4 APRIL 2016 • 11:16AM
New footage of ritual behaviour by
chimpanzees, taken and analysed by researchers, shows they may be engaging in
spiritual practices - and could even believe in God.
West African chimpanzees have been
captured on camera throwing rocks into holes in trees and engaging in other
bizarre behaviour, where the objects they use are not being used as tools but
as part of a perhaps ritualistic practice.
Laura Kehoe, a scientist from Humboldt University , Berlin
The discovery may help researchers piece
together how human religious rituals started and developed, as the behaviour
of the chimpanzees is incredibly similar to that which scientists
think was exhibited by primitive human tribes.
“This represents the first record of
repeated observations of individual chimpanzees exhibiting stone tool use for a
purpose other than extractive foraging at what appear to be targeted trees,”
the researchers write in their abstract.
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