Eight years of social and individual learning jointly drive ecological competence in orangutans

Cultural learning permeates human skill and knowledge acquisition. To understand its significance for nonhuman animals, we must examine how social learning shapes the development of broad behavioral repertoires, and operates alongside other forms of learning. We analyzed nearly seven thousand records of behavioral indicators of social and individual learning across wild orangutans’ eight-year dependency period to assess their combined effects on ecological competence relevant for post-independence survival. Social learning was five times more frequent than individual learning and influenced subsequent learning for hours. Immatures varied substantially in their learning propensities and those with heightened social and individual learning propensities developed the most expansive diet profiles at independence. Our findings advance the science of cultural evolution by showing that multi-year social and individual learning synergistically shape great apes’ broad ecological competence.