planet of the apes...it's beginning

I saw this picture elsewhere and didn't read the text that went with it.

I assumed it was a chop.

But primates have been observed using tools to hunt for a long, long time now - perhaps not a spear though.

At first I thought the title was referring to one of my drillers from last summer.


Either way, that's really neat! I'd love to see an orangutan; maybe my next holiday should be Borneo!

First of all, "This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River." It's not like it came up with it on it's own.

Secondly, I distinctly remember reading a National Geographic magazine quite a few years back with pictures of apes using sticks to catch ants.

Still an interesting picture, though.

yes, not only have primates been seen using tools, they have been seen making tools

where they by chance using tools to make these tools?

I think we underestimate these, and most other creatures. Seemingly simple things like an ant carrying something way bigger than itself is really amazing if you think about it, and primates (or PLIMEates for that matter) trying to poke a fish with a stick is something that they probably learned from a heron, or stork. It`s amazing, we should give animals more credit.

On a side note...what if animals could tell us what they think about us? What do you think they would say? `Wow! Look at those humans...they really can use a lot of stuff for not very many good reasons!!`

Or...
"Wow! Look at those humans... they go out on the ocean in a vessel that they can't make themselves, then they use fishing tools that they can also not make themselves, then they catch fish that they don't like to eat, then they kiss them and throw them back in the ocean! What a bizarre ritual, I wonder where they learnt that?"

There's a NOVA episode on chimps that has a segment showing them making spears to hunt bush babies. They grab a stick and sharpen one end with their teeth, then use it to "fish" in hollow trees for sleeping bush babies.

I bet we couldnt hang from branches like that when we were first starting our fish spearing

Right, we have drastically underestimated animal intelligence in the past. New experiments are showing that they are capable of much more than we have understood. Even birds have been observed using tools.

Some recent work with elephants are indicating they might actually have a self awareness. Actually that is a bit disconcerting...the possibility they know they are slaves.

I'm still trying to figure out why my dog doesn't show the slightest interest in his image in our floor to ceiling hall mirror. He seems to understand that it's him, so no big deal.

yes, but does the orangutan or DerAlt's dog blush?