Warning for those planning a visit to the Zoo

[kiwigeo]

A chimpanzee in Sweden stockpiled stones in a pre-meditated plan to hurl them at zoo visitors, according to researchers.

Keeper's at Furuvik Zoo discovered the male chimp had built up a collections of rocks - which he had gathered by pulling apart bits of his enclosure - with the intention of later using them as missiles, the BBC reported.

The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.

There has been little past evidence that animals are capable of planning for future events.

A crucial component of the study is the way that the chimp, called Santino, collected the stones in a calm state before the zoo opened in the morning.

Santino then launched the stone projectiles later in the day, during a display to zoo visitors.

Lund University cognitive scientist Mathias Osvarth said the evidence suggested Santino was anticipating a future mental state, an ability that has been difficult to definitively prove in animals.

Dr Osvath began the study after zoo staff discovered collections of rocks facing the public viewing area inside Santino's enclosure.

The stone hoarding seems to be directly related to visitors, in the off season Santino neither collects the projectiles nor hurls them.

"I hope that other zoos or those in the wild will look more closely at what is happening," he added.

"I bet there must be a lot of these kinds of behaviours out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find them

[Nick]

If they want to turn captivity into a scientific study, give the chimp a slingshot & a pile of pebbles I say. See how long it takes the chimp to work out how to perfect his new toy

[sebastiaan56]

My favourite chimp story is how in an experiment chimps created an economy of bananas. To cut it short researchers created vice with female chimps being pimped for bananas, from Freakonomics from memory

[Paul B]

This is not new.

When I was a kid on a school outing to the zoo, the gorillas had no stones available, so they stockpiled their shit.

Luckily, I was too small to press through the crowd and get to the front of the enclosure, where the good, and very prim and proper (totally old school) Mrs Sommers was telling the kids about gorilla behaviour.

I was however, in a great position to see her cop a facefull of gorilla shit. My sister saw it too. We both were also well positioned to avoid the ensuing stampeed of classes 1 to 5, as everyone tried to get out of the way of the next salvo.

Nearly 40 years ago, but we still laugh about it.

[Nick]

This is not new.

When I was a kid on a school outing to the zoo, the gorillas had no stones available, so they stockpiled their shit.

Luckily, I was too small to press through the crowd and get to the front of the enclosure, where the good, and very prim and proper (totally old school) Mrs Sommers was telling the kids about gorilla behaviour.

I was however, in a great position to see her cop a facefull of gorilla shit. My sister saw it too. We both were also well positioned to avoid the ensuing stampeed of classes 1 to 5, as everyone tried to get out of the way of the next salvo.

Nearly 40 years ago, but we still laugh about it.