Guest Post by Morbo
Members of a band of chimpanzees living in West Africa have been observed fashioning weapons.
As The Washington Post reported recently, this isn’t just a simple case of a chimp picking up a stick and using it as a tool. In this case, the chimps had more work to do. Reported The Post:
Using their hands and teeth, the chimpanzees were repeatedly seen tearing the side branches off long, straight sticks, peeling back the bark and sharpening one end. Then, grasping the weapons in a “power grip,” they jabbed them into tree-branch hollows where bush babies — small, monkeylike mammals — sleep during the day. In one case, after repeated stabs, a chimpanzee removed the injured or dead animal and ate it, the researchers reported in yesterday’s online issue of the journal Current Biology.
“It was really alarming how forceful it was,” said lead researcher Jill D. Pruetz of Iowa State University, adding that it reminded her of the murderous shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Psycho.” “It was kind of scary.”
At first, I was alarmed by this news. Anyone who has seen the “Planet of the Apes” series can’t help but find this disturbing. If this keeps up, in a few years we may all be laboring in the salt mines while our chimp overlords kick back with a few drinks and some bush baby burgers.
But on reflection, I think I’m coming around to the idea of chimp empowerment.
There are advantages. For one, this new development is yet another blow to the creationists. Biblical literalists insist that humans are at the top of God’s pyramid and that all other animals are just dumb brutes over which “dominion” can be exercised.
Chimps are closely related to humans, sharing much of our DNA. Their ability to create and use tools shows a keen intelligence that only underscores our close kinship. We need to do more to protect these cousins of ours and their environments.
Secondly, chimps on the rise may not be such a bad thing. Let’s face it, we humans have gotten awfully fat and sassy. Maybe we need a rival to encourage us to get our house in order. I doubt chimps will use their newfound ability to create tools to make vehicles that get 8 miles to the gallon, nuclear bombs or Brittney Spears CDs (although the fact that the first thing they’ve made is a weapon does cause me some concern).
I say let the chimps step up to the plate. They can’t possible make a bigger mess of things than we have.