Get in touch with your primitive side and enjoy smashing nuts as we used to thousands of years ago, just as our primate and monkey cousins still do.
The Monkey Tool nut cracker is designed by sculptor Mark Reed and is individually hand forged by blacksmiths in
Humans were thought to be the only species capable of making or using tools. The foresight, imagination, and dexterity required for tool use and construction were thought to be absent from the non-human primates. That all changed in 1960 when Jane Goodall observed wild chimpanzees modifying sticks in order to extract termites from mounds. Now, not only are chimps and humans the only apes known to use tools, but gorillas and orangutans as well. Even monkey species such as the bearded capuchin and the long-tailed macaque have been reported to habitually use stones as tools in the wild. The monkeys used tools for digging and for cracking seeds.
The study, appearing in the American Journal of Primatology adds important new information to the increasing body of knowledge that human beings are not the only primates who use tools. At one time, the use of tools was considered an important difference between humans and other primates.
"we see the behavior in an entire population and not in isolated individuals," said Fragaszy. "Also, it is the first time this behavior has been observed in wild capuchins. What we found is that these capuchins are extremely skilled weightlifters. The video we took shows just how remarkable their ability to lift these stones has become."