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Science Forum Index » Anthropology - Paleo Forum » Capuchins Bang Stones To Scare Predators
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| Rich Travsky |
 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:29 am |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6481795.stm
Research in Brazil has produced fresh evidence that primates may have something
approaching human "culture".
A scientist has observed capuchin monkeys banging stones together, apparently
as a signalling device to ward off potential predators.
The researcher says the animals appear to be learning this skill from each
other - and even teaching incomers to the group how it should be done.
The research is reported in the scientific journal Folia Primatologica.
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| Roger Bagula |
| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:50 pm |
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070325/ap_on_sc/chimpanzee_minds
Meeting to address how chimpanzees think
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press WriterSat Mar 24, 10:23 PM ET
Jane Goodall, the world's best-known observer of chimpanzee behavior,
watched the chimps at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo on Saturday while a
crowd of zoo-goers gathered to watch her.
"She's very important," one woman told two 6-year-old girls she'd
brought to the zoo. "She did a lot of very exciting things."
Goodall, 72, is in Chicago for a three-day conference billed as the
first scientific meeting on how chimpanzees think -- not just how they
behave. Goodall, who revolutionized research on primates during the
1960s when she studied them at close range in Tanzania, is scheduled to
give a sold-out lecture Sunday at Navy Pier.
At the meeting, which ends Sunday, 30 researchers are presenting their
work on chimps' apparent mental capacity for empathy, cooperative
problem-solving and even deception. All the presenters have cited
Goodall's trailblazing work, said conference co-chair Elizabeth
Lonsdorf, director of the Fisher Center.
The current "Mind of the Chimpanzee" meeting has drawn 300 of the
world's leading primatologists to the zoo's Fisher Center for the Study
and Conservation of Apes. It takes place against a backdrop of logging
of forest habitat in Africa and growing international pressure to save
chimpanzees and other apes, Goodall said.
"When I began in 1960 there must have been at least a million
chimpanzees across Africa in 25 countries," Goodall said. "We don't
think there are more than 150,000 now spread over 21 countries, many of
them in tiny groups that, unless we can do something to help them, will
become extinct."
Goodall's research documented tool use, emotions and war in the
chimpanzee groups she observed, and her books and TV specials about her
work at the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve sparked the world's
curiosity about apes. She drew criticism from her peers for giving names
to the animals she studied, but the public fell in love with her approach.
Goodall said a similar 1986 Chicago conference and its presentations on
habitat destruction, illegal trade in chimpanzees for meat and treatment
of chimps in medical research prompted her to switch from research to
advocacy.
Later, at the zoo's chimpanzee enclosure, Goodall saw how 7-year-old
Kipper followed 16-year-old Hank, the leader of the group, through the
tree branches of their outdoor enclosure.
"It's his hero. Hero-worshipping," Goodall said. "At Gombe (in
Tanzania), they do the same. They pick on one male -- it doesn't have to
be the alpha -- and just follow that person around."
She seemed unaware of the flock of followers she herself had collected
as she walked around the zoo.
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On the Net:
The Mind of the Chimpanzee: http://www.chimpmindconference.org
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