Monkey In Zoo Sharpened A Rock And Used It To Shatter Its Glass Enclosure

They said Planet of the Apes was fiction. But they were wrong! Some of us have always thought that monkeys are much smarter than they let on. Now they have figured out what they need to do to escape zoos! Well, at least one monkey has this information. However, I’m sure others will soon follow its lead.

Visitors at Zhengzhou Zoo in Central China witnessed an incredible sight: a monkey used a stone trying to break the glass wall of its enclosure. Nevertheless, zoo visitors weren’t the only ones surprised — the Columbian white-faced Capuchin scarpered once it realized what it had done.

According to the Daily Mail, one tourist, Mr. Wang, said “the monkey was sharpening the stone, then it started hitting it on the glass. The monkey scared itself away, but it came back to take another look and even touched it.”

One of the zoo’s staff Tian Shuliao said “this monkey is unlike other monkeys. This one knows how to use tools to break walnuts. When we feed walnuts to other monkeys, they only know to bite it. But it had never hit the glass before though. This is the first time. It’s toughened glass, so it would never have got out. After it happened, we picked up all the rocks and took away all its ‘weapons.’”

As surprising as it might sound, several members of the animal kingdom know how to use tools; not only monkeys. As Live Science reports, chimpanzees use stone tools and even make spears for hunting other primates while crows use a wide variety of tools, from twigs to their own feathers.

Sea animals are crafty as well. Everybody’s beloved sea otters use rocks to hit abalone shells off of stones and crack them open. On the other hand, octopuses go for a more defensive application of tools: they use coconut shells as portable armor.