Chimp planned rock attacks on zoo visitors

Chimp planned rock attacks on zoo visitors

www.abc.net.au

Researchers say a chimpanzee at a Swedish zoo has proven that apes are as capable of forward planning as humans.

Zoo minders have uncovered hundreds of stone caches being used by the chimp to hoard ammunition to hurl at visitors.

The chimp at the centre of this study, an alpha male in his 30s called Santino, lives at Furuvik Zoo to the north of Stockholm.

His war against the visiting public began in the 1990s, when he got into the habit of collecting stones from the moat surrounding his artificial island.

Santino would stack these up in the morning and then wait for visiting time when the bombardment would begin.

However the chimp was not only capable of this unusual example of forward planning. He also managed to break lumps of concrete into manageable sized missiles by checking for their weak points.

Mathias Osvath, a Lund University researcher, says Santino's behaviour shows convincingly that our fellow apes consider the future in a very complex way.

Mr Osvath says that Santino was "without exception" calm when gathering or manufacturing his ammunition, "in contrast to the typically aroused state" during displays.

"It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events," he said.

"They most probably have an inner world like we have when reviewing past episodes of our lives."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Sorry if this article is being discussed. I found this very interesting as one of the argument of some people as to what makes us human is our intelligence. Is planet of the Ape coming true? What is the deference between US and animals? What makes us so special that we think we own the world and can do anything we want with it

www.abc.net.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

I read that article a few minutes ago. I agree, chimps are very intellegent. I bet they are stashing a stockpile to whip at that one idiot who loves to irritate them at the zoo.

Unfortately, what would happen if the chimp did hurt someone by throwing rocks? I hate to see what would happen to the chimp.

Once I took my kids to a zoo that had a glass enclosure for chimps. The one idiot who couldn't resist mocking the chimps eventually had a chimp run full force and punch the glass right where the idiot had his face. That guy jumped so far back, it was hilarious.

oh, we must have evolved from chimps then if they are showing violent tendencies!!



[edit on 10-3-2009 by grantbeed]

A new terrorist.

Put him in a orange jumpsuit and sent him to gitmo.

reply to post by rattan1


This is how it all starts, a planet where apes evolved from men

In all seriousness though this doesn't surprise me, keeping such intelligent animals pent up in a zoo is probably not a smart move to begin with (even if well fed and housed they are still captive). Just shows the boundary between ape and man is a fairly thin one...

I love this.

I shouldn't -

- because he is clearly displaying the kind of aggressive behavior -
that has contributed to our own species decline.
War on each other.

but I love this anyway.
Nothing more beautiful than a smart primate.

reply to post by Titen-Sxull


The boundary is indeed very thin. I read somewhere that they share 99.99% of our DNA

Where people are seeing reflections of our own violent behaviour, I see proof that the chimp doesn't like to be caged and gawked at...

Get him out of there.

Originally posted by MemoryShock
Where people are seeing reflections of our own violent behaviour, I see proof that the chimp doesn't like to be caged and gawked at...

Get him out of there.

I completely agree with you.

Go chimp. all arguments aside I just think its neat to see a chimp en caged and basically imprisoned fight back any way he can against those imprisoning him and their annoying friends who come to gawk at him all day. Good for the chimp. i hope he gets a few visitors good. maybe move up to the biological weapons. you know squat and chuck. Yes go to the zoo make friends with mr chimp. mr chimp doesn't want to make friends with you. he wants to be in the wild back home. so until that time comes for mr chimp his philosophy will be come and get it you hairless upright freaks!

Also it's a god sign that we too have the same rebelious streak in our genes and heritage. It will make it that much easier for us to over throw the draco overlords and break out of this prison called earth so that we can be free running amok in the universe terrorizing the rigelians with our own version of fling the poop. evolved space chimps all the way, thats us humans. or destiny. So look at the chimp with pride. his fate is the same as ours, and his destiny to be free the same. except inept humans are keeping him down and we have weird ass reticulans trying to get funky with our recticlum.

reply to post by spinkyboo


What we perceive as aggressive behavior may just be a play for them. Anyway some rocks on someone’s head are not as bad compared to what they have to endure because of us. Some in Africa are slaughtered, eaten and used for Lab tests.

Originally posted by rattan1
reply to post by Titen-Sxull

 

The boundary is indeed very thin. I read somewhere that they share 99.99% of our DNA

no thats a lie,the % keeps on dwindling with more research,stands at around 94% a the moment,mouse i believe share around 65% dna with humans.

i dont know why the 99.99% myth is propagated so much.

why is it throwing rocks,i believe its because the visitors keep encrouching on its territory akin to a people constantly coming up to your windows and staring at you.
its telling people to leave it alone,nothing wrong with that given that the majority of animals are territorial and will have territorial instincts.

encrouch not on the chimps territory and blame not the chimp for any rocks it may throw,consider it fair warning.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by welivefortheson]

reply to post by rattan1


Remains me of the Seinfield show where Kramer gets into a dispute with the chimp

"Well he started it"

They never mentioned if he ever beaned anybody?
I say let the Chimp have some fun what else is he going to do stuck on the stupid fake island.!

Hell I even have a few toys he can borrow

Originally posted by rattan1
reply to post by spinkyboo

 

What we perceive as aggressive behavior may just be a play for them. Anyway some rocks on someone’s head are not as bad compared to what they have to endure because of us. Some in Africa are slaughtered, eaten and used for Lab tests.

Agreed - it can be play - and they can also get aggressive.
I think they are frustrated and trying to make creative use of their time.
I likely would be doing the same thing in this situation...or much worse.

Pure and Simple -
They shouldn't be locked up.
I don't go to zoos... for this reason.
And I am painfully aware of what goes on in labs and in countries
where they are hunted. It's despicable.

The chimp is obviously trying to liberate us.

(That's what we're calling it now, right?)


The little guy could probably do a better job with planning the planets future than our governments could.



In all seriousness now, we give far too little credit to most other species. Time and time again we find that other species are capable of thought that we assumed only humans could perform...
... time and time again, we keep forgetting this when dealing with them.

One things for sure... it's not them who's overpopulating the planet and over-harvesting it's resources.

It's high time we started planning how a future generation will get off this rock. The earths too precious to allow our species to remain on it.
That's a pipe dream though.

reply to post by SLAYER69


Man i almost pissed my pants , im still laughing

I like slayers pic. gives me an idea. we hould give the chimp a shot gun. with some ammo on the side. if he can figure out how to load it. great. if he can manage to not shoot his own ass then whatever jollies he gets shooting at the tourists is all fair game. let the chimp try to fight for his freedom. Now thats a zoo I'd pay to visit. bobo the shootn' chimp.

what theres a global recession going on. the zoos gotta make money some how. and this way the chimp has areal chance of making a real beak for it.

reply to post by johnsky


I agree with you totally. Unfortunately however, by the time we realize that other species have the right to live and evolve as we have, it will be too late and we would have exterminated most of them.