Chimp Salad specific sounds She was able to identify grunts of pleasure while they were feeding or grooming and what she called pant hoots Wild chimps spend almost half of every day eating and Gombe provides a wide variety of food for them to eat Goodall found that chimps dine on termites and other insects as well as palm nuts fruit eggs berries and meat mainly monkeys bush pig bushbuck and other small mammals They also eat large quantities of vegetation often alternating bites of leaves with whatever else they're eating of excitement or warning In the early stages of her research making sense of chimp vocalizations was still very difficult 10 REDEFINING HUMAN Weeks passed and Goodall noticed the silver bearded male ambling or romping nearby with increasing frequency during her daily rambles It happened far too often to be mere accident Occasionally the chimp would look at her but mostly he only altered his path to pass within a few paces of her before he disappeared into the tall grass and forest vegetation Goodall began to notice other chimps examining her as well watching from high tree branches or peeping from behind leafy bushes Only the gray bearded chimp regularly approached close enough for her to see and describe his individual features and gestures Then in October almost at the end of her allotted time at Gombe Goodall witnessed a startling scene Early one morning
she heard loud screams and breaking branches in a tree nearby She moved closer and saw three chimps eating sharing what she described as something that looked pink She could not see what the chimps were eating but from the noisy and panicked behavior of bush pigs under the tree she concluded that the chimps had caught and killed a piglet Goodall's observation confirmed what scientists had theorized chimpanzees were carnivorous and predatory She was the first to record that wild chimps not only eat meat but Coordinated Hunting also share it willingly This social behavior had never Early on Goodall believed chimps capture of prey was individual and been observed or recorded accidental a result of finding a bush in any primate other pig or baboon babies on the ground for instance Eventually however she than humans observed that when hunting certain prey such as monkeys chimps actually work A week later Goodall together in a highly coordinated effort to capture and then eat and often share the made another even meat She described one monkey hunt more startling discovery this way Before starting to hunt in earnest That morning she once the chimpanzees often spend time again happened upon the on the ground gazing up into the canopy or walking below as the silver chinned chimp whom monkeys leap above them It seems she called David Graybeard in they are assessing the situation the availability of suitable victims her notes He was sitting atop particularly mother infant pairs a termite mound engrossed and small juveniles where they are located and probably the arboreal in an activity David saw tree pathways along which the monkeys would be able to escape 11
Goodall but didn't run away even as several other chimps with him fled While Goodall watched David carefully and purposefully poked a long stem of dried grass into a hole in the termite mound When he pulled the grass up a moment later the stem was coated with clinging termites which Goodall later learned are among chimps favorite foods David nibbled off the insects and reinserted the grass probe For nearly an hour she watched him fishing for termites Later when his grass stem broke he selected another stouter twig stripped it of leaves Chimps may spend up to four hours a day fishing for termites which provide needed minerals fat and protein 12
Crafty Chimps Goodall's research at Gombe revealed that chimpanzees make and use a variety of tools in their daily lives Aside from termite fishing chimps fashion and use sticks and stems as probes to dip honey from beehives and as clubs to knock down fruit and nuts from trees They also use rocks as hammers to open tough nuts and wads of leaves act as sponges to clean their bodies and to get water or sap to drink from deep holes in trees Goodall noted that chimps frequently find and reuse the same tools some of them for many months She also observed chimps using objects just for fun which she insisted in her records was just another form of tool use Chimps use rocks and round fruit for ball games and palm fronds and sticks for tug of war matches They often use sticks and other objects to scratch and tickle themselves too Self tickling Goodall noted is a favorite game particularly for young chimps who often rub or poke ticklish areas of their bodies with sticks or stones while rolling on the ground making a sound that she said somewhat resembles human laughter and chewed it into a better tool He proceeded to use it with great skill to collect termites The implications of what Goodall had witnessed were enormous Chimpanzee meat eating was an exciting discovery but the discoveries of toolmaking and tool modifying were revolutionary In the mid 1900s scientists believed the terms toolmaker and tool user were part of the definition of being human To distinguish human ancestors from species that were not human ancestors archaeologists and anthropologists looked at whether the species had crafted and used tools 13
