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To do a job right, you need the right tools. Even a chimp¹ knows that. According to a study in the American Journal of Primatology, chimps² in the Congo use multiple tools to capture army ants.

You’ve probably seen footage of chimps using sticks to harvest honey or trap termites³. But when it comes to collecting ants, the apes are all over the place—sometimes using tools, other times going in barehanded. To investigate these different techniques, a research team spent almost 10 years in the Congo, filming chimpanzees and collecting more than 1000 ant-fishing tools. And they found that the nastier the ant, the more likely the ape is to pick up a stick.

Chimps that tear open a nest with their hands risk getting bitten, and driving the insects away. Instead, many chimps use a series of tools: one to poke⁴ a hole in the nest, and another to dip in to gather a few tasty specimens⁵. They even pick up tools left behind by other chimps.

Now, would an infinite number of chimpanzees using an infinite number of tools produce a Louis-the-Fourteenth-style table and chairs? It’s doubtful. But they’d probably catch an infinite number of ants.

—Karen Hopkin