Nature & Environment

Drone-busting chimp shows 'forward planning'

By T.K. Randall
September 4, 2015

Image: Common Chimpanzee at the Leipzig Zoo
Credit: Thomas Lersch / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) The incident, which took place at the Royal Burgers Zoo in Arnhem, saw an inquisitive chimpanzee pick up and use a tree branch to swat a camera-equipped drone that a TV crew had been using to record footage for a documentary.

The behavior of the chimp, in particular its apparent ability to plan in advance what it was going to do, has since become a topic of significant interest to researchers."The precise coincidence of the facial grimace with the strike suggests that it is a concomitant of an assertive and determined exertion of force, homologous to what humans do in comparable situations," the study authors wrote.

"This episode adds to the indications that chimpanzees engage in forward planning of tool-use acts."

In the video, which can be viewed below, the curious primate can be seen swinging the branch at the drone and then examining the device up close after it had been knocked to the ground.


Source: NBC News

Tags: Chimpanzee, Drone