黑猩猩將木棍伸進(jìn)蟻巢“釣”白蟻,，是動物也會使用工具的典型例證,?？茖W(xué)家也早就知道,，黑猩猩會把細(xì)木棍伸進(jìn)蟻巢，等著白蟻沿著木棍爬上來,，美餐一頓,。但以往對這一現(xiàn)象的了解十分有限，觀察證據(jù)不多,。
科學(xué)家新近對野生黑猩猩所作的一項隱蔽觀察,，進(jìn)一步證實了這種現(xiàn)象的存在，并且表明黑猩猩比我們認(rèn)為的更聰明：針對不同類型的蟻巢,，它們會使 用不同的工具,。
據(jù)美國《科學(xué)》雜志網(wǎng)站報道,，德國馬克斯·普朗克進(jìn)化人類學(xué)研究所等機(jī)構(gòu)的研究人員，在剛果盆地一個偏遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)的白蟻蟻巢附近,，安裝了隱蔽的攝像機(jī),。這個地區(qū)生活著數(shù)以千計的黑猩猩，它們從未接觸過人類,。有關(guān)觀察報告發(fā)表在１１月號的《美國博物學(xué)家》雜志上,。
科學(xué)家介紹說，在６個月時間里,，攝像機(jī)拍到１２１只黑猩猩反復(fù)地到６個蟻巢取食,。它們使用了人們迄今在野生黑猩猩中觀察到的最復(fù)雜的工具和技巧，并且會針對不同類型的蟻巢使用不同工具,。
黑猩猩覓食的蟻巢一般有兩類,，一類是隆起在地面上的蟻丘，一類是地下蟻巢,。對于蟻丘,，黑猩猩會先用一根較短的小木棍伸進(jìn)去，再換成一根“探針”,，方便白蟻爬上來,。而對于地下蟻巢，黑猩猩先用一根較長的木棍刺下去找到蟻巢,，然后換成“探針”,。觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)，黑猩猩在交替使用這些工具時非常靈巧敏捷,。
此外,，“發(fā)掘”地下蟻巢時,，黑猩猩有時會把一只腳踩在木棍上,，將木棍往土里推，就像人類使用鏟子那樣,。還有一只雌性黑猩猩將木棍的一端嚼碎,，形成刷子模樣，以便讓更多的白蟻爬上來,。
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What's in a Chimp's Toolbox?
Hidden cameras in the Congo rainforest have captured the closest look yet at tool use by chimps in the wild, finding that the wily primates use different types of sticks depending on the termite colony they're trying to pillage.
While scientists know chimps use sticks to "fish" for termites, the knowledge is based only on indirect evidence and fleeting field observations. Now David Morgan of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Crickette Sanz, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, have obtained an abundance of direct evidence after planting motion-sensing video cameras near termite mounds and nests in a remote area of the Congo Basin called the Goualougo Triangle, which is home to thousands of chimps that have never had any dealings with humans. Over 6 months they filmed 121 chimps that repeatedly visited six termite nests.
Right tool for the job.
Hidden cameras have revealed that wild chimps select tools that suit the task.
In a report published in the November issue of the American Naturalist, the authors describe what they say are "some of the most complex tool kits and techniques that have been observed in wild chimpanzees." The chimpanzees regularly visit two kinds of termite nests and use two different sets of tools to extract their prey. For mounds, the chimps first punch into the nest with a small, short stick. Then they switch to a "fishing probe" that the termites crawl onto. For underground nests, the chimps use a longer "puncturing stick" to get to the nest and follow up with their probes. The videos show them nimbly switching back and forth between the two tools. They can also be seen placing a foot on the stick to push it into the ground like a shovel. In one video, a female chimp pulls a stick through her teeth, shredding the end to make it like a brush, which picks up more termites.
The study fills in a big gap in our knowledge about chimp tool use, says Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham. "Until now our view of chimpanzee termite-fishing has been overly biased by data on the fringe populations in East Africa." But those chimps only use their hands to puncture termite nests. Wrangham says some scientists have considered tool-use a special adaptation for drier habitats. But this research, which shows it's widespread in equatorial forests, "heralds a new wave of information about the ecological and cultural significance of termite-fishing."
Related sites
An article and videos of the chimps from National Geographic, which sponsored the research
Max Planck chimp project
Information about chimps from the Jane Goodall Institute
