{"id":21059,"date":"2022-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=21059"},"modified":"2022-10-21T12:03:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:03:20","slug":"female-of-the-species-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/10\/20\/female-of-the-species-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Female of the species"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
CHIMPANZEE<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Lucy Cooke on the primates using brains not brawn to survive <\/h4>\n\n
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She\u2019ll have someone\u2019s eye out with that stick <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

THE CHIMPANZEES OF FONGOLI, southeastern Senegal are of particular interest to students of human ancestry. Their homeland most resembles the shrinking woodland and open savannah that our hominin ancestors would have been forced to adapt to. This scrubby environment is hotter, drier and lacks the abundance of fruiting trees found in the fecund forests of east Africa, where chimps have previously been studied most intensely. As a result, the Fongoli chimps are culturally distinct to their more famous forest-dwelling cousins. <\/p>\n\n

The intense heat of the savannah means the Fongoli chimps often take a siesta during the hottest part of the day and forage after dark, long after their east African cousins have gone to bed. They also seek out water to both drink and bathe in \u2013 something never seen amongst east African chimps. <\/p>\n\n

Most fascinating of all are their eating habits. As well as hunting down smaller monkeys in the trees, as their east African cousins do, the Fongoli chimps have developed another technique for capturing a high protein dinner: they hunt using spears. <\/p>\n\n

The Fongoli chimps have been documented breaking off wooden saplings, whittling one end into a sharp point and then jabbing this tool into tree cavities. These crafty chimps are fishing for bush babies \u2013 primitive nocturnal primates that seek safety during the day in the nooks of old trees, but are instead stabbed as they slumber. It\u2019s an effective ambush. If not instantly impaled the wounded bushbaby tries to flee but is promptly grabbed by its assailant and chomped, head first. <\/p>\n\n

This shocking behaviour was observed over 300 times during a 10-year study. More surprising still was the discovery that the majority of these hunts were performed by female chimps.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Anthropologists have traditionally cast bigger, faster and more powerful males in the hominin hunter role. But in Fongoli we find an alternative narrative, one where females lead the culture for hunting with tools. <\/p>\n\n

Female chimps are generally more avid tool users than males. In Gombe, west Africa, females are more likely than males to use long thin sticks to fish for termites in their mounds. Males supplement their diet by hunting colobus monkeys instead \u2013 asport which sees the biggest, fastest males dominate. <\/span>So the male chimp\u2019s protein hit comes from his physical strength, whereas the female\u2019s comes from her ingenuity. <\/p>\n\n

In Fongoli this resourcefulness has led to the invention of novel hunting techniques and technology by wily female chimps that level the playing field against the more physically powerful males. Early hominins may have done the same: early man may have been the \u2018hunter\u2019, but perhaps it was early woman who invented the weapons that allowed both sexes to take on bigger prey. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Catch up with Lucy\u2019s BBC Radio Four three-part series Political Animals <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Lucy is a broadcaster, zoologist and author of Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal.<\/p>\n\n

Photos: ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLY EXLEY <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucy Cooke on the primates using brains not brawn to survive <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"25","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"25","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_25-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_25-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-25-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-25-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-20T08:59:13Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"47b02fa0-e049-4f32-946c-944b135c4fae","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-21T10:03:26Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AR7AvoOBJTzKUbJRLE1xPrg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\""},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0.jpg",907,811,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0-300x268.jpg",300,268,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0-768x687.jpg",768,687,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0.jpg",800,715,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0.jpg",907,811,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/6f6d002c-085d-424a-bcaa-f82b2879e0b0.jpg",907,811,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Lucy Cooke on the primates using brains not brawn to survive","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21461,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21059\/revisions\/21461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}