The chimps use their teeth to form the brush-tipped termite-fishing tool. Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of why some chimpanzees are so good at catching termites. A team working in the Republic of Congo discovered that the chimps are crafting brush-tipped "fishing rods" to scoop the insects out of their nests.

They filmed the wild primates using their teeth to fashion the tools. Writing in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the researchers said the probes' frayed ends helped the chimpanzees to collect more termites. Lead researcher Crickette Sanz, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "They have invented a way to improve their termite-fishing technique."

Previous studies have suggested that wild chimpanzees use brush-tipped tools to fish for termites. But until now it has been unclear whether this was a specially crafted design feature or whether the frayed edges were a by-product of repeated tool use.

Using remote cameras to film the chimps as they sought out their insect snacks, the team was able to find an answer. Dr Sanz told the BBC: "We found that in the Goualougo Triangle in the Republic of Congo, the chimpanzees were modifying their termite-fishing tools with a special brush tip." To make their rods, the chimps first picked some stems from the Marantaceae plant and plucked off the leaves.

"They then pulled the herb stems through their teeth, which were partially closed, to make the brush and they also attended to the brush by sometimes pulling apart the fibres to make them better at gathering the termites," Dr Sanz added.

Further research revealed that a stem with a frayed tip collected 10 times more termites than a pointed probe. Dr Sanz said: "The chimps seem to understand the function of the tool and its importance in gathering termites." So far, the team have only found this behaviour in chimps in the Goualougo Triangle. The apparent absence of this in populations in eastern and western Africa suggests that it is not an innate skill found in all chimpanzees.

You may read the rest of the story at http://ow.ly/Mg3K. For speaking and consulting opportunities you may reach Jim at 719-358-6062 or jim@mckinleywoods.com

A Late Carnival Arrival

This is a guest post from Jeremy Shapiro aka HRMetricsguy, from Hodes iQ.  He initially submitted to run as part of the Carnival, but it was way past the deadline, and I had some guest post opportunities coming up this week, so I am running it today.  I hope you enjoy it!

I enjoy reading “The Numbers Guy” column in the WSJ, but today, guest writer Cari Tuna really hit it out of the park with her piece on a problem in statistical analysis called Simpson’s Paradox. Cari reports that the paradox is under-stating the severity of unemployment data.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece of three ways to look at the DOL employment data. Now, a fourth view emerges because of Simpson’s Paradox.

First, what is the paradox? Here’s Wikipedia’s version:

Simpson’s paradox (or the Yule-Simpson effect) is an apparent paradox in which the successes of groups seem reversed when the groups are combined. This result is often encountered in social and medical science statistics, and occurs when frequency data are hastily given causal interpretation; the paradox disappears when causal relations are derived systematically, through formal analysis.

Or, more simply (my version): Sometimes, because one subgroup of data can be much larger than another group, the total average looks better (or worse) than what’s really going on.

For unemployment, what Cari reported is that for college graduates and high school graduates, employment is really worse than the 80’s, but the total average doesn’t reflect this reality on the ground. Consider this:

Total Unemployment 25 and Older
1983: 8.5%
2009: 8.2%

For College Grads
1983: 3.6%
2009: 4.9%

For High School Dropouts:
1983: 13.6%
2009: 14.9%

And there’s the paradox at work, both College grads and High School dropouts are worse off, but the total unemployment data does not reflect the reality. Why? There are more college grads today (1/3rd of the working population) vs. 1983 (1/4 of the working population), which skews comparisons between the 2 recessions!

The WSJ article is good reading. It should be noted that the analysis was done by Henry Farber , an economist from Princeton found here.

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Jeremy Shapiro, Senior Vice President, Hodes iQ

email           jshapiro@hodesiq.com

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