms (copying variants of social learning are most often invoked). Yet, the mechanisms behind the emergence and sustenance of these tool-use repertoires are still heavily debated. The notion that tool-use is unique to humans has long been refuted by the growing number of observations of animals using tools across various contexts.