Young Writers Society

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.

Read the rest here.


Our hairy relatives never fail to impress me, and I keep on seeing more and more impressive behaviour from them. It really is amazing - not just this, but the social structure, politics, language and culture they also have. Also, watching video fottage of a Bonobo Chimp following orders from a woman speaking English to cook dinner was impressive too.

Although this does kind of remind me of Planet of the Apes...

That's cool and creepy at the same time. But mostly cool.

What does Nate, our resident chimp, think of this, I wonder?

heh

It's really cool to know that we can learn about how our very distant ancestors live by looking today at humanity's closest relatives.

Chimps don't have culture...

Middle Children: Um, yes, they do. Chimpanzee culture 'confirmed' .

They simply did things that reflected our cultures because sciencists constructed their environment to manipulate their actions. Chimps have no culture.

www.dictionary.com: look up culture...

dictionary.com wrote:Culture:

6. Anthropology: the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

This is what chimps do. It's a much simpler form than human culture, but it is still a culture.

Chimps also act in that way outside of capture. For example, one groups of chimps may use stones to open nuts, whereas a different group uses hard pieces of wood. This is culture, and it fits the definition given by dictionary.com I quoted above.

All the scientists did in the article I gave was demonstrate in a controlled environment that chimps are able to develop a culture. (Scientists have also used controlled environments to demonstrate that chimps are capable of teamwork and problem solving.)



EDIT:

And just to really make my point clear, lookit this.

It's a scientific article on chimpanzee culture, finding 39 different cultures within the species.

Here are some excerpts:

We find that 39
different behaviour patterns, including tool
usage, grooming and courtship behaviours,
are customary or habitual amongst some
communities, yet are absent in others where
ecological explanations have been discounted.

Moreover, the combined repertoire
of these behaviour patterns in each
chimpanzee community is itself highly
distinctive, a phenomenon characteristic of
human cultures14 but previously unrecognised
amongst non-human species.

Hee... That is so cool! ^_^

(And, yes, culture is obviously not just a human thing. Chimps have it, and there's evidence that other species, such as elephants, have it too.)

It almost...scares me. Like Sureal said, it reminds me of the Planet of Apes. What if they get too intelligent and overpower us? Of course, this will probably not happen in about a million years or so, but it still could. Or maybe I'm just being too paranoid? You never know, if we humans somehow kill our race off ((it seems more and more likely to happen these days)) at least they can replay the evolution all over again.

Maybe give the human race a new start, and we might be better and more peaceful.

Now I've just gone off and blabbered nonsense like my old hippy self. I always seem to be able to relate everything with world peace xD

~Wings

Monkeys won't evolve into humans. They have no need to.

Monkeys and apes are different things, Middle. You'd do well to remember that.

Also, evolution is not decided by need.

I was being unspecific for a reason.

Evolution is dictated by the need to survive. 'You'd do well to remember that.'

Indeed, I'll rephrase. I was going by your use of need, rather than need of survival, which, of course, is clearly the desire of evolution. Instead, you seemed to be saying that evolution simply wouldn't happen because chimps have no need to become more human -- unfortunately it does not work like that. The use of the spear has enabled the chimpanzee to become more capable at hunting and thus the better skilled at making tools will make better hunters, produce better offspring and so on.

Chimpanzees will slowly evolve like that. It has nothing to do with sweeping needs like you were insinuating -- it has to do with small needs -- hunting better, eating better, living longer. These small needs add up to the bigger picture as the chimp evolves, toward a human-like chimpanzee or not.

Also, how did the scientists manipulate their environment? You need to back-up your statements with explanations, otherwise they are nothing.

Hehehe... so awesome! I wonder how many other creatures have cultures that we don't know about yet?

Trying to picture Apes making a face of determination while attempting to stab another primate is kinda....creepy, if you can pull off the picture.