Will You Please Stop Staring At Me!

Will you please stop staring at me ! That certainly seems to be the message, Santino, a popular 31-year old Chimpanzee, seemed to be trying to get across, to the thousands of humans, who gawk at him day-after-day.

Santino, who resides with his family at the Furvik Zoo in Sweden , started exhibiting his irritation a few years ago. He would be calm until about midday and then, when the zoo traffic was at its highest, start hurtling stones at the visitors standing near his enclosure. Interestingly enough, he didn't do this everyday, just on some days when he was in a particularly bad mood.

While nobody was hurt and the zookeepers quickly built a barricade, they were intrigued by this behaviour and started to observe him in secret. What they discovered is quite amazing.

Every morning, Santino would systematically look for stones from a protective moat inside the enclosure and stockpile them closest to the observation area. If he didn't find enough rocks, he would break some from the concrete boulders of his enclosure. Then he would wait patiently until it was peak visitor time.

What was even more interesting was that Santino didn't exhibit this behavior toward other chimpanzees in the enclosure, nor bother to do stock-pile rocks in the winter, when the Zoo remained closed to visitors.

This whole behavior pattern has scientists all over the world really excited. In a report published, in the science journal, Current Biology, they assert that Santino's behavior shows that he could anticipate a problem that lay ahead, and prepare to deal with it. Prior to this, it had been believed that only human brains were advanced enough for this kind logical thinking.

As for poor Santino, all this publicity has resulted in even more people gawking at him! Meanwhile, the Zoo officials have taken away his ammunition, by removing all the stones from his enclosure. We have a feeling this clever chimp will devise another way to get his message across.

Sources: Theguardian.co.uk, BBCNews.co.uk