The Washington Post reports on some alarming news from Africa:

For First Time, Chimps Seen Making Weapons for Hunting

Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning deadly spears from sticks and using the tools to hunt small mammals — the first routine production of deadly weapons ever observed in animals other than humans.

The multistep spearmaking practice, documented by researchers in Senegal who spent years gaining the chimpanzees’ trust, adds credence to the idea that human forebears fashioned similar tools millions of years ago.

The landmark observation also supports the long-debated proposition that females — the main makers and users of spears among the Senegalese chimps — tend to be the innovators and creative problem solvers in primate culture. [full text]

The Bush administration immediately responded by putting the military on high alert and dispatching a destroyer, the U.S.S. Tarzan, to the waters off Senegal. White House spokesman Tony Snow would not confirm reports that air strikes on chimpanzee encampments were under consideration. However, an anonymous source at the State Department expressed concern that the White House was overstating the threat posed by the monkeys and had simply “gone bananas.”