Wild gorillas seen using tools for first time

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29223622.htm

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Two female gorillas have been photographed using sticks as tools to get through swampy areas, the first time the apes have been seen doing so in the wild, researchers reported on Thursday.

"This is a truly astounding discovery," said Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who led the study.

The findings can help shed light on how human beings came to use tools, and also broaden the understanding of how animals use them, the researchers said.

"Although there are reports of tool use by captive gorillas, including object throwing and use of tools in feeding, there has been to our knowledge no reported case of tool use in by wild gorillas, despite decades of field research," they wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science Biology, an online journal.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Is this another White House story? n/t

[Demonaut]

3. It might be, was bush* wading around in New Orleans again

I know he has an opposable middle finger

[Junkdrawer]

6. Nah, Pentagon.

The White House has Chimpanzees...

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Take that, fundies!

[yorkiemommie1]

4. thanks

(perhaps this is how Cheney learned to use his cane.)

these great apes need to be protected; they are so vulnerable.

[AlCzervik]

5. wild Gorillas--more useful then Bush.

[newswolf56]

7. Obviously, primate tool-use began when dogs showed early hominids...

how to throw sticks. Once dogs had trained the hominids in proper stick-throwing, everything else followed.

In ancient times, this was known as obedience to the will of Dog.

(Too bad the scribe who first recorded this story was dyslexic.)

[rfranklin]

8. Snap On or Craftsman? Will Bush get endorsement contract?

Which brand do they prefer?

[ReadTomPaine]

9. The moving barriers of animal/man separation

Tool use, self awareness, intelligence, complex communication, art and so forth have all been used in the past to elevate Homo sapiens over other species when these attributes were thought to be exclusively human traits.

Of course, when other species were found to have these traits, the goalposts are moved yet again.

Perhaps the most defining trait of Homo sapiens is the exclusivity with which we regard ourselves from other animals.

[pitohui]

10. heck crows have been using tools for, like, decades

& one of darwin's finches has been doing it for at least centuries

gorillas better get on the "stick" & catch a clue train, they're getting left behind by the bird brains!