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. "There were hints that this behavior might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US. "While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual." Jabbing weapon Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it. In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside. However, they did not photograph the behaviour, or capture it on film. In one case, Pruetz and Bertolani, , from the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in Cambridge, UK, witnessed a chimpanzee extract a bushbaby with a spear. In most cases, the Fongoli chimpanzees carried out four or more steps to manufacture spears for hunting. In all but one of the cases, chimps broke off a living branch to make their tool. They would then trim the side branches and leaves. In a number of cases, chimps also trimmed the ends of the branch and stripped it of bark. Some chimps also sharpened the tip of the tool with their teeth. Female lead Adult males have long been regarded as the hunters in chimp groups. But the authors of the paper in Current Biology said females, particularly adolescent females, and young chimps in general were seen exhibiting this behaviour more frequently than adult males. "It's classic in primates that when there is a new innovation, particularly in terms of tool use, the younger generations pick it up very quickly. The last ones to pick up are adults, mainly the males", said Dr Pruetz, who led the National Geographic-funded project. This is because young chimps pick the skill up from their mothers, with whom they spend a lot of their time. "It's a niche that males seem to ignore," Dr Pruetz told BBC News. Many areas where chimpanzees live are also home to red colobus monkey, which the chimps hunt. However, the Senegal site is lacking in this species, so chimps may have needed to adopt a new hunting strategy to catch a different prey - bushbaby. The authors conclude that their findings support a theory that females may have played a similarly important role in the evolution of tool technology among early humans. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6387611.stm You Maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to hell! Evolution, fundies, political nonsense, etc.
If by "spear" you mean "stick", then yes. Not there's really any difference between the two, just that the title lends itself to sensationalism when chimps have been documented using primitive tools for years.
Not really just a stick... I mean they do prep it befor they use it, some even going as far as to sharpen the end...
A stick is a stick is a stick. If they say, formed a phalanx or at the very least, hunting parties with the coordination of the Cro-Magnon man, then I'd be impressed.
Anyone hip to the novel theories being presented lately about the Bonobo (Great Ape)? Where the chimps are the violent, fighting and stronger ape, the bonobo by contrast are more pacifist, reluctant to conflict and libidinous (meaning they like a lot of sex, and who can blame them?). [on that same tangent, apparently their females have bigger boobs than chimps too.] So, the information is that the Bonobo is most closely related to the chimp (technically the Bonobo is a chimp too). The two species separated from each other about 1-2 million years ago (1 million, according to sources cited in Wiki, or 2 according to the recent Nova tele-documentary). But their common branch tracks back to the shared homonid ancesestor with man - they branched off six million years ago while we apparently separated around 7 million. Anyway, the theory goes, the bonobo and the regular chimpanzees separated from each other based on the usual natural selection of traits and mutations. The bonobos are supposedly - according to several theories - the pacifist apes evolved after all of their related chimps got beat up or killed off during their violent days (when they were still regular chimps, I guess). Basically they're the pussy apes (the female apes are pretty lesbo/bi too, I kid you not). [Except they seem to have done okay for themselves during the latest war in the Congo (their ony stomping ground), so maybe they still have some survival talents or instincts to draw on.] IIRC, the theory I'm raising here is that - maybe based also in part on theories explored by some guy Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel - the evolutionary path of humans is tracking the split of the chimp's evolution, with Europeans represented by the bonobo, and the Americans (and others, I expect) by the chimps. Maybe this tangent on the main thread topic should be in the geek or science WF room. Maybe. But since I'm also basically saying that the Europeans are a bunch of pussies because all the genetic traits that support fighting and defense has been bred out of them by attrition from all their 19th and 20th century wars, I figured it would probably be okay to bring it up here.
There's been cases reported of chimpanzees attacking other chimp villages in organized groups. One of their most common tactics is grabbing the other village's children and smashing their heads into trees a certain way. They organize attacks, wage war, do their thing, and leave.
It would be extremely naive of us to assume that recent developments have made any change to chimp expansionist policies! We have to strike first!
Tuttle, as I understand it, most species go through a stage of having a gracile and a robust strain, and in most cases the robust strain out-survives the gracile. Bonobos are the gracile chimps. One of the few cases where the gracile strain has triumphed is us, over the robust Neanderthals, imagination and innovation winning out over strength.
Not nessairally true. Neanderthals were done in by rapid climate change altering their hunting grounds. they never had the time to develope their own survival befor the "we" moved into the area.
I guess we must prepare for war against the chimps. Funny I thought that we would have go against zombies or robots first.
