Chimps have been observed hunting with spears, researchers report, a startling addition to their known use of tools that may shed light on hunting among humanity's early ancestors.

In a troop located in Senegal, at least 10 chimps were seen crafting spears to hunt small monkeys called bush babies. The anthropologists recount 22 spear bouts in the last two years, in study released today by the journal Current Biology.

The chimps live in a wooded savanna similar to the plains from which some human ancestors are thought to have arisen, says lead author Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames. She says the report may offer insights into Australopithecine human precursors, who were hunters and lived more than 1.2 million years ago.

"I didn't believe it and was quite startled when I saw it for myself," Pruetz says, after her co-author, Paco Bertolani of the United Kingdom's Cambridge University, first reported witnessing a spear hunt.

Chimps have been known to use clubs to ward off leopards or attack each other, but stabbing with spears hasn't been observed before, says primatologist Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, who was not part of the study.

The study reports that the chimps used a multi-step method for making their spears - breaking them off trees, stripping leaves, trimming both ends and sharpening tips with their teeth. The researchers saw the chimps jab the spears forcefully into tree cavities holding the monkeys.

Only infants and female chimps used the spears, Pruetz says. In one case a mother was seen jabbing at a tree hole while holding an infant. Just one of the 22 observed attempts resulted in the chimps killing a monkey.

"Another blow against 'Man, the hunter'," says archaeologist Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The study supports other findings that females are the chief tool-users among chimps, he says, and may add to arguments about such a division among early humans.

Hunting described in the study resembles the known chimp practice of "termite fishing," in which chimps plunge sticks into insect mounds to "fish" out the inhabitants for dinner, says anthropologist John Shea of Stony Brook (N.Y.) University. "This is just a rather long extension of that behavior, not true projectile use of spears," he says.

The earliest archaeological evidence for human use of thrown spears dates to roughly half a million years ago, says Shea. He doubts chimp anatomy would ever allow them to throw spears. Even if female chimpanzees used these probes more than males, he says that it does not follow that female early humans used analogous implements more than their male counterparts, he says.

"Chimpanzees are analogs for, not examples of, early hominins (humans)," he adds, cautioning about applying the results too broadly, in particular in considering the role of savannas in human origins.
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fascinating....

perhaps fire, the wheel and all sorts of other lovely human inventions are soon to follow?

I can't help but wonder if they observed this behaviour somewhere though. Perhaps in the way handlers deal with some of the larger animals? As cool as this is it screams for the possability of a hoax

I knew primates were known for using tools. But I had never heard of chimps using spears before. It still doesn't make me believe that we evolved from apes, but it's certainly interesting.

There's an interesting link regarding this from Seed Magazine's website, for the Feb 22 Zeit Geist.