http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-chimps26aug26,0,1384382.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tool Use Observed in 2nd Group of Chimps
Its practice in Cameroon -- 1,000 miles from the first sighting --
suggests it arose independently.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2006
The noise came from the trees: crack, crack, crack.
As the researchers and their village guides crept closer, they saw
something that was not supposed to be happening in the Ebo forest in the
central African nation of Cameroon: chimpanzees using rocks as hammers
to break open tough-shelled nuts.
Previous research had found that kind of tool use only in chimps 1,000
miles away, across the wide N'Zo-Sassandra River in Ivory Coast.
Researchers thought the behavior was either a genetic trait or maybe a
learned skill passed from one generation to another.
The discovery of tool use among chimps in Cameroon, separated from their
cousins in Ivory Coast by the "information barrier" of the river,
suggests that the skill was invented independently in each place,
according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.
Lead author Bethan J. Morgan, a postdoctoral researcher from the San
Diego Zoo, and senior research assistant Ekwoge E. Abwe reported seeing
three adult chimps breaking coula nuts with quartz stones. When the
animals spotted the researchers, a female chimp and a chimp of
undetermined gender fled, but a male stayed behind, continuing to break
nuts for three minutes.
The ground beneath the coula tree was littered with broken nutshells and
quartz stones.
Morgan said the discovery pointed out how little might be known about
the chimp subspecies Pan troglodytes vellerosus even as it is in danger
of extinction by "bushmeat" poachers.
She said she hoped the find would spark new interest in preservation
among environmentalists and African nations. Although the chimp is on a
protected list in Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria, poaching is rampant.
Interaction between researchers and hunters has not been pleasant. One
group, Morgan said, threatened to burn down the researchers' camp.
"Luckily, other field assistants were wonderful and stayed in the forest
and protected the campsite," she said from Cameroon in a telephone
interview. "None of these forests are safe."
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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