Can Monkeys Make Tools?

Monkeys can indeed make tools. The chimpanzee uses a primitive homemade tool when it wants a dinner of termites.

First, it must find a branch that is straight. It strips all the leaves and twigs of the branch so that it is smooth and will slide in and out of a small hole. Now, the chimp has a “termite spoon.”

It then pokes the spoon into a termite nest. The termites jump aboard the spoon and when the chimp pulls it out, it finds the spoon covered with its favorite delicacy.

Chimps also crumple up leaves and use them as a sponge to soak up water from a hole in a stone or log. Although chimps feed mainly on fruit, they also eat leaves, nuts, and bark. Insects are meat, but chimps often hunt larger game.

Groups of chimps have been seen stalking and killing such animals as colobus monkeys and young antelope, both of which they eat. Chimps live in large colonies of sixty to eighty animals.

Eight hours a day are spent hunting for food as the group moves through the forest, from one fruit tree to another.