Studies of chimpanzees in captivity have suggested that most of these apes prefer to use either their right or left hands. But a study of water collection holes along an African river by wild chimpanzees indicates that, unlike people, these apes don’t have a preference for using either the right or left hand on manual tasks, according to the anthropology department's Linda Marchant.

Marchant and her colleagues studied more than one hundred holes dug by chimps to collect drinking water in Uganda's Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve. All the holes were symmetrical, and thus likely to be produced by two hands working in concert.

An article about Marchant's work appeared in the April 25 issue of Science News.