That was beautiful. Evocative. I felt like I was there, right on the precipice of discovering, "Why do these chimpanzees hurl rocks at this tree?" In fact, having read the article, I still feel that I am on the same precipice, waiting with bated breath, the revelation of the explanation of this behavior, anticipating that this mystery will soon be unraveled.
Alas, it seems that the inscrutable will of these stone-throwing primates will remain beyond our ken, their motivations shrouded, their purpose hidden.
Yeah, there's a reason I stuck with the headline from Science Direct instead of The Conversation's "Why do male chimpanzees throw rocks at the same trees for more than a decade? We travelled to remote Guinea‑Bissau to find out."
Maybe they're just NPCs in a Monkey Island game, continually throwing rocks at Guybrush stuck in a tree. Somebody must have left the game running for ten years
IIIIIIIIII | 23 hours ago
This doesn't seem that much of a tricky primatology question to me.
You ever been sitting or walking with a friend, picked up a rock, and said 'think I could hit that tree?'
And then you both try and hit the tree.
Chimps just don't have as much to distract them. Especially in Guinea Bissau, where chimpanzees famously aren't allowed any screen time at all.
[OP] updawg | 16 hours ago
Except it says they only throw at specific trees from specific areas. They don't throw in other areas even when trees and rocks are abundant.
Captain_Wacky | 11 hours ago
It's just not a good 'rock-throwin' tree, y'know?
carsonc | a day ago
That was beautiful. Evocative. I felt like I was there, right on the precipice of discovering, "Why do these chimpanzees hurl rocks at this tree?" In fact, having read the article, I still feel that I am on the same precipice, waiting with bated breath, the revelation of the explanation of this behavior, anticipating that this mystery will soon be unraveled.
Alas, it seems that the inscrutable will of these stone-throwing primates will remain beyond our ken, their motivations shrouded, their purpose hidden.
[OP] updawg | 23 hours ago
Yeah, there's a reason I stuck with the headline from Science Direct instead of The Conversation's "Why do male chimpanzees throw rocks at the same trees for more than a decade? We travelled to remote Guinea‑Bissau to find out."
sparkle | 5 hours ago
Maybe they're just NPCs in a Monkey Island game, continually throwing rocks at Guybrush stuck in a tree. Somebody must have left the game running for ten years
/noise