February 22, 2007—Since the 1960s scientists have known that chimpanzees are able to make and use tools—behavior once thought to be an exclusively human trait.

Now National Geographic-funded researcher Jill Pruetz has observed toolmaking behavior that further blurs the line between the apes and humans: chimps in Senegal sharpening sticks into crude spears and thrusting them into tree hollows, presumably to hunt small mammals (read the full story).

Watch footage of a female chimp caught in the act of removing a spear from a tree hollow and then breaking the tree to recover her prey, a primate called a bush baby.

Jill Pruetz's work with chimpanzees will be featured in an upcoming NOVA/National Geographic special on PBS (airdate to be determined). National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.