Something different on a Friday – Bonobo apes

This is an unusual post for me, but I hope you enjoy this Ted video where Susan Savage-Rumbaugh introduces the Bonobo ape.  As a kid I used to read a lot of science fiction and one passage that has always stayed with me described a future earth where humans wandering through the forest saw chimps and monkeys making fires and using stone tools.  Incredibly we see a lot of that and more from the Bonobo in this video.

Specifically:

• from about 5.45 using a lighter to make fire
• from 9.30 knocking two stones together to make a ‘knife’
• from 11.20 using chalk to write a symbol to say where she wants to go
• from 14.05 playing musical instruments

Quite amazing.

Thanks to Jof Arnold who pointed me towards this video at the end of a very stimulating lunch discussion yesterday.