Posted on 12/26/2009 9:46:45 AM PST by JoeProBono
Chimps remain cool under fire, possessing a near human ability to predict how wildfires spread and react accordingly. This newfound capability of chimpanzees to understand flames might shed light on when and how our distant ancestors first learned to control fire, scientists now suggest.
Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal in 2006 as people were setting wildfires, an annual tradition that clears land and aids hunting. Most areas within the chimpanzees' home range are burned to some degree. "It was the end of the dry season, so the fires burn so hot and burn up trees really fast, and they were so calm about it," Pruetz said of the chimps.
"They were a lot better than I was, that's for sure." For the most part, wild animals consider fire very distressing, but the chimpanzees showed no sign of stress or fear with the wildfires, other than calmly avoiding the fire as it approached them. "I was surprised at how expert they were at handling the fire,"
Pruetz told LiveScience. "The fire was burning really hot, and the flames were at least 10 feet high, up to 20 feet at times."
The apes were experts at predicting where the fire would go, Pruetz noted. "I could predict it, sort of, but if it were just me, I would have left," she said.
"At one time, I actually had to push through them because I could feel the heat from the fire that was on the side of me and I just wasn't that comfortable with it."......
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
This would, of course, presume we are somehow related to chimpanzees. A premise many of us reject.
Wow!
"Yeah, whatever."
"Captain Obvious, please pick up the white courtesy phone."
what, no chimpy bush and chimpy obama pics?
Of course. The entire left “knows” that chimps are really just as smart as humans. Just a matter of time before scientists find out the truth.
< / sarkasm>
Everyone knows it's the other way around! Apes evolved from man!
“Questions to the Primate Minister” ?
“What about the world, Ronald? What would you like to do to the whole world?”
Still, chimpanzees in a zoo in South Africa were seen lighting and extinguishing cigarettes without getting burned.With what, a Bic? A Zippo? A big candle in the middle of the floor? Cigarettes don't actually light themselves, you know, you freaking moron reporter who leaves out details that would make your story actually INTERESTING... they have to be lit by some source of flame, which, in a discussion of chimps, would mean that the chimps were MANAGING that source of flame, which would be interesting to hear about, you lame brain scum bag Wal-Mart-graduate "journalist".
Because after all, Choi, the TITLE of your story is about chimps CONTROLLING fire, not just walking away from it, and the single example you give, the cigarettes, is sans all details. You schmuck.
(Sorry for the rant. I just hate when the "pros" write 3rd grade journalism.)
Primate Minister
The bigger question is why the chimps *had* cigarettes to light, in the first place.
A picture’s worth a thousand words. Thanks!
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