Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Osnabrueck said Thursday they spotted the unusual behavior dozens of times in a group of chimpanzees at Loango National Park in Gabon. (Erwan Theleste/Max Planck Institute via AP) (Associated Press)BERLIN — Scientists have observed wild chimpanzees tucking into an unusual snack: tortoises, whose hard shells they crack against tree trunks before scooping out the meat. Tobias Deschner, one of the authors of the paper, said that while chimpanzees and tortoises coexist elsewhere — and other primates such as baboons and mandrills are known to feed on young, soft tortoises — scientists have never before spotted any that crack open and eat the reptiles. “They see this is a hard-shelled object with some interesting thing inside and I need to crack it open,” said Deschner, a primate researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. The authors also noted that weaker chimpanzees often pass their tortoises to stronger adults who are able to break them open and then share the meal among the whole group.

Source: Washington Post May 23, 2019 13:10 UTC