Washington ? Some orangutan parents teach their offspring to use leaves as napkins. Others say good night with a spluttering, juicy raspberry. And still others get water from a hole by dipping a branch and then licking the leaves.

These are examples, researchers say, that prove the orangutan is a cultured ape, able to learn new living habits and to pass them along to the next generation.

The discovery, reported in a study appearing today in the journal Science, suggests that early primates, which include the ancestors of humans, may have developed the ability to invent behaviors, such as tool use, as early as 14 million years ago. That would be some 6 million years earlier than once believed.

“If the orangutans have culture, then it tells us that the capacity to develop culture is very ancient,” says Birute Galdikas, a co-author of the study.

In the march of evolution, “orangutans separated from our ancestors and from the African apes many millions of years ago,” she said. The study suggests they may have had culture before they separated, she said.

Galdikas, a researcher at the Orangutan Foundation International, and eight other international primate scientists analyzed years of observations of the shy Southeast Asian orangutan.

The researchers studied results from observations of six separated bands of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra, and found that each group practiced some unique behaviors.

Altogether, the researchers found 24 examples of behaviors that are routinely practiced by at least one of the groups and passed to new generations.