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Study Shows Monkeys Carefully Pick Tools

by Terrence O'Brien on January 18, 2009 at 09:14 AM

Monkeys Carefully Pick Tools
We're just growing to accept that man is not the only creature on Earth who has developed the ability to use tools. First it was chimpanzees using stones to crack open fruit and nuts, and sticks to fish out termites. Then last year our closest simian relatives were observed making spears. Suddenly we weren't so special anymore. And now we're being forced to acknowledge that yet another creature, even further down the evolutionary totem poll, has also shown an ability to use objects in their surroundings as instruments for problem solving.

Capuchin monkeys had been observed before using rocks to crack open nuts after resting them on boulders. But new observations suggest that the capuchin don't just grab any rock to accomplish the job, but carefully select the stones best suited for the job. Elisabetta Visalberghi, a primatologist at Italy's Institute of Cognitive Science and Technologies, after first observing the behavior began an intense study in which capuchin monkeys were presented with a collection of rocks with which to smash open the nuts. The monkeys routinely picked out the heaviest, densest rocks, completely bypassing lighter or more brittle rocks that might break.

That's just one more source of soldiers in the army of apes and robots that we're expecting to enslave us all any day now. [From: Wired]

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Tags: apes, capuchin, monkeys, research, science, study, tools

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