Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => That CAN'T be true! => Topic started by: ukmicky on 22/02/2007 21:40:21
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I found this one such a shock i had to place it in here.
In a revelation that destroys yet another cherished notion of human uniqueness, wild chimpanzees have been seen hunting bushbabies with spears. It is the first time an animal has been seen using a tool to hunt a vertebrate.
Many chimpanzees trim twigs to use for ant-dipping and termite-fishing. But a population of savannah chimps (Pan troglodytes verus) living in the Fongoli area of south-east Senegal have been seen making spears from strong sticks that they sharpen with their teeth. The average spear length is 63 centimetres (25 inches), says Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames, US, who observed the behaviour.
And the method of procuring food with these tools is not simply extractive, as it is when harvesting insects. It is far more aggressive. They use the spears to hunt one of the cutest primates in Africa: bushbabies (Galago senegalensis).
Bushbabies are nocturnal and curl up in hollows in trees during the day. If disturbed during their slumbers – if their nest cavity is broken open, for example – they rapidly scamper away. It appears that the chimps have learnt a grizzly method of slowing them down.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11234-spearwielding-chimps-snack-on-skewered-bushbabies.html
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Wow,
That's cool. . .now if we could only find where they hide their computers.
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Do we know how long chimpanzees have been hunting with spears?
The thing I am wondering about is there are two options (maybe even three - if one is sufficiently open minded):
a) Chimpanzees have always been able to hunt with spears, and maybe even use more complex tools than that - in which case, what is there natural limit, and why have they not been competing with humans in tool use - what limit prevents them from using all the tools humans have been using.
b) While humans have been observing chimpanzees, so to chimpanzees have been observing humans, and while humans may not directly have been learning how to make spears from their human contacts, the younger chimpanzees may have been learning thought processes (through observation and empathy with the humans) that allowed them to develop these skills later in life.
c) Maybe somewhat more fancifully, close contact between humans and chimpanzees have actually transfered genetic material from the humans to the chimpanzees (possibly through virus vectors).
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That's nothing...I have a troop of Chimps building me an extension right now in my garden !
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That's nothing...I have a troop of Chimps building me an extension right now in my garden !
this IS what has been missing for too long...well it seems ages...WELCOME HOME NEIL
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That's nothing...I have a troop of Chimps building me an extension right now in my garden !
this IS what has been missing for too long...well it seems ages...WELCOME HOME NEIL
HUGS EWE PAUL !!!..............and *humble mode*...Thank you xx
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I second that! Welcome back Home!
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Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'
Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.
The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution. Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.
Pruetz and Bertolani made the discovery at their research site in Fongoli, Senegal, between March 2005 and July 2006.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6387611.stm
I hope no-one tells Charlton Heston, he may shoot "the filthy apes". [:)]
http://www.vpc.org/nrainfo/heston.html