# Orangutans seen in wild using spears. Newslink
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 29, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394 "2008-04-29T21:06:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/1 "2008-04-29T21:06:22Z")
We need to re-write the rulebook, chilluns!
> **[Latest news & breaking headlines](https://www.thetimes.com/)**
>
> The latest breaking UK, US, world, business and sport news from The Times and The Sunday Times. Go beyond today's headlines with in-depth analysis and comment.
> [@](#):
>
> The wildlife experts were equally surprised to see an orang-utan pick up a tree branch and stun a fish before eating it. Other apes introduced to the island were seen trying to spear fish with sticks after watching fishermen using rods.
Another article, with photos.
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/28/eaorang128.xml](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/28/eaorang128.xml)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/2 "2008-04-29T21:14:32Z")
Maybe they’ll kill themselves with the spear
> **[Inventions Which Killed Their Creators](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=465962)**
>
> Interesting blog post about folks who were killed by their own inventions. One of the more interesting ones: You can see the video of it here. (Not terribly graphic, it having been shot during the silent film era.)
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/3 "2008-04-29T21:17:37Z")
Careful - he’ll put his eye out!
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### Author:  [@Eric\_Halfabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_Halfabee)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/4 "2008-04-29T21:20:41Z")
I recall seeing a documentary where a certain type of bird would use long thorns to spear grubs in rotting tree trunks.
The bird would eyeball the hole and go to find a thorn the exact length required to stab the tasty little buggers.
Wild kingdom, indeed!
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/5 "2008-04-29T21:25:09Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
Careful - he’ll put his eye out!
[/QUOTE]
I’ll put out the eye of the first 'Doper to post anythingabout “welcoming simian overlords”.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/6 "2008-04-29T21:27:43Z")
I, for one, welcome our new Great Ape overlords.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/7 "2008-04-29T21:32:12Z")
So, weird question, but doesn’t this help add a lot of credence to the idea that some inventions arose, spontaneously and simultaneously (or nearly so), on opposite ends of the world with no communication between the cultures that invented them? I mean, in within a year, both [chimpanzees](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-chimp-video.htmlhttp://) and orangutans have invented the spear, and they share nary a trading post!
'Cause that kinda blows my mind on a larger level, even.
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### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/8 "2008-04-29T21:40:26Z")
Well, do we know that they invented the spear, or simply that it’s the first time both groups have been witnessed using spears?
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### Author:  [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/9 "2008-04-29T21:45:52Z")
“Dr. Zeus! Dr. Zeus!!”
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### Author:  [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/10 "2008-04-29T21:47:31Z")
We better patent it before they do. If not they’ll come after for royalties. Well, they will after they invent lawyers.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/11 "2008-04-29T22:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin]
Well, do we know that they invented the spear, or simply that it’s the first time both groups have been witnessed using spears?
[/QUOTE]
You think they copied us? Or do you think they’ve been using them for years and we’ve been to blinded by our idea that only humans use tools to notice? I wondered about the later, too.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/12 "2008-04-29T22:22:45Z")
[QUOTE=Flander]
“Dr. Zeus! Dr. Zeus!!”
[/QUOTE]
Who’s Dr. Zeus? The ape equivalent of Dr. Seuss?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/13 "2008-04-29T22:47:45Z")
Eh, I wouldn’t worry about this too much - unless, of course, the apes have also been seen hanging out around a mysterious black, rectangular monolith. Then we’re boned.
/Hums “Thus Sprach Zarathustra”
//Purchases pie for Great Ape overlords
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/14 "2008-04-29T22:56:20Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
You think they copied us?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, they’re just aping their betters.
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### Author:  [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/15 "2008-04-29T23:29:41Z")
[QUOTE=asterion]
Who’s Dr. Zeus? The ape equivalent of Dr. Seuss?
[/QUOTE]
Planet of the Apes.
In the movie it isn’t clear whether he’s a writer.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/16 "2008-04-29T23:34:48Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
I, for one, welcome our new Great Ape overlords.
[/QUOTE]
Close enough.
Where’s that gawddam hat pin?
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/17 "2008-04-30T01:47:33Z")
It’s Dr. Zaius, gaddummit, as in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vb9fyyzxI4) video.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/18 "2008-04-30T02:33:51Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]
Close enough.
Where’s that gawddam hat pin?
[/QUOTE]
You said simian!
Nyah-nyah!
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/19 "2008-04-30T02:50:17Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
You said simian!
Nyah-nyah!
[/QUOTE]
I also said “close enough.”
I’m changing from hatpin to heated icepick 🙂
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orangutans-seen-in-wild-using-spears-newslink/447394/20 "2008-04-30T03:49:54Z")
[QUOTE=Eric Halfabee]
I recall seeing a documentary where a certain type of bird would use long thorns to spear grubs in rotting tree trunks.
The bird would eyeball the hole and go to find a thorn the exact length required to stab the tasty little buggers.
Wild kingdom, indeed!
[/QUOTE]
That’d be the [New Caledonian crow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonian_Crow). Looks like this statement in that Wikipedia entry will have to be updated now
> [@](#):
>
> These crows are the only non-human animals known to invent new tools by modifying existing ones, and then passing these innovations on to other individuals in the cultural group. They have also been seen making tools that they use in the wild out of completely different material.
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