There is not much difference between big humans and monkeys

In the past, I used to think of myself as a species. Since Darwin's works 150 years ago, I think I am a special monkey. But that's because we haven't observed the big monkeys carefully. In the last 40 years, some scientists have made this observation and they are increasingly difficult to identify what is characteristic of humanity.

What animal is man? Is it a creature that moves in an upright position? A long time ago people thought like that, but . well, this ability also exists in big monkey varieties! Specifically, the bonobo, a small chimpanzee with two upper limbs, uses food to carry food and two lower limbs used to move, just like human feet. Bonobo is actually an apple guy, always grinning. This guy completely bankrupted the words of the great writer Rabelais: 'Laughing is a unique feature of humankind'.

Do you think only homo sapiens (smart people) know how to manipulate tools? Since the 1960s, the study primate Jane Goodall has been observing chimpanzees in Tanzania. She noticed that they puckered leaves and dipped branches into ant nests to pull out, sipping these sweet-flavored insects. Through a lot of practical research, scientists also discovered large monkeys have a ' tool ' of them: sticks to clean the ears, sticks between toes to climb thorny rice plants (fruit This is very good for chimpanzee tastes), even stone hammer and anvil to smash palm seeds. Even the orangutans, who are considered ' poor skills ', also know how to use the branches to pry the cemangang's itchy crust!

Along with tools is culture. Through hundreds of thousands of observing hours, researchers have discovered that each chimpanzee community possesses its own traditions of the community. For example, in Guinea or Ivory Coast they use stone anvils and hammers to crush palm nuts, but elsewhere, even if palm seeds and materials make hammers available around them, they don't care about this dish either. . Primate studies have identified 39 cultural behaviors specific to chimpanzee communities passed down from generation to generation.

Indeed, even education is not a privilege of homo sapiens. In Tai forest (Ivory Coast), researcher Christophe Boesch observed for a long time a chimpanzee that corrected his behavior when the chimp tried to smash a palm seed. Mother chimpanzees adjust his hand movements to make him work more effectively. A great mother!

Meanwhile, in the labs, researchers have discovered that large monkeys have a sense of self-awareness: they recognize themselves through a mirror. People put red marks on their foreheads when they sleep. When they wake up to look in the mirror, they immediately touch their forehead and find a way to apply the red paint stain. That is evidence that they are conscious of themselves and not other monkeys.

Big monkeys cannot speak - their throat texture does not allow them to speak. But countless experiments show that they can use symbolic languages. In the United States, Uncle bonono named Kanzi was surprised to create new words. Of course, all this is still in the elementary stage. But we should not forget that we are not able to understand what they say to each other .

Politically the chimp is the champion : the art of deception, the art of union and the overthrow of power are 'his jobs'. While gorillas have a relatively peaceful life between their ' harem ', orangutans appear to be quite alone, while bonobos live in a ' make love, not war ' way. like the human hippy societies of the 1970s.

Do we have anything special just for ourselves? War? Not always. Chimp also knows how to use violence, sometimes even torturing and conducting wars between different communities. They often have to chase other monkeys, then divide the booty fairly fairly for members of the community.

What about art and religion? What about other emotions like the sense of fleetingness of life? So far there has been no thorough research on these issues in monkeys. But temporarily believe that arrogance has made us believe that we are the only thinker.