Why chimps throw rocks at trees? – The Imparcial.com

For the last 60 year ± os, the primatólogos have been studying the habits of certain populations of chimps © s. Thus, it has been learned that these animals use different tools with great skill. For example, use twigs to extract honey and â € € œpescarâ ants and termites in their nests and use stones to crack nuts.

Now a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has found that chimps © s They are living in some enclaves of West Africa, which rarely come into contact with humans, stacked rocks inside the trunks of some trees. These scientists, who have launched an international program for the study of this species, have placed cameras trap around these points to observe in detail their behavior.

So, have been determined that chimps © s usually visit these points. Then, extract one of the rocks that have previously met and throw against the tree while emitting a long and feature call. The zoólogos have found that this occurs mainly in males, but also © n in females and the young.

For now, this behavior has only been detected among some groups of chimps © s West African HATH not related to the typical use these give other tools. According to the biologist Christophe Boesch, director of the Department of PrimatologÃa of that German institution, seems to include cultural elements. Is more, in an article published in Scientific Reports, Boesch and colleagues suggest that the study of this behavior could shed some light on the origin of ritualism in our own species

Source: Very Interesting .