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Chimp Found Plotting Against Zoo Guests
rjshirts writes "In further proof that Planet of the Apes is coming to pass, researchers in Stockholm, Sweden have proof that primates can plan ahead.
From the article:
'Santino the chimpanzee's anti-social behavior stunned both visitors and keepers at the Furuvik Zoo but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.
According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said.'"
Translation: "I'm an intelligent primate who doesn't like being caged up for your amusement."
Trolling is a art,
Bring me that Jane Goodall chick!
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
welcome our well perpaired monkey overloards...
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
Rocks or feces...hmmmm.
Maybe I'll just stick with chairs.
I'm always surprised when science finds out about something I already knew. Now, I know I probably know things that actually aren't true, but sometimes it's downright shocking that people didn't know something. :/
Please stop stalking me, bro.
"For a while, zoo keepers tried locking Santino up in the morning so he couldn't collect ammunition for his assaults, but he remained aggressive. They ultimately decided to castrate him in the autumn last year, but will have to wait until the summer to see if that helps."
Guns don't kill people...uh oh!
"It is normal behavior for alpha males to want to influence their surroundings ... It is extremely frustrating for him that there are people out of his reach who are pointing at him and laughing," Osvath said. "It cannot be good to be so furious all the time."
Now we know why review sites get sued.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
A good friend who past away a few years ago introduced me to some long time friends of his who own many chimps. One thing I was told flat out was, don't get near the cages. They are very good at trying to tempt people closer and never for any good. They will fondle themselves in front of you, throw stuff at you, and even be very violent should it be their wish. The problem is they are very very good at hiding the signs when it serves them. All of their chimps had their incisors (fang teeth) removed. For while they are very cute when young they would shame any unruly teenager when they are of age.
While I got a handshake and even a hug from one of the better behaved I was told that in no uncertain terms he was putting on a show to please them. Alone it would be a whole different story.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
No. Elephants don't bring sticks and rocks to scare away lions they regularly meet at yearly watering holes.
This involved:
- detection of arbitrary cycles
- planning for how to deal with them
- relatively elaborate creation of tools to support plan
Pretty exciting stuff indeed.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Just tax the rocks. Problem solved.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Pretty impress CV; I'd hire him.
You get to hire your own management? I'm impressed.
Arguably, he demonstrated more foresight and planning than the primates running the investment banks on Wall Street.
It must be an instinct because an animal has to do these things before its first winter. A squirrel without its food supply (or fat, if it hibernates) will simply die.
Memo to Daswolfen:
This post is funny while your is a troll. You're probably wondering why, so I thought I'd explain.
You see, the article was about the foresight and planning of a chimp. Therefore, when flyingsquid made reference to foresight and planning in his post and related these traits to Wall Street bankers, it was amusing.
Had he simply said, "Better qualified than a Wall Street banker", then appended a long diatribe explaining why he's not a racist, it would not have been funny.
As you may have already inferred (but probably haven't) the humor comes from creating relationships in the reader's mind between a chimp and a banker, first by stating several qualities displayed by the chimp, then by relating that to bankers.
If you had said instead, "Arguably, he demonstrated more foresight and planning than the primate who wrote the Federal budget," that may have been read as racist, and you may have still been flamed, but at least you would have displayed some humor (as well as an ability to connect both the president, a chimp, and the recent dust-up over that cartoon). We might then have appreciated your post as more than, well, you simply being a douche.
I hope this helps make your future contributions to slashdot more productive and enjoyable.
Arguably, he demonstrated more foresight and planning than the primates running the investment banks on Wall Street.
This is that far from the truth as you might think ;)
A while ago a Dutch TV show did a experiment on this very subject.
They had let a group of apes handpick a bunch of stocks and let a group of notable bankers do the same.
After 1 month the apes had yielded a higher net profit then the bankers did.....
Of course this was for shits and giggles but very funny nontheless.
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
>This involved:
>- detection of arbitrary cycles
>- planning for how to deal with them
>- relatively elaborate creation of tools to support plan
I would even speculate that there is an element of "avoiding being caught executing the plan."
Does that imply a guilty conscience to some degree, or only fear of his handlers?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Woah, woah, woah. You're saying that lending enormous amounts of money with extremely high interest rates to people who can't possibly afford to pay it back is a bad idea? Since when? Next you're going to tell me that trickle-down economics doesn't work and that two plus two doesn't equal five (even for very large values of two)! You obviously aren't an economics major.
What exactly makes you think they don't learn from their parents? Squirrels don't exactly grow up in a vacuum.
I have plenty of ground squirrels around, and they are fairly independent animals; they run alone, maintain their personal space, and when they meet it's usually to fight. They do maintain a collective behavior (when a hawk shows up, for example.) However nobody can learn from experience that one hasn't experienced before; and squirrels are not very good in "instruction", whatever you mean by that :-) - it would require fairly elaborate communication between generations, and already in April or May young squirrels live on their own, dig their burrows and such.
Again, the issue here is that an animal has one and only one chance to make a correct "life vs. death" decision when winter comes, and that decision (gathering food and fattening up) has to be made well ahead of cold time. To make matters worse, this decision is counter-intuitive, since the young squirrel never saw a winter and never participated in preparations. A lone human could figure out the need by reading books; a child could be told to do that by adults; but a small rodent does not have access to such complex communication mechanisms, and by nature is not a herd animal to blindly follow a leader. Other animals, like deer or sheep, are far better in introducing their young to the world.
This is not news. Baboons do this too.
From: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=482576
The Austin Chronicle
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-07-27/cols_smartypants.html
"Stone-throwing baboons in Saudi Arabia waited three days on the side
of a mountain road to take revenge on a driver who had killed one of
their group.
Al-Riyadh reported on Saturday that the primates laid in wait and
ambushed the driver on the same mountain road in southwest Saudi
Arabia from Mecca to Taif where the baboon had been run down earlier
in the week.
After spotting the car responsible for the death, one of the apes
screamed out a signal to the rest to attack, provoking the frenzied
stone throwing. Although the driver was able to escape, the apes broke
out the windshield of his car.
At least 350,000 baboons live in the Gulf state."
LUSENET: STONE-THROWING BABOONS TAKE REVENGE ON DRIVER
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004CxB
"In Saudi Arabia, a man learned a lesson in baboon gang warfare.
Apparently, earlier in the week the man was driving through a
mountainous road where he ran over a baboon. Thinking nothing of it,
the driver got back in his car and resumed his life... Finally, the
grieving baboons implemented their revenge. They lay hiding on the
side of the exact mountainous road where their beloved pal had been
killed and waited for the driver. When the car was spotted, one of the
baboons screamed out a signal and the others began to bombard the car
with rocks and stones. The driver escaped, sporting newly soiled
underwear and a broken windshield."
Tablet Newspaper: Monkey Love
http://www.tabletnewspaper.com/vol2iss_21/features/monkeylove.htm
"Stone-throwing baboons waited three days for revenge on the side of a
mountain road in Saudi Arabia to take revenge on a motorist who had
killed one of their group. After finally spotting the car responsible
for the death, one of the apes screamed out a signal for the rest to
attack, provoking a frenzied bout of stone throwing. The baboons then
ripped out the windscreen of the car. The driver managed to escape the
attack, which took place on the same stretch of road, between Mecca
and Taif, where the baboon had been run down."
Ananova: Revenge attack by stone-throwing baboons
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/16741-s05/www/baboons09122000.pdf
"Stone-throwing baboons in Saudi Arabia waited three days on the side
of a mountain road to take revenge on a driver who had killed one of
their group. Al-Riyadh reported on Saturday that the primates laid in
wait and ambushed the driver on the same mountain road in southwest
Saudi Arabia from Mecca to Taif where the baboon had been run down
earlier in the week. After spotting the car responsible for the death,
one of the apes screamed out a signal to the rest to attack, provoking
the frenzied stone throwing. Although the driver was able to escape,
the apes broke out the windshield of his car. At least 350,000 baboons
live in the Gulf state. Who says animals have no emotions? If you can
plot revenge, you must be able to feel anger."
The Jekyl Archives
http://www.jekyl.com/jekyl/arc_2000.htm
"Saudi Arabia is particularly baboon prone these days, with tales of
baboons raiding farms, houses, and even schools. But probably the
strangest report was where a troop deliberately wait in ambush.
According to newspaper accounts,