Chimpanzees are Clever

Chimpanzees are clever. We know this because years ago scientists conducted an experiment. They put a chimp into a room having attached a bunch of bananas to the ceiling. Strewn around the room were several boxes of various sizes. The scientists watched through a window to see how long it would take the chimp to work out to stack up the boxes so that he could build himself a stairway and get the bananas down.

There was no way that the chimp was going to strain himself, physically or mentally. He merely grabbed the window pole and hooked the bananas down.

And so it was, at Rio Zoo, that I saw a chimp display an example of intelligence, albeit a tetchy one.

Dianna and I had wandered around the zoo admiring the lions and tigers, giraffes and elephants and so on when we came across the chimpanzee compound.

There were three high walls to the compound and a chimp could be seen at the back sitting in the shade. Then a group of school children about eight or nine years old, obviously on a school outing, arrived.

Separating us and the chimp was a high, diamond mesh fence and beyond that a moat.

Suddenly, the children began making loud monkey noises and scratching their armpits. The chimp looked at the children wearily and slowly began to walk towards them, dragging his hands along the ground. This merely encouraged the children to increase the noise and scratching.

What they didn't see was that the chimp had scooped up handfuls of moist mud. When he got as near as he could he stood upright, screeched and grinned at the same time and hurled the mud at the children. When it hit the fencing it broke into a million little pellets and showered the children who ran off squealing and laughing."

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