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Chimps spotted hunting with spears: Human evolution process in flashback!

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Chimps laugh just as humans do, you might not be able to identify this laughter cos it consists of alternating inhalations and exhalations that sound more like breathing and panting. These far of cousins of humans are much like us than you might guess. A study shows that Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates.
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No fewer than 22 times, researchers documented wild chimpanzees on an African savanna fashioning sticks into “spears” to hunt small primates called lesser bush babies.

Chimpanzees are well-known toolmakers. In the 1960s primatologist Jane Goodall famously observed chimps using sticks to fish termites out of mounds

Chimpanzee, often shortened to chimp, is the common name for the two extant species in the genus Pan. The better known chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee, living primarily in West, and Central Africa. Its cousin, the Bonobo or “Pygmy Chimpanzee” as it is known archaically, Pan paniscus, is found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Dr Pruetz, who is leading this National Geographic-funded project said:

It’s classic in primates that when there is a new innovation, particularly in terms of tool use, the younger generations pick it up very quickly. The last ones to pick up are adults, mainly the males,

How do they make these spears?

The chimps broke off a living branch to make their tool. They would then trim the side branches and leaves. Then they jabbed the spears into hollow trunks or branches, repeatedly. Finally they removed the tool, smelled and licked it frequently till it became perfect.

Though not caught on tape, the discovery offers insight into the evolution of hunting behavior in early humans. After all modern humans are actually hybrids created by millennia of interbreeding between early hominids and chimpanzees.

Source: National Geographic

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