Re: [xmca] questions about animals' tool use

From: Mike Cole <lchcmike who-is-at gmail.com>
Date: Sun Apr 22 2007 - 15:38:31 PDT

Thanks for the consolation, Paul. Yep, bonobos give a whole new meaning to
"make love not war." And while the "troglodytes" appellation for
those other chimps is not a kind epithet, it works as well for them as our
contemporary sort of homo sapiens sapiens.
mike
On 4/22/07, Paul Dillon <phd_crit_think@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> One needs to recognize that there are different species of chimp. I
> haven't heard these reports of chimp violence for the Bonobo chimp although
> it is well known that *pan troglodytes*, the kind used in old R. Reagan
> movies, can be quite vicious. This species has even been known to organize
> "war" parties to murder males of the same band that had attempted to
> separate off, taking females to form new bands.
>
> Paul Dillon
>
> *Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> Yes, the peaceful chimp myth seems pretty far gone.
> But look at how much more efficient the symbolic intelligence of humans
> allows
> human beings to kill each other while eating themselves out of house and
> home!! If it weren't so dangerous to use irony in this medium, I might be
> tempted to say it makes me proud of my fellow humans.
> :-(
> mike
>
>
> On 4/22/07, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
> >
> >
> > American researchers in West Africa believe they've found the first
> > instance
> > of an animal (other than humans) building a multi- step weapon, after
> > observing wild chimpanzees grab sticks from one to four feet long,
> sharpen
> > the ends with their teeth, and murderously jab them into deep tree
> hollows
> > where delicious bush babies may be nesting. Writing in the journal
> Current
> > Biology, the team even reported observing the chimps tasting the tips
> > after
> > the stabs, to ascertain whether they had actually located a prey. (One
> of
> > the researchers said the ferocity of the jabbing reminded her of the
> > shower
> > scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.) [Tampa Tribune- Washington Post,
> > 2-23-07]
> >
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Received on Sun Apr 22 16:40 PDT 2007

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