Wild Gorillas Impress With Their Tools

fatgav writes "The BBC is running an article about wild gorillas being seen to use tools in the wild. It is especially significant as not only have Gorillas never been seen to use tools, but they have been using them in a way unlike other great apes. From the article: 'The most astonishing thing is that we have observed them using tools not for obtaining food, but for postural support.' The scientists are getting excited as it can help to explain questions as to how the most advanced great ape (us) came to evolve."

Tool use by other great apes

[lightyear4]

Check here [africanconservation.org] for some examples of tool usage in the other great ape families (primarily chimpanzees).

Re:Baboons

[Dave21212]

Actually, some folks think baboons are more intelligent than gorillas... Steve Van Nattan is one. Here's a really odd little story... [blessedquietness.com]

This will be a hard one to write. Baboons are naughty animals by human standards, and many a tourist has been shocked at the manners of these hairy beasts. I personally think the chimpanzee is highly over-rated as to intelligence. Liberal animal huggers most often give the chimp credit for being the smartest ape because he, like his alleged fool evolutionary heir, man, can smoke cigars and ride bicycles. A baboon would flunk if cigars are the deciding factor. Nevertheless, I vote for baboons in the intelligence ratings. I think you may agree after you read this story.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost choked on my pepsi when I scrolled up to remember what the title was.

Ya know, it's right there in the title bar. You don't have to scroll.

This is news?

[ObjetDart]

I thought it's been well known for years that gorillas use tools. You don't think they've typing all that spam by hand do you?

Re:we are not the most advanced

[CAIMLAS]

The difference here is that no other species has the concept of being advanced. Hell, they don't even have the concept of concept. So, in the terms of reasoning, yes, we are the "most advanced".

Re:Here's a hint

[Pantero Blanco]

Well, since he didn't really make any argument beyond saying that the article was wrong, and did so in an incredibly blunt manner, it's a flame at best. At worst, a troll targeting a (largely) atheistic/agnostic audience. If he'd said something more like "Well, you're assuming evolution is more than a theory..." there'd be some validity to your claim. (and, admittedly, you'd probably still be making it, because an offended atheist/agnostic would have modded his post down anyway)

Public Library of Science

[phlosoft]

Note that these findings are published in the freely available, creative commons licensed journal PLoS Biology:

http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request= get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030380 [plosjournals.org]

Entire issues are offered as beautiful PDFs. From the PLoS site http://www.plosjournals.org/ [plosjournals.org]:

PLoS publishes peer-reviewed, open-access scientific and medical journals that include original research as well as timely feature articles. All PLoS articles are immediately freely accessible online, deposited in the free public archive PubMed Central, and can be redistributed and reused according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.