02-23-2007, 03:21 PM
source : http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNe...9320070222
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chimpanzees have been seen using spears to hunt bush babies, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that demonstrates a whole new level of tool use and planning by our closest living relatives.
Perhaps even more intriguing, it was only the females who fashioned and used the wooden spears, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani of Iowa State University reported.
Bertolani saw an adolescent female chimp use a spear to stab a bush baby as it slept in a tree hollow, pull it out and eat it.
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that's something quite interesting gotta admit, because it was known that chimps could manufacture objects for small usages (like grabbing ants) but not with a that clear aggresive intent.
cool.
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chimpanzees have been seen using spears to hunt bush babies, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a study that demonstrates a whole new level of tool use and planning by our closest living relatives.
Perhaps even more intriguing, it was only the females who fashioned and used the wooden spears, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani of Iowa State University reported.
Bertolani saw an adolescent female chimp use a spear to stab a bush baby as it slept in a tree hollow, pull it out and eat it.
----
that's something quite interesting gotta admit, because it was known that chimps could manufacture objects for small usages (like grabbing ants) but not with a that clear aggresive intent.
cool.