Wild gorillas take time for tool use
By Bruce Bower
On Oct. 9, 2004, a group of researchers studying gorillas in northern Congo happened upon a never-before-seen event. In a swampy forest clearing, a female gorilla yanked a roughly 3-foot-long branch from a dead tree and waded into a deep pool of water. Keeping the stick in front of her and her upper body above water, the gorilla slowly advanced about 30 feet into the pool as she tested the water’s depth. Then, she returned to shore to comfort her wailing infant.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/10/5346.jpg?resize=150%2C117&ssl=1)
The scientists, led by Thomas Breuer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, had for the first time witnessed and photographed tool use by a wild gorilla.