Baby chimpanzee...

I read somewhere that a baby chimpanzee can learn to recognise itself in a mirror. Apparently monkeys can’t. Just imagine that moment when the penny drops!

Baby chimpanzee trying to pay attention
Although that sounds like an interesting experiment, how many mother chimpanzees carry mirrors around with them?
However, our close cousins (chimps share 98.6% of our DNA) do spend a lot of time in the wild learning all sorts of things from their mothers.

For instance, chimps have learnt that termites attack anything that disturbs their nest. By inserting a twig into an opening of the nest, termites will crawl onto it. Pull out the twig and “lunch is served”! Baby chimps watch their mothers do this and thus also learn to fish for food in this way.
Some other skills a baby chimpanzee picks up by observation, trial and error, are cracking open nuts with stones, selecting plants that are safe to eat, making a tree-bed at night and hunting small animals like monkeys.

Via: african-safari's picture.

Tags: chimpanzee, wildlife