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[Damian Chadwick <dchadwick+monkeywire AT gmail.com>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7928996.stm

Zoo chimp 'planned' stone attacks

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing
attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.

Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored
stones that he would later use as missiles.

Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his
concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further
projectiles.

The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.

There has been scant evidence in previous research that animals can
plan for future events.

Crucial to the current study is the fact that Santino, a chimpanzee at
the zoo in the city north of Stockholm, collected the stones in a calm
state, prior to the zoo opening in the morning.

The launching of the stones occurred hours later - during dominance
displays to zoo visitors - with Santino in an "agitated" state.

This suggests that Santino was anticipating a future mental state - an
ability that has been difficult to definitively prove in animals,
according to Mathias Osvath, a cognitive scientist from Lund
University in Sweden and author of the new research.

"We've done experimental studies, and the chimps in my mind show very
clearly that they do plan for future needs, but it has been argued
that perhaps this was an experimental artefact," Dr Osvath told BBC
News.

"Now we have this spontaneous behaviour, which is always in some sense
better evidence."

Cracking show

Dr Osvath embarked on the study after zoo staff discovered caches of
stones in the section of the enclosure facing the public viewing area.

Since the initial discovery in 1997, hundreds of the caches have been
removed to protect visitors, to whom the caching and the aggressive
displays seem strictly related; in the off season, Santino neither
hoards the projectiles nor hurls them.

Most interestingly, Santino seems to have learned how to spot weak
parts of the concrete "boulders" in the centre of the enclosure.

When water seeps into cracks in the concrete and freezes, portions
become detached that make a hollow sound when tapped.

Santino was observed gently knocking on the "boulders", hitting harder
to detach bits that were loosened and adding those to his stashes of
ammunition.

There are a number of examples of complex behaviour in apes that
suggest forms of consciousness.

Planning behaviour like that of the current work is connected to
so-called autonoetic consciousness, where information due to memory
can be distinguished from that from the senses.

"I'm personally convinced that at least chimps do plan for future
needs, that they do have this autonoetic consciousness," Dr Osvath
said.

"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 in dolphins or other species."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7928996.stm