Finally: A definitive Bush and Chimp Connection

For First Time, Chimps Seen Making Weapons for Hunting

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A01

Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning deadly spears from sticks and using the tools to hunt small mammals -- the first routine production of deadly weapons ever observed in animals other than humans.

The multistep spearmaking practice, documented by researchers in Senegal who spent years gaining the chimpanzees' trust, adds credence to the idea that human forebears fashioned similar tools millions of years ago.

Bo is one of the chimps on a Senegal reservation being studied by researchers, who recently discovered that chimps have the ability to make their own weapons to hunt small mammels. (Paco Bertolani)


The landmark observation also supports the long-debated proposition that females -- the main makers and users of spears among the Senegalese chimps -- tend to be the innovators and creative problem solvers in primate culture.

Using their hands and teeth, the chimpanzees were repeatedly seen tearing the side branches off long, straight sticks, peeling back the bark and sharpening one end. Then, grasping the weapons in a "power grip," they jabbed them into tree-branch hollows where bush babies -- small, monkeylike mammals -- sleep during the day.

more http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201007.html?sub=AR

and decided that they better give this evolution thing another big kick in the pants.

They're saying we can do better than this chimp.