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Habitual stone-tool aided extractive foraging in white-faced capuchins (2018) (biorxiv.org)
32 points by toss1 8 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 8 comments



I'm not sure I entirely understand why reduced predation risk but increased resource limits causes this? Maybe it's because tool use increases yield of valuable food, and so for effort expended a higher food outcome against the pressures of resource starvation come into play.

But, the thing is why does reduced predation pressure apply? I am guessing that finding tools, and using tools on the ground is a higher risk activity, focussed on the short range, less time spent scanning for predators so more "risky" if there are more of them around.


> why does reduced predation pressure apply?

>> Capuchins inhabiting the Coiba archipelago are highly terrestrial, under decreased predation pressure and potentially experience resource limitation compared to mainland populations

Trees. Being under reduced pressure from predators means they can spend more time on the ground rather than hiding in trees. The ground is where the rocks are.


Fear has a dramatic effect on cognition. Like in Dune, fear is the mind killer.


Idgi ; are they making stone tools or using a stone to hammer things as they have done for thousands of years?


It’s in the abstract. They’re using stones as hammer and anvil to get access to food. This isn’t news.

The news is that only male monkeys were observed using rocks and tool use was observed in 80%of the days recorded so it’s not some rare adaptation but a habitual behavior among the monkeys on the island.


What do people gain out of writing clickbait titles on HN?


Yes, that was bad. (Submitted title was "A group of Capuchin monkeys is entering the Stone Age"). The submission itself looks good though! just not that title.

Submitters: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." If you want to say what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but do it by adding a comment to the thread. Then your view will be on a level playing field with everyone else's: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...


I found it really funny. I guess the bait worked on me.




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