Chimpanzees Invent Killing Weapons

Primates are one of the most intelligent animals on Earth: Evolving alongside humans, they have often been touted as man's equivalent in the animal kingdom.

Not only do primates pass down knowledge from generation to generation, apes have been known to use tools for huge variety of purposes, such as breaking seeds or fruit encrusted by tough shells, primates have the propensity to learn new skills, including, it seems, those that would serve a deadly purpose.

Chimp-Made Weapons?

According to researchers studying chimpanzees living in the West African savannah, these seemingly harmless creatures have been observed fashioning lethal spears, using nothing more than hands and teeth to peel off barks and fashioning sharp-pointed ends out of long sticks.

Their targets? Bush babies, a small primate that irks out a living in hollow tree trucks.

Apparently, these warring primates have been using these improvised spears to poke at tree trunks, in an apparent bid to impale their prey.

A team led by Iowa State University anthropology professor Jill Pruetz witnessed the spearing of a bushbaby in Fongoli, Senegal, during an observation of chimpanzees from March 2005 to July 2006. In a study being released Thursday in the online version of the journal Current Biology, Pruetz documents 22 cases of chimps using spear-like tools to hunt bush babies.

Only female chimps have been observed making these weapons so far, which may lend more credibility to the theory that female apes tend to be better innovators than their male counterparts.

Hunting, it seems, is the occupation of the female, and she is tasked with looking after the young. Meat may be the alternative source of protein for the female chimp and her babies.

As Pruetz puts it, rather bluntly: "It's a way of accessing protein or meat that is a creative solution to this problem."

An Evolutionary Leap?

The fact that chimpanzees have the ability to replicate weapons similar to man's early weapons, gives us an insight with regards to how early man may have evolved.