Abstract
AN animal may be said to use a tool when an object is used as a functional extension of the hand (or claw, mouth, beak) in the attainment of an immediate goal1. References have been made to tool-using in wild baboons. Marais2 describes the manner in which the individuals of one troop of baboons (Papio ursinus) broke open the hard-shelled fruits of “sausage trees” (Kigelia pinnata) with rocks in order to feed on the seeds. Kortlandt and Kooij3 mention one baboon using a stone to squash a scorpion to eat it, and another using a stick to prod about in a termite nest. In these two instances no details of the behaviours nor of the conditions under which they were observed are given so that they should probably not be accepted as wholly reliable.
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References
Lawick-Goodall, J. van, in Advances in the Study of Behaviour (edit. by Lehrman, D. S., Hinde, R. A., and Shaw, E.), 3 (Academic Press, New York and London, 1970).
Marais, E., The Soul of the Ape (Blond, London, 1969).
Kortlandt, A., and Kooij, M., in The Primates (edit. by Napier, J.), Symp. Zool. Soc., London, 10, 61 (Academic Press, London, 1963).
Bolwig, N., S. Afr. J. Sci., 57, 147 (1961).
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LAWICK-GOODALL, J., LAWICK, H. & PACKER, C. Tool-use in Free-living Baboons in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Nature 241, 212–213 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/241212a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/241212a0
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