The Energon Pub

I just read this and thought I should share it with everybody
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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.

The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.

Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.

Pruetz and Bertolani made the discovery at their research site in Fongoli, Senegal, between March 2005 and July 2006.

"There were hints that this behaviour might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US.

"While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual."

Jabbing weapon

Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.

In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.

However, they did not photograph the behaviour, or capture it on film.

Senegal chimp Image: Iowa State University
Adolescent females exhibited the behaviour most frequently (Image: M Gaspersic)
In one case, Pruetz and Bertolani, from the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in Cambridge, UK, witnessed a chimpanzee extract a bushbaby with a spear.

In most cases, the Fongoli chimpanzees carried out four or more steps to manufacture spears for hunting.

In all but one of the cases, chimps broke off a living branch to make their tool. They would then trim the side branches and leaves.

In a number of cases, chimps also trimmed the ends of the branch and stripped it of bark. Some chimps also sharpened the tip of the tool with their teeth.

Female lead

Adult males have long been regarded as the hunters in chimp groups.

But the authors of the paper in Current Biology said females, particularly adolescent females, and young chimps in general were seen exhibiting this behaviour more frequently than adult males.

"It's classic in primates that when there is a new innovation, particularly in terms of tool use, the younger generations pick it up very quickly. The last ones to pick up are adults, mainly the males," said Dr Pruetz, who led the National Geographic Society-funded project.

This is because young chimps pick the skill up from their mothers, with whom they spend a lot of their time.

"It's a niche that males seem to ignore," Dr Pruetz told BBC News.

Many areas where chimpanzees live are also home to the red colobus monkey, which the chimps hunt. However, the Senegal site is lacking in this species, so chimps may have needed to adopt a new hunting strategy to catch a different prey - bushbaby.

The authors conclude that their findings support a theory that females may have played a similarly important role in the evolution of tool technology among early humans.

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It appears we have a new enemy to be weary of.
If Iran and the DPRK ally themselves with this new threat
Freedom as we know it just may be over.

I didn't read the post at all, but the title of this topic is excellent.

I can see the next headline now.

"Bush warns against Chimps building WMDs"
With the media today, not as far fetched as it seems.

I got 4 words for you "planet of the apes" and this will be the downfall of man.

I wonder where Cornelius and Dr. Zaius are now?

I think we should send in diplomats and maybe have 6 nation peace talks BEFORE things get out of hand. If that doesn't work I say we cut down the worlds' rain forests to capture and enslave apes and monkeys of all breeds to ensure the safety of man. We need to deal with this now and not 5,10,15 years down the road. Sanctions won't work because they eat the same poo that they fling. WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Call your congressman, representative, your Prime Minister, your zoo keeper.
Tell them our children, no our children's children are at risk.
Killer chimps are terrorists and genocidal maniacs. What, sure the article says they are hunting bushbabies now. Well what happens when those are slim pickin's. You better believe they'll turn to humans.
I'll have you know I have stayed up all night working on a cohesive strategy and I have devised a plan to stop this threat dead in it's tracks before they learn to fly. It may involve a scorched Earth policy but once every man woman and child is safely on the moon.........
Sorry I think I'm suffering from HMW withdrawl syndrome.

Hmm...

*Imagines a chimp, in the future, using an automatic rifle.*

it's not just chimps, the Gorilla's are doing it too!

Wild gorillas seen to use tools
What's fascinating is the similarity between what these creatures have done and what we do
Thomas Breuer
Gorillas have been seen for the first time using simple tools to perform tasks in the wild, researchers say.

Scientists observed gorillas in a remote Congolese forest using sticks to test the depth of muddy water and to cross swampy areas.

Wild chimps and orangutans also use tools, suggesting that the origins of tool use may predate the evolutionary split between apes and humans.

Gorillas are endangered, with some populations numbered in the hundreds.

'Valuable insights'

"We've been observing gorillas for 10 years here, and we have two cases of them using detached objects as tools," said Thomas Breuer, from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), who heads the study team in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.

"In the first case, we had a female crossing a pool; and this female has crossed this pool by using a detached stick and testing the water depth, and trying to use it as a walking stick," he told the BBC.

The second case saw another female gorilla pick up the trunk of a dead shrub and use it to lean on while dredging for food in a swamp.

She then placed the trunk down on the swampy ground and used it as a bridge.

"What's fascinating about these observations is the similarity between what these creatures have done, and what we do in the context of crossing a pond," observed Dr Breuer.

"The most astonishing thing is that we have observed them using tools not for obtaining food, but for postural support."

In the family

This discovery makes the gorilla the last of the great apes to be documented using tools in the wild.

Chimpanzees use stone tools to process food, and their close relatives bonobos will use the mashed ends of sticks to soak up liquids.

Orangutans - the only Asian great ape - use branches to forage for food, and leaves to modify their calls.

Though some monkeys and birds also use tools, Thomas Breuer believes that the great apes are special.

"We have now seen tool use in all the great apes in the wild," he said.

"That now makes us think that it might be the case that tool use has been an ancient trait of all great apes before the human lineage split away."

Current scientific orthodoxy holds that the separation between the chimpanzee and human lines came about six million years ago.

Research has shown that in captivity, apes can learn a range of skills including number and character recognition.

They can also learn tool use and transmit their acquired skills to other members of their social group.

The Congo team, drawn from the WCS and the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, believes that the tool traits they have observed in the wild may also be shared and learned across gorilla social groups.

They publish their findings in the online journal Public Library of Science Biology.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/s ... 296606.stm

Gotta wonder how much they think up and how much they have observed us.

Bruciarsi wrote:Gotta wonder how much they think up and how much they have observed us.

How much do we think up and how much do we imitate both from nature and our fellow man?

CyberTooth wrote:

Bruciarsi wrote:Gotta wonder how much they think up and how much they have observed us.

How much do we think up and how much do we imitate both from nature and our fellow man?

I invented the stick.

DeathBlast wrote:I got 4 words for you "planet of the apes" and this will be the downfall of man.

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

Unchrasimatic wrote:

DeathBlast wrote:I got 4 words for you "planet of the apes" and this will be the downfall of man.

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

Not if they develop proprimate lobbyists before they reach that point. Mire us down in ethics and bureacracy while they explore the virtues of bronze.

Caelus wrote:

Unchrasimatic wrote:

DeathBlast wrote:I got 4 words for you "planet of the apes" and this will be the downfall of man.

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

Not if they develop proprimate lobbyists before they reach that point. Mire us down in ethics and bureacracy while they explore the virtues of bronze.

How foolish of me, I never thought of that! Hell they could "skip" a few technological generations once their brains are advanced enough and just learn how to use whatever weapons are easily available in the future. By the time the lobyists realise they've been played as fools it may be too late...

Can we vote a Chimp to take over Dubya's position?

Hey I found video there evolving faster than we thought>there might not be time to stop them.


http://www.sighost.com/user/vulgar_wrai ... th_gun.gif

That reminds me of Link Lancelot.

Unchrasimatic wrote:

DeathBlast wrote:I got 4 words for you "planet of the apes" and this will be the downfall of man.

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

Read both World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks That's how Zombies can take over teh world.

vulgar_wraith wrote:Hey I found video there evolving faster than we thought>there might not be time to stop them.


http://www.sighost.com/user/vulgar_wrai ... th_gun.gif

Thats not a real monkey is it? Is it?!

it's not just monkeys either, I think there's a type of parrot they seen that uses sticks to fish for grubs too

it's not just monkeys either, I think there's a type of parrot they seen that uses sticks to fish for grubs too

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

yeah, because humans are l33t

Grendel wrote:it's not just monkeys either, I think there's a type of parrot they seen that uses sticks to fish for grubs too

Eh, I don't buy into ideas of something overthrowing humanity. Super intelligent computers? Well its your own fault for creating one with the motive and capability to kill you. Zombie apocalipse? they walk so slow how do they ever get to infect anyone? Surely humanity would wipe them out if they got too close to a technology level that could threaten us.

yeah, because humans are leet

I gotta ask. What's a leet?

should of spelt it like they do, L33t, and to be honest, I have no clue, from what I can tell, it's kind of the same as uber, great, elemental god-powers of batman, able to stop a train with your forehead, kick ass and take names. that help?

i thought L33t was a name of a varied number/letter language derived from eliet myself.

but first i thought you ment leek *pictures a twirling vegtable and starts to scat sing*

Just wait 500 years from now you'll be hearing "MunkE not trukk" or all OP's will be trucks that transformed into a monkey. Curse you beastwars

Yrah, I think your thinking of something else. After doing a general search of L33T I found out it is an internet language. There apparently is a comic book with that name, but I have a feeling it has something to do with computers, not possessing god-like powers.