In Photos: Chimp Hurls Stones at Zoo Visitors

Sneaky Chimpanzee

A male chimpanzee named Santino hides rocks and sneaks up on visitors before hurling the projectiles at them. — (Image credit: Tomas Persson, PLoS ONE.)

Stone-Hurling Santino

To make like he was just wandering about, Santino picks up an apple from a water moat, just 15 seconds before hurling the stones at visitors.

Just Before the Throw

A male chimpanzee named Santino hurls stones at visitors. — (Image credit: Tomas Persson, PLoS ONE.)

This image shows Santino just 1 second before the throw.

Hay Hiding Spot

Santino not only hid projectiles behind logs and rocks, he also manufactured hiding spots from hay (projectile shown in lower part under the hay heap). All projectiles were placed near the visitors' area, and helped lull visitors into a false sense of security, allowing him the chance to fling his missiles at crowds before they had time to back away.

Alpha Male

Santino, a dominant male at the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden, with a pile of hay.

Lots of Hiding Spots

Various hiding spots at the zoo where the chimpanzee Santino hides his stone projectiles. — (Image credit: Tomas Persson, PLoS ONE.)

The X in the left of the picture marks the position of the first hay heap. The arrow on the left points to the protruding rock structure that was used as concealment. The other two arrows point at the two logs that also served as concealing obstacles.

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