Monday, March 09, 2009

Evidence chimps can plan ahead

The evidence comes from a chimp in a Swedish zoo who has decided he doesn't like visitors. Every morning, he calmly and methodically gathers a stash of rocks and concrete from his environment, breaking pieces off concrete boulders and, if the pieces are too big, breaking them into smaller chunks more suitable for throwing. When visitors show up, "Santino" gets agitated, dips into his weapons cache, and throws things at them. Researchers note Santino does not attack other chimps in range, only humans. Despite his strong arm, his accuracy is fortunately poor.
COMMENT: A chimp who throws rocks at people... will he get his own Internet news site?

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