Ann interesting article describing how young gorillas learned to spot and dismantle traps. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young-gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/?source=hp_dl2_news_smart_gorillas20120720

 

Just days after a poacher's snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.

 

On Tuesday tracker John Ndayambaje spotted a trap very close to the Kuryama gorilla clan. He moved in to deactivate the snare, but a silverback named Vubu grunted, cautioning Ndayambaje to stay away, Vecellio said.Suddenly two juveniles—Rwema, a male; and Dukore, a female; both about four years old—ran toward the trap.

 

As Ndayambaje and a few tourists watched, Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch and broke it, while Dukore freed the noose.

 

 

The pair then spied another snare nearby—one the tracker himself had missed—and raced for it. Joined by a third gorilla, a teenager named Tetero, Rwema and Dukore destroyed that trap as well.

 

Wow. I'd predict avoiding them but not actually going around looking for traps and deactivating them. That's awesome.

from the article:

 

"They were very confident," she said. "They saw what they had to do, they did it, and then they left."

 

Looks like

Veni, vidi, vici.

Amazing, i was watching a documentary on the unseen, un noticed intelligence of apes and even other animals previously unknown to have emotional capability. crazy .

I'm always happy to acknowledge, that although we are at the top (probably) of the intelligence tree, our furry friends are a lot closer to us than most people are happy to admit. I'm also very happy this intelligence has proved so useful, I'd be happier still if they took it a stage further and build poacher traps.

Edited July 21, 201213 yr by dimreepr

I couldn't read the entire title and I thought it read, "Gorillas dismantle poacher," but this is good too lol.

Might have been an even better story if in the process the gorillas would have by tracking to find the traps, dismantled a poacher or two

Edited July 25, 201213 yr by pantheory

A truly inspiring find. This vindicates the fact that we share this planet with other sentient and intelligent beings who deserve our respect. However, I think the gorillas should all be trained and armed with baseball bats to chase away any more callous poachers. Do the poachers deserve any better?

Edited August 14, 201213 yr by jimmydasaint

Perhaps the right to bear arms should be extended to gorillas. Why should bears be the only ones having all of the fun with firearms? There's probably an iPad app already available out there to train our primate relatives to shoot!

This simply proves what I always claim about our intelligence. As far as we know, we were first. But wht's stopping other species from catching up, or even pass us?

Nice article.

 

Well, with the human race, IQ keeps increasing every decade or so.... whatever IQ is.

Consider it could be applied to gorillas, and things start making sense: The gorillas are getting smarter, too, every couple of generations or so.

Edited August 17, 201213 yr by Genecks