Caption: The Ugalla region of western Tanzania is a dry woodland savanna and home to chimpanzees that apparently use tools to dig up the underground storage organs of plants for food. The tool-using behavior may parallel the behavior of early hominids who left the forest for the African savanna five million years ago, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropology professor Travis Pickering.
Photo by: courtesy Jim Moore, University of California at San Diego
Date: August 2006
300 DPI JPEG

Caption: Pictured are sticks used as tools by savanna chimpanzees to excavate underground food resources. Tool-wielding savanna chimps of western Tanzania used these sticks to crack a tough layer of soil to excavate the underground storage organs - tubers, roots and bulbs - of plants as a food resource. The behavior by chimps to excavate underground food resources with tools has never been documented before, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist Travis Pickering, and may resemble behaviors of the earliest hominids as they migrated from the forest to the African savanna five million years ago.
Photo by: courtesy Jim Moore, University of California at San Diego
Date: unknown
300 DPI JPEG