Chimps Master First Step in Controlling Fire

livescience ^ | 21 December 2009 | Charles Q. Choi

[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."......

[brityank]

Yep, it's real. And they are elk, not deer.

I don't use it much, but Snopes.com has a good writeup on the derivation from McColgan. He also makes note that several other groups of forest animals seem to act to preserve themselves, and not run off wildly as so many presume.

I do not buy into the idea of the chimps using fire in the manner we think of, as they haven't created any tools to control it or create it.

[marsh2]

In our 2008 fires, the environmentalists said that there was no cause for concern that animals had been harmed by the fire, they simply got out of the way. According to fire fighters on the ground, that is bs. There are a lot of animal casualties.