I was attracted to an article that a Facebook friend had
shared on my wall. The article was from phys.org about how Chimpanzees in Senegal
have been observed to fashion spears out of tree branches. Apparently the chimps use the spears to kill
for food. The article on the website was dated April 15, 2015. Seems to me that
after ___ years, the article corroborates what Jane Godall had found out in
November of 1960: A chimpanzee was using grass as a tool to trap termites.
Subsequently Godall discovered that chimpanzees were shaving
leaves off tree branches and stems and using them to fish for insects. Until
Godall’s discovery, the prevalent thought was that only humans has the
intelligence to make tools.
“Now we must redefine tool, redefine man or accept
chimpanzees as human,” said famed Anthropologist and Paleontologist Louis Leakey in a congratulatory telegram to
Godall.
Chimpanzees, more than the gorilla and any other animal, are
said to be most like us. Much like
humans, chimpanzees have long-term affectionate and supportive relationships.
National Geographic
magazine says this about chimpanzees: “Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing more than 98 percent
of our genetic blueprint. Humans and chimps are also thought to share a common
ancestor who lived some four to eight million years ago.
Granting that we
do share a common ancestor with the chimpanzees, are the chimpanzees slowly
evolving and catching up with us?
Will they, like
humans, discover that tools they use for obtaining food can also be used to
kill for domination?
Or will they, in
full awareness of the dangers of human aggression, ultimately evolve into a
species superior to humans in that they
are at all cost supportive of one another, peaceful and loving?
Chimpanzees are an endangered species. But so are we, humans.
Unless we can save our mother ship and our fellow men from ourselves, we are in grave danger of annihilation, extinction or both.
Love.
For more information about chimpanzees please click on the following links:
Posted with Aloha!
- By ARIEL MURPHY
True, that. I have been thinking about the same post you mention ever since I saw it.
ReplyDeleteI recall other articles and videos that show Chimps can get very violent among themselves. I recall them even killing other Chimpanzees. Another, shared human trait.
ReplyDelete