Today, the zoo...

[sqbr]

I love the tone of this article: Chimp planned rock attacks on zoo visitors.

Aww! Look at how ingenious his plots are to kill the zoo visitors! And see the sociopathic calm with which he prepares his weapons! Isn't nature inspiring?

I also like the way chimps disprove all those fluffy ideas about animals being too simple and pure for war and cruelty. I saw a doco once where one chimp cheerfully beckoned a park keeper (with whom he had an established relationship) over while his friends snuck around the other side to bring him down (the keeper outsmarted them, but geeze)

Really it's the same sort of anthropocentrism that leads to people arguing that animals don't have love or real language or whatever: humans being a special kind of nasty is still us being special.

Comments

[sanguinity]

I liked Ed Yong's writeup. (With photos! Of Santino and his arsenals!) I especially liked the description of his emotional state when he was prepping his arsenals.

I've heard some doozies of stories from zookeepers about great apes: they're smart, and they've got nothing to do over the course of their life but figure out how to get the jump on you to get out of their enclosures. And yes, trickery and deceit is very much part of their strategy-set.

(Somehow, I always end up rooting for the apes. Weirdly enough, the zookeepers tell these stories as if they're rooting for the apes, too.)

[alias_sqbr]

Oh that is a good article. He's a scary looking chimp!

I think if I was stuck in the same place all day with people looking at me I might consider throwing rocks at them too.