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Jennifer03801
Starlite Member
Username: Jennifer03801
| | Posted on Thursday, February 22, 2007 - 04:19 pm: | 
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Chimps Observed Making Their Own Weapons
By Rick Weiss
Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning deadly spears from sticks and using the hand-crafted tools to hunt small mammals -- the first routine production of deadly weapons ever observed in animals other than humans.
Using their hands and teeth, the chimpanzees were repeatedly seen tearing the side branches off long straight sticks, peeling back the bark and sharpening one end, the researchers report in today's on-line issue of the journal Current Biology. Then, grasping the weapon in a "power grip," they jabbed into tree-branch hollows where bush babies -- small monkey-like mammals -- sleep during the day. After stabbing their prey repeatedly, they removed the injured or dead animal and ate it.
It was really alarming how forceful it was," said lead researcher Jill D. Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames, adding that it reminded her of the murderous shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Psycho." "It was kind of scary."
"We are what we repeatedly do"
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Jennifer03801
Starlite Member
Username: Jennifer03801
| | Posted on Thursday, February 22, 2007 - 08:52 pm: |
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Total Fatalities - 3,151 Total Wounded - 23,417
Diseases Medical Air Transport Required - 18,704
Total Medical Air Transported - 32,544
Total Non-Mortal Casualties - 54,910
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