Hunting chimps may change view of human evolution – Reuters – Quite an interesting development in their use of tools.
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.
“This is just an innovative way of having to make up for a pretty harsh environment,” Pruetz said in a telephone interview. The chimps must come down from trees to gather food and rest in dry caves during the hot season.
Don’t worry, Charlton Heston has a Loincloth and Rifle ready if those stinking apes get out of hand.
What say you creationists? Still say we didn’t evolve from apes?
They aren’t exactly “hunting” w/ the spears… they just stick the spears in holes to kill whatever is hiding in the tree branches. This isn’t new, just another way of using the same tool; chimps have been observed to use a stick to pull termites out of their colonies. I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about this.
BTW – its spelled “planning”
Well I, for one, welcome our new chimp overlords!
#3. Thank you! That made me laugh and it has been a day in RedHat hell.
I think its funny how quickly someone tried to turn this into a debate about creationism… as though it mattered or was otherwise related.
anyway, I had two thoughts about the article when I read it off /.
1) did they learn it from seeing humans?
2) will the humans teach them to use stone tools, acquire language, and smith metal?
and now..
3) after we nuke ourselves, with they be out overlords?
My immediate reaction to the tagline was “Britney Spears has REALLY lost it. She’s hunting with chimps? She should’ve stayed in rehab the first time. And the second time…”
Oh well. Birds of a feather flock together…
Would it be politically correct to call them spear chuckers?
Chimps are using Britney to hunt for Laura and Jenna?
Chimps are using Britney to hunt for Laura and Jenna? Don’t they know it was Chelsea that hangs out with Madonna and Gwyneth?
We best have a preemptive strike on them before they start creating WMDs.
Chimps can speak fluent English. They just don’t do it around humans because they know that if we find out, we will put them to work. 🙂
We have a chimp trying to dominate the world. We elected him twice. 🙂
12 – What you said.
The linked story states it is the females that came up with this use of technology (if that’s the right term). The account I read a the BBC went further and said younger chimps of both sexes, who spend lots of time with the females, picked up the new techniques while the mature males ignore them. If we can generalize to humans, that does it for the “2001: A Space Oddyssey” theory of protohuman males inventing tools because they wanted weapons.
Another cherished myth gone.
Oh, the BBC account also said the researchers came back without any photos or videos of the reported behavior. Which strikes me as odd, given that the researchers were there specifically to monitor the behavior of the chimps.
No wonder our race is in such a mess. Evolutionists will grasp at anything to have a monkey as a relative. I ponder………..how many family reunions are held at the ZOO? Dad to son……..yes Billy, that there ape is your great gradpa.
Neo-cons are both anti-evolution and pro-gun. Wouldn’t it be great if chimps do evolve further and are able to hunt with guns? Would the neo-cons be for or against a chimps right to bear arms?
Perhaps chimps could evolve just a little more, to the point where they could talk, and wear a suit and maybe even run for president…oh wait…
http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/zendaba/images/bush-chimp-again.jpg
I won’t be impressed with the evolution of chimps until I see evidence they can invent their own gods. Creative storytelling to explain their own existence will be an important milestone for them. Then one day, I predict that a chimpanzee leader will rise up, go to the zookeepers, and scream “Let my people go!”
Sometimes crazy sh*t just happens 😉
#12, Was that the monkey’s uncle that was Prez back in the ’80s?
No pictures allowed of chimps by researchers. Its a new privacy and freedom of religion for all primates law out of the Greenpeace coalition. All kidding aside I do sort remember strange laws like that being in effect in some places nowadays. Zoo’s for fear the primates understand and are inhibited in mating. African nations just to hassle foreigners? (I am assuming no ressearcher would use flash photography or high intensity lights given today’s advanced cameras.)
All kidding it must be a measure put in place to make sure there is still a way to tell humans from beasts…now that all the celebrities liek Spears post their mating to the Internet. Now if only someone could teach the celebrities to use a camera for clear video…maybe the chimps would have more successful matings. Though clearly there is danger that they might be inspired to use the Spear for some other pokings!