American researchers in West Africa believe they've found the first instance of an animal (other than humans) building a multi-step weapon, after observing wild chimpanzees grab sticks from 1 to 4 feet long, sharpen the ends with their teeth, and murderously jab them into deep tree hollows where delicious bush babies may be nesting. Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team even reported observing the chimps tasting the tips after the stabs, to ascertain whether they had actually located a prey. (One of the researchers said the ferocity of the jabbing reminded her of the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho.") [Tampa Tribune-Washington Post, 2-23-07]
Oh ... what's a bushbaby?
Sort of makes you think when you see the tender and loving chimps in those documentaries huh? I really don't see how this is any conceptually different from the well known behaviour of apes to use tools to fish termites out of their mounds but the escalation of scale is impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment