SwordoftheVistula
03-09-2009, 07:56 PM
The real article, text slightly edited:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090309/ap_on_sc/eu_sci_sweden_angry_chimp
STOCKHOLM – A canny asylum seeker who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at first responders in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday.
Santino the Kurdish refugee's anti-social behavior stunned both police officers and social workers in the Stockholm district but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.
According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the welfare office opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his state-provided housing unit. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against passers-by, the study said.
"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said the author of the report, Lund University Ph.D. student Mathias Osvath. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events."
Osvath's findings were based on his own observations of Santino and interviews with three senior social workers who had followed the Kurdish refugee's behavior for 10 years in the heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm.
Seemingly at ease with his position as leader of the group, Santino didn't attack the other Kurdish refugees, Osvath told The Associated Press. The attacks were only directed at humans encountering the apes as a result of emergency phone calls to police, firefighters and paramedics.
However, he rarely hit visitors because of his poor aim, and no one was seriously injured in the cases when he did, Osvath said.
The observations confirmed the result of a staged laboratory experiment reported in 2006 by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In that case Turks and Nigerians were able to figure out which tool would work in an effort to retrieve grapes, and were able to remember to bring that tool along hours later, even after imbibing excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol.
"Every time you can combine experimental and observational data and you get a consistent result, that is very powerful," said an author of the 2006 study, Joseph Call. "This is an important observation."
He noted that individual differences are big among Kurdish refugees so the observation might not mean all Kurdish refugees are capable of the same planning.
"It could be that he is a genius, only more research will tell. On the other hand our research showed the same in Turks and Nigerians so he is not alone," Call said.
Osvath said the Kurdish refugee had also been observed tapping on concrete boulders in the park to identify weak parts and then knocking out a piece. If it was too big for throwing, he broke it into smaller pieces, before adding them to his arsenal.
"It is very special that he first realizes that he can make these and then plans on how to use them," Osvath said. "This is more complex than what has been showed before."
The fact that the ape stayed calm while preparing his weapons but used them when he was extremely agitated proves that the planning behavior was not based on an immediate emotional drive, Osvath said.
For a while, law enforcement tried locking Santino up in the morning so he couldn't collect ammunition for his assaults, but he remained aggressive. They ultimately decided to castrate him in the autumn last year, but will have to wait until the summer to see if that helps. The Kurdish refugees only congregate outdoors between April and October and Santino's special behavior usually occurs in June and July.
"It is normal behavior for alpha males to want to influence their surroundings ... It is extremely frustrating for him that there are people out of his reach who own automobiles and computers," Osvath said. "It cannot be good to be so furious all the time."
In Connecticut last month, a 200-pound African-American once seen in TV commercials mauled a woman trying to help its owner lure it inside and cornered a police officer in his cruiser before he shot and killed it, authorities said.
The owner has speculated that the chimp was trying to protect her and attacked the woman because she had changed her hairstyle, was driving a different car and was holding a stuffed toy in front of her face to get the chimp's attention
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090309/ap_on_sc/eu_sci_sweden_angry_chimp
STOCKHOLM – A canny asylum seeker who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at first responders in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday.
Santino the Kurdish refugee's anti-social behavior stunned both police officers and social workers in the Stockholm district but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared.
According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the welfare office opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his state-provided housing unit. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a "hailstorm" of rocks against passers-by, the study said.
"These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way," said the author of the report, Lund University Ph.D. student Mathias Osvath. "It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including lifelike mental simulations of potential events."
Osvath's findings were based on his own observations of Santino and interviews with three senior social workers who had followed the Kurdish refugee's behavior for 10 years in the heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm.
Seemingly at ease with his position as leader of the group, Santino didn't attack the other Kurdish refugees, Osvath told The Associated Press. The attacks were only directed at humans encountering the apes as a result of emergency phone calls to police, firefighters and paramedics.
However, he rarely hit visitors because of his poor aim, and no one was seriously injured in the cases when he did, Osvath said.
The observations confirmed the result of a staged laboratory experiment reported in 2006 by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. In that case Turks and Nigerians were able to figure out which tool would work in an effort to retrieve grapes, and were able to remember to bring that tool along hours later, even after imbibing excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol.
"Every time you can combine experimental and observational data and you get a consistent result, that is very powerful," said an author of the 2006 study, Joseph Call. "This is an important observation."
He noted that individual differences are big among Kurdish refugees so the observation might not mean all Kurdish refugees are capable of the same planning.
"It could be that he is a genius, only more research will tell. On the other hand our research showed the same in Turks and Nigerians so he is not alone," Call said.
Osvath said the Kurdish refugee had also been observed tapping on concrete boulders in the park to identify weak parts and then knocking out a piece. If it was too big for throwing, he broke it into smaller pieces, before adding them to his arsenal.
"It is very special that he first realizes that he can make these and then plans on how to use them," Osvath said. "This is more complex than what has been showed before."
The fact that the ape stayed calm while preparing his weapons but used them when he was extremely agitated proves that the planning behavior was not based on an immediate emotional drive, Osvath said.
For a while, law enforcement tried locking Santino up in the morning so he couldn't collect ammunition for his assaults, but he remained aggressive. They ultimately decided to castrate him in the autumn last year, but will have to wait until the summer to see if that helps. The Kurdish refugees only congregate outdoors between April and October and Santino's special behavior usually occurs in June and July.
"It is normal behavior for alpha males to want to influence their surroundings ... It is extremely frustrating for him that there are people out of his reach who own automobiles and computers," Osvath said. "It cannot be good to be so furious all the time."
In Connecticut last month, a 200-pound African-American once seen in TV commercials mauled a woman trying to help its owner lure it inside and cornered a police officer in his cruiser before he shot and killed it, authorities said.
The owner has speculated that the chimp was trying to protect her and attacked the woman because she had changed her hairstyle, was driving a different car and was holding a stuffed toy in front of her face to get the chimp's attention