Missile-throwing chimp plots attacks on tourists

 

by Linda Geddes

A chimp that deliberately fashions discs of concrete to later hurl at zoo visitors is being hailed as definitive proof that the apes plan for future events.

Although similar claims have previously been made about chimps using tools to collect food, what sets Santino – a 30-year-old chimp from Furuvik zoo in Sweden – apart, is that his behaviour, and therefore his apparent state of mind, when collecting the ammunition seems markedly different from when he launches his attacks.

"The chimp has without exception been calm during gathering or manufacture of the ammunition, in contrast to the typically aroused state [when he throws the rocks]," says Mathias Osvath of the University of Lund, also in Sweden.

Unlike previous claims of pre-planning in apes, Santino's planning doesn't seem to be driven by a current emotional or physical drive like hunger or anger, but in anticipation of an event later in the day.

"Nothing like it has as yet been reported from the wild, nor from any captive chimpanzees," says Thomas Suddendorf of the University of Queensland in Australia. "Controlled experiments are now required to determine the nature of the cognitive processes involved."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16726-missilethrowing-chimp-plots-attacks-on-tourists.html