<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5877764.ece" target="_blank"><img class="size-full wp-image-1310" style="vertical-align: top; border: 0; margin: 8px;" title="chimpanzee_2__500558a" src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/chimpanzee_2__500558a.jpg" alt="chimpanzee_2__500558a" width="385" height="185" /></a>

[some of the rocks stockpiled by Santino]

<em>When Santino the chimpanzee started pelting zoo visitors with stones, his keepers were mystified.</em>

<em>Not that they were surprised by his displays of aggression — the 31-year-old chimp is, after all, a dominant male. But there was no obvious source of stones in his enclosure; so where was he finding all the missiles?</em>

<em>All became clear when they carried out a search and found his stockpiles of rocks. Santino had been fishing stones from the moat surrounding his enclosure - and, even more impressively, he had been shaping odd pieces of concrete into aerodynamic disc-shaped missiles. Then he had been stashing them away for future use.</em>

<em>...It seems chimpanzees, too, are capable of forward planning, and have a sophisticated understanding of past and future. The chimp is also furtive about his behaviour, almost as if he knows he is being sneaky.</em>

<em>“I've never been able to get a good picture of him collecting the stones,” said Mathias Osvath, of Lund University, who has made a study of Santino. “As soon as he sees you he stops.”</em>

<em>...“These observations convincingly show that our fellow apes do consider the future in a very complex way,” Dr Osvath said.</em>

<em>“It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events.</em>

Full story at the <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5877764.ece" target="_blank">Times</a>