Common sense applied by Apes



It’s a scene that would grace the opening of any Planet of the Apes movie.
But rather than being fiction, this is fact, and one that is new to science.
For the first time, a gorilla in the wild has been seen using a tool to acquire and eat food.
The young female gorilla watched another older male attempt to collect ants from a hole in the ground, only to see the ants bite his arm, scaring him away.
The female gorilla tried to put her own arm in the hole, and she too was bitten.
But instead of giving up, the young ape then had her very own 'eureka' moment.
She looked around for a suitable implement, and selected a piece of wood approximately 20 cm long, tapering from 2 cm wide at one end to 1 cm long at the other.
She then inserted the stick into the hole, withdrew it, and licked off ants clambering over it, avoiding being stung.
  • Presented by
    Matt Walker(BBC NEWS)

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