Zoo chimp makes elaborate plots to attack visitors

Well, saw this and thought it was pretty interesting:

Zoo chimp makes elaborate plots to attack humans - Technology & science - Science - DiscoveryNews.com - msnbc.com

I tried copying it here, but the formatting may be off so I'd recommend the link. Its not too crazy, but I mean they use spears to hunt so who knows how long before they make guns!

"Santino," a male chimpanzee at Furuvik Zoo in Sweden, is devising increasingly complex attacks against zoo visitors.
At first Santino was famous for throwing rocks and other projectiles at visitors who annoyed him. Now he has improved his technique, which requires spontaneous innovation for future deception. Researcher Mathias Osvath, lead author of a paper about Santino in PLoS ONE, explained what the clever chimp did:
"After a visitor group had left the compound area, Santino went inside the enclosure and brought a good-sized heap of hay that he placed near the visitor's section, and immediately after that he put stones under it," Osvath said.

"He also appeared to have placed projectiles behind, just before he went in after the hay. After this, he sat down beside the hay and waited. When the visitors came back, he waited until they were close by and, without any preceding display, he threw stones at the crowd."
Osvath, who is the scientific director of the Lund University Primate Research Station Furuvik, and colleague Elin Karvonen noticed the behavior while studying the elderly chimp, who is the dominant male in his exhibit at the Swedish zoo.
The calculated surprise attacks on visitors demonstrate very advanced thinking usually only associated with humans.



Osvath said, "What is interesting is that he made these preparations when the visitors were out of sight, and also that he incorporated innovations into the behavior."
"What makes this a bit special is that he actually had not experienced before what he seemed to anticipate," Osvath added. "He, in a sense, produced a future outcome instead of just preparing for a scenario that had previously been re-occurring reliably."
The researchers believe that the recombination of previous experiences coupled with innovation "is a good sign of the rather sophisticated foresight abilities in chimps."


This comes very close to what is known as "theory of mind," which is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, and to understand that others have thoughts, desires and more that are different from one's own. Empathy, deception (as for Santino) and other qualities usually only reserved for humans can be linked to this process.
In terms of why the chimp wants to bother human zoo visitors, Osvath said that's nothing new.



"A lot of great apes, especially dominant males, throw stuff at people at zoos," he said. "And I would think that this is something that comes naturally to them when performing their dominance displays. These are often aimed at making other apes move out of the way and, in effect, accept him as the boss."
"Humans at zoos don't move out of the way, unless they get thrown at," he continued. "Some apes throw sticks or feces, but Santino doesn't have access to any good-sized sticks, and he really dislikes putting his fingers on gooey stuff, including feces."
After observing the chimp for days, the scientists also suspect that Santino just also "finds it fun" to bug humans. He even appears to target certain people that perhaps really get on his nerves. The attacks are all the more successful because Santino plays it cool, holding back on posturing before whipping out the stone or other projectile.
Michael Huffman of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute has also studied chimp stone throwing, which he believes "may serve to augment the effect of intimidation displays." He further thinks that research on the behavior could shed light on the evolution of stone tool use in humans.



Osvath additionally believes that the phenomenon taps into "one of the hardest questions in science: how matter (in this case the brain) can appear to be influenced by something that does not exist (the future). This is far from trivial."

TL;DR: You obviously have no chance against the chimp invasion if you can't read an article

Monkeys Devise a Tool to Break Out of Zoo in Brazil : TreeHugger


These monkeys are smarter than we credit them to be and even other animals.

Just adding a little something something to the op.

Awesome! We could become a multi species planet

I also saw another article that said they found a rare neuron in chimpanzee's brains that scientists believe allows them to sympathize and may be the link to consciousness (iirc).

I'll post it when I get back home if anyone wants to read it.

That's fuckin awesome.

Reminds me of katt william talking about a tiger in a zoo.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwu0zN-78w]KATT WILLIAMS: Exclusive new Clip - "American Zoo" - YouTube[/ame]

^ Ha I love Kat Williams, he's hilarious.

Anyways, here is that link:
Rare Neurons Found In Monkeys

Cells linked to empathy and consciousness in primates may offer clues to human self-awareness

O.K- Santino is the shit.

Doesn't help he shares the name with one of my favorite Project Runway stars. Yeah...don't tell anyone that though...

All that says to me is that really hates being locked up

and that maybe chimps are evolving quicker; as us humans are as we end our ~25,000 year cycle

Dog bites child antagonizing it, gets put down.
Chimp throws stones at zoo patrons, apparently unprovoked, nothing?

Edited by Internetz, 15 May 2012 - 05:04 PM.

Dog bites child antagonizing it, gets put down.
Chimp throws stones at zoo patrons, apparently unprovoked, nothing?

I'd say that's fair game.

I'd say that's fair game.

What is?
Putting the dog down or doing nothing to the chimp

Dog bites child antagonizing it, gets put down.
Chimp throws stones at zoo patrons, apparently unprovoked, nothing?

A dog biting someone isnt proof it has intelligence, a monkey preparing and executing a sneak attack is pretty intelligent.

What is?
Putting the dog down or doing nothing to the chimp

Doing nothing to the chimp.

Dog bites child antagonizing it, gets put down.
Chimp throws stones at zoo patrons, apparently unprovoked, nothing?

Kind of goes both ways, bro. My breeder/trainer takes his pups to kindergarten and whatnot to expose them to kids. Some of those kids are pieces of shit, but if you train your dog at an early age you can pretty much beat your dog and not get a reaction out of him/her unless you give the "attack" command.

That is if you want an attack command...

But that's cool that stupid monkeys can mimic things that humans have been doing for thousands of years now. Tell me when monkeys utilize fire and invent the wheel. That would be impressive. Throwing rocks can hardly be considered imaginative or groundbreaking.

Edited by xpixiex, 15 May 2012 - 08:26 PM.

Kind of goes both ways, bro. My breeder/trainer takes his pups to kindergarten and whatnot to expose them to kids. Some of those kids are pieces of shit, but if you train your dog at an early age you can pretty much beat your dog and not get a reaction out of him/her unless you give the "attack" command.

That is if you want an attack command...

But that's cool that stupid monkeys can mimic things that humans have been doing for thousands of years now. Tell me when monkeys utilize fire and invent the wheel. That would be impressive. Throwing rocks can hardly be considered imaginative or groundbreaking.

It's not the throwing that's impressive it's the planning, The rocks are incidental.

A dog biting someone isnt proof it has intelligence, a monkey preparing and executing a sneak attack is pretty intelligent.

I didn't say it was... :confused2:
I was saying I'm surprised they haven't taken any action against the chimp (taking it off exhibit, moving it, euthanizing it, etc)

Kind of goes both ways, bro. My breeder/trainer takes his pups to kindergarten and whatnot to expose them to kids. Some of those kids are pieces of shit...

But that's cool that stupid monkeys can mimic things that humans have been doing for thousands of years now. Tell me when monkeys utilize fire and invent the wheel. That would be impressive. Throwing rocks can hardly be considered imaginative or groundbreaking.

But it didn't say the people were harassing it or anything, it sound like the chimp was just pissed of seeing them so it started throwing rocks.

But yeah chimps have been throwing things in the wild for decades, don't know if the cache idea is new or not, but I know they do that with food.

It's not the throwing that's impressive it's the planning, The rocks are incidental.

I'm not entirely sure how much planning is really need to wait for the next tour group to show up...

Idk this whole thing isn't that impressive to me

But it didn't say the people were harassing it or anything, it sound like the chimp was just pissed of seeing them so it started throwing rocks.

But yeah chimps have been throwing things in the wild for decades, don't know if the cache idea is new or not, but I know they do that with food.

I'd like to know if the people were mocking the monkey or not as well... Otherwise the monkey was just being a total dick.

Although I'd be pissed off too if I were put up on display at a zoo.

I'm not entirely sure how much planning is really need to wait for the next tour group to show up...

Idk this whole thing isn't that impressive to me

I'd say it's slightly impressive, but far from shocking. You can see this type of stuff out in nature all the time. I mean chimps have organized hunting parties where each player has a planned role. Zoo chimp knows people are coming, knows he wants to throw shit at them, knows they'll notice his weapons.

Intelligence and awareness of what needs done to live are out there, just got to be open to the idea that humans aren't anything special in that sense, just well developed.

if i had a million dollars

Edited by GramGilb, 16 May 2012 - 09:01 PM.
same thing as below just without the quote