Tuesday, March 10, 2009

What the hell are YOU looking at?

I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated by stories where animals are fighting back. What amazes me is how humans are just cluelessly going about their lives and thinking that animals are, well, dumb animals despite all evidence to the contrary.

I used to have a cat that would get annoyed if you wouldn't let him outside. He would get on the fireplace mantle and calmly scoot a knick knack over to the edge. And stare at you. If you didn't get up and let him out, he'd take a paw and calmly push it off. Then he'd start on another one. Scoot. Scoot, scoot. Stare. Scoot. Crash. Stare. Scoot. Scoot, scoot.

Obviously this took some amount of thought on his part. Even if I hated dusting all of that crap my mom kept around it was more of a pain to sweep up the mess. I don't think he was being spiteful, just that it was a way to get what he wanted. Which was a shot at all of the neighborhood lady cats. He didn't have to have grand plans to be a thinker.

You'll notice in the story below that they claim the chimps behavior is anti-social. By whose standards? If you were wrongfully jailed, no matter how nice the cell, would you not plot some revenge on your jailers and the looky-loos?

Stolen from the AP:
"A canny chimpanzee who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at zoo visitors in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday. Santino the chimpanzee's anti-social behavior stunned both visitors and keepers at the Furuvik Zoo but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against visitors, the study said."

Just wait until he gets his opposable thumbs on some plutonium.

11 comments:

  1. This is a great read! And all I find are food related information...well I just saw something on 'vampire woman remains found in grave'...

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  2. My hubby and I swear our dog can spell the word go. Not a big word, but dang! That is still wild. When he was a young pup, we could not sat the word because he would go ballistic with excitement. So we started spelling it. After a couple times, he knew! Amazing! We had to change the way we said it. Our work around was to say "I'm going to partake in mobile activities."

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  3. Sure, he can throw rocks. But can he bowl?

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  4. When I was a kid I thought it would be so fun to have a chimp as a pet. I changed my mind.

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  5. Animals are very smart, more than people give them credit for. I told my young dog to go get the old dog (because he got lost outside) and she DID and brought him back to the front door. I miss them soooo much:(

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  6. Yeah, but alpha male chimps ARE anti-social and aggressive, even in the wild. That chimp was probably horny. Many tried to feel up Jane Goodall. A few succeeded.

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  7. I saw this story - I love it.

    My cats definitely know what's going on (yes, I know I sound like a crazy cat lady) but I'm sure they can plan ahead as well.

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  8. Are you kidding me? Animals (no matter the species) totally know what they are doing. My bad little doggie, Doc, knows the names of his toys and when I tell him to get one out of the toy box, he will root his big long nose around until he finds it. We are now trying to train him to put the toys back in the toy box. And he does, sometimes.

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  9. If people stared at me all day from the other side of the bars I would throw rocks at them too.

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  10. Good for him! I'm not a fan of most zoos.

    Our dog has started refusing to eat her food unless she gets to go for a ride in the morning. She's such a little bitch.

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  11. Maybe I'm sick, but I think it is funny that he would throw rocks at them.

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