<story><title>Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps (2012)</title><url>https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young-gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>disordinary</author><text>In Aotearoa-New Zealand we set traps for introduced species like stoats, rats, possums, etc. that kill our endangered wildlife that evolved without natural predators.&lt;p&gt;The Kea which are very smart mountain parrots will go and disarm the traps in order to eat the bait. They&amp;#x27;re smart enough to have figured out how to do this, and are one of just a handful of animals that habitually use tools, but are unfortunately too smart for their own good because their handiwork means there&amp;#x27;s more predators for them.&lt;p&gt;But, some people don&amp;#x27;t give animals enough credit. Mammals and especially primates are very, very close to Humans genetically. Animals are often very smart.</text></comment>
<story><title>Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps (2012)</title><url>https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young-gorillas-juvenile-traps-snares-rwanda-science-fossey/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>hirundo</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;If we could get more of them doing it, it would be great,&amp;quot; he joked. Karisoke&amp;#x27;s Vecellio, though, said actively instructing the apes would be against the center&amp;#x27;s ethos. &amp;quot;No we can&amp;#x27;t teach them,&amp;quot; she said. &amp;quot;We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don&amp;#x27;t want to affect their natural behavior.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I would think that the main danger is in habituating the gorillas to humans, teaching them that we&amp;#x27;re safe when we&amp;#x27;re not. It may be better if any human interaction with them is aversive but not damaging, like pepper spray.</text></comment>