Fishing Gear & Clothes

Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of why some chimpanzees are so good at catching termites. A team working in the Republic of Congo discovered that the chimps are crafting brush-tipped “fishing rods” to scoop the insects out of their nests. They filmed the wild primates using their teeth to fashion the tools. Writing in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the researchers said the probes’ frayed ends helped the chimpanzees to collect more termites. Lead researcher Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: “They have invented a way to improve their termite-fishing technique.” Previous studies have suggested that wild chimpanzees use brush-tipped tools to fish for termites. But until now it has been unclear whether this was a specially crafted design feature or whether the frayed edges were a by-product of repeated tool use. Using remote cameras to film the chimps as they sought out their insect snacks, the team was able to find an answer. Dr Sanz told the BBC: “We found that in the Goualougo Triangle in the Republic of Congo, the chimpanzees were modifying their termite-fishing tools with a special brush tip.” To make their rods, the chimps first picked some stems from the Marantaceae plant and plucked off the leaves. “They then pulled the herb stems through their teeth, which were partially closed, to make the brush and they also attended to the brush by sometimes pulling apart the fibres to …
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