A
Anonymous
Guest
Chimps may be smarter than we thought. From theWashington Post. :
'A band of chimpanzees in West Africa routinely swing crude stone hammers to crack open nuts, a sophisticated use of tools the apes have been teaching to each new generation for more than a century.
Using carefully selected stones weighing up to 33 pounds, the chimps pound the tough shell of the panda nut to extract a high-energy kernel that is an important part of the animal's diet, researchers report Friday in the journal Science...
...Mothers teach their children to bang on nuts, and some young chimps have been seen hitting nuts with smaller stones, imitating their parent.
The researchers said the nut-smashing technique is known to only some bands of West African chimpanzees. It has not been seen among chimps in central Africa, although the apes there have nuts and stones available to them.
This suggests that nut smashing is a cultural, learned behavior that has not spread widely among the apes...
...In their research, Mercader and Panger [who conducted the study] used archaeological methods to dig around an anvil site. They found stone chips that had apparently broken off stone hammers in past generations. Age dating of deposits at one site showed that the apes had used it as nut-cracking station for at least 110 years, Panger said.'
'Anvil sites' are hardwood tree roots that chimps rest the nuts on to break them. I think what is particularly interesting is that this behaviour is limited to specific geographical areas. The article notes that chimps may open and eat 100 nuts a day giving them 3000 calories. I wonder if their abilities give them an inherent advantage over other chimp groups that would allow them to out-compete them over time.
'A band of chimpanzees in West Africa routinely swing crude stone hammers to crack open nuts, a sophisticated use of tools the apes have been teaching to each new generation for more than a century.
Using carefully selected stones weighing up to 33 pounds, the chimps pound the tough shell of the panda nut to extract a high-energy kernel that is an important part of the animal's diet, researchers report Friday in the journal Science...
...Mothers teach their children to bang on nuts, and some young chimps have been seen hitting nuts with smaller stones, imitating their parent.
The researchers said the nut-smashing technique is known to only some bands of West African chimpanzees. It has not been seen among chimps in central Africa, although the apes there have nuts and stones available to them.
This suggests that nut smashing is a cultural, learned behavior that has not spread widely among the apes...
...In their research, Mercader and Panger [who conducted the study] used archaeological methods to dig around an anvil site. They found stone chips that had apparently broken off stone hammers in past generations. Age dating of deposits at one site showed that the apes had used it as nut-cracking station for at least 110 years, Panger said.'
'Anvil sites' are hardwood tree roots that chimps rest the nuts on to break them. I think what is particularly interesting is that this behaviour is limited to specific geographical areas. The article notes that chimps may open and eat 100 nuts a day giving them 3000 calories. I wonder if their abilities give them an inherent advantage over other chimp groups that would allow them to out-compete them over time.