Zoo chimp 'planned' stone attacks

Published by You on 9 March, 2009 - 17:38

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.

Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles.

Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further projectiles.

The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.

There has been scant evidence in previous research that animals can plan for future events.

Crucial to the current study is the fact that Santino, a chimpanzee at the zoo in the city north of Stockholm, collected the stones in a calm state, prior to the zoo opening in the morning.

The launching of the stones occurred hours later - during dominance displays to zoo visitors - with Santino in an "agitated" state...

Read more @

Submitted by You on 9 March, 2009 - 17:40

Interesting as yesterday me and Ya'qub were discussing the possibility and nature of intellect in animals, where I posited the suggestion that (some?) animals can think rationally, but to a much more limited degree than humans with the possibility that their "nature" is much more dominant than it is for humans.

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by You on 12 March, 2009 - 19:07

Monkeys 'teach infants to floss'

Making sure your offspring know how to clean their teeth appears to be as important to monkeys as to humans.

Female monkeys in Thailand have been observed showing their young how to floss their teeth - using human hair.

Researchers from Japan said they watched seven long-tailed macaques cleaning the spaces between their teeth in the same manner as humans.

They spent double the amount of time flossing when they were being watched by their infants, the team said.

This suggests the mothers were deliberately teaching their young how to floss, Professor Nobuo Masataka of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute said.

"I was surprised because teaching techniques on using tools properly to a third party are said to be an activity carried out only by humans," he told the AFP news agency...

Read more and watch video @

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 14 March, 2009 - 20:14

You wrote:

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.

Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles.

Lol

clever chimp!

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Submitted by TPOS on 14 March, 2009 - 20:16

LOL

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"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi

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