'It's like wearing earrings or a hat': Chimpanzees go ape for fashion as they follow bizarre new trend of sticking long grass in one ear
By Erin Clements
Published: 18:05 EDT, 30 June 2014 | Updated: 03:29 EDT, 1 July 2014
Chimpanzees have discovered a bizarre new fad: placing a blade of grass behind one ear.
According to the Dodo, this is one of the first customs that chimps have created with no obvious function - meaning that the seemingly arbitrary ear accessory is likely worn for aesthetic reasons.
'Any kind of subculture fad in human culture, I'd say, could be the parallel to this grass-in-ear behavior,' Edwin van Leeuwen, a primate expert at the Max Planck Institute in the Netherlands, told the website, adding: 'Perhaps wearing earrings or certain kinds of hats.'
Blades of glory: Chimpanzees have reportedly discovered a new trend that involves sporting a piece of grass in one ear
However, he clarified to MailOnline that the blade of grass doesn't mirror the kind of blingy fashion statements humans might use jewelry for, but instead 'reflects an interesting tradition' that 'is not related to any kind of material gain.'
The journal Animal Cognition, which published the new chimpanzee findings, says the behavior 'entailed chimpanzees selecting a stiff, straw-like blade of grass, inserting the grass into one of their own ears, adjusting the position, and then leaving it in their ear during subsequent activities.'
What does an Anna Wintour-hosted wedding look like? Fashion... If the team can't score, the fans will! Use of dating app...
Van Leeuwen spent a year observing four chimpanzee groups in Zambia's Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust, and found that while eight out of 12 members of one troop engaged in the behavior, it was only observed once in the three neighboring groups - indicating that ecological factors were not at play.
Rather, the research highlighted the chimps' tendency to copy one another's behavior, 'even when the adaptive value of the behavior is presumably absent.'
Bold accessory: A chimpanzee sports a blade of grass in one ear
On trend: The 'grass in ear' behavior is said to have no discernable function
Van Leeuwen told the Dodo: 'Our observation is quite unique in the sense that nothing seems to be communicated by it.'
The trend was pioneered by a chimpanzee named Julie, who first sported the look back in 2010.
A fondness for accoutrements isn't the only similarity between humans and chimpanzees recently discovered: Just last month, new research at Georgia State University found that chimpanzees have almost the same personality traits as humans.
A group-specific arbitrary tradition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) - Online First - Springer
For The First Time, Chimpanzees Are Making A Fashion Statement -- Sticking Blades Of Grass In Their Ears
Chimpanzees go ape for new trend of sticking blade of grass in one ear