Meaning of seen to do

Would you clarify the meaning of "see" in 1 and 2?

1. Chimpanzees use tools more often and in a greater variety of ways than any other animal, except man. Much of what we now know about the tool-using behaviour of wild chimpanzees has come from the remarkable long-term studies carried out at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania by British primatologist Jane Goodall. Chimpanzees have
been seen to use sticks to help them dig for roots, and as levers to break open ants' nests

2.Occasionally the opportunity is seized by other parties to make complex political statements using these food packages. On several occasions the officers of one village have been seen to make gifts, as a group, of their food packages to their opposite numbers at another neighboring village to express their solidarity and honor the still strong link to a group of households that were a generation ago only a residentially localized faction of their joint village.

In these sentences, did perceivers see the events with their eyes?