In a message dated 3/31/00 12:50:15 AM Central Standard Time,
sentience@pobox.com writes:
> Does anyone know the name of the female chimpanzee/monkey/ape/whatever
> genius that learned a new way to crack coconuts (or something), after
> which the behavior spread to the rest of the tribe on the island? An
> online source for the details?
Don't know the name of the famous primate Prometheus, but I believe these
were Japanese macaques and the skill was washing sand and grit out of rice by
throwing it into water. The rice floated and the sand sank, allowing the
monkeys to scoop the cleaned rice off the surface. Other members of the
troop quickly learned the behavior from the innovator, who was an adolescent
female.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:06:50 MDT