Fishing Monkeys!

It was long believed that what set humans apart from other primates was their ability to hunt. This has been long disproved by chimps and bonobos ---- both by their termite fishing and their hunting bush babies.
But more recently, scientists have made a (semi-)startling discovery: it's not just the great apes that have hunting abilities.

The Long-tailed macaques of Eastern Asia are very good at finding food - both in the wild, and by stealing from unsuspecting tourists.
But not until recently have they been discovered to FISH. These Indonesian monkeys have been spotted FOUR times in the past 8 years scooping fish out of the water with their hands in East Kalimantan and North Sumatra, say researchers from The Nature Conservatory and the Great Ape Trust.

Though known to forage for crabs, these are the first incidences of actual river fishing.

"It's exciting that after such a long time you see new behavior," said Erik Meijaard, one of the authors of a study on fishing macaques that appeared in last month's International Journal of Primatology. "It's an indication of how little we know about the species."

Meijaard is unsure what prompted the long-tailed macaques to go fishing, but adds that it shows the monkey's ability to change and adapt to their changing environment, and therefore shifting food sources.

The other authors of the paper, which describes the fishing as "rare and isolated" behavior, are The Nature Conservancy volunteers Anne-Marie E. Stewart, Chris H. Gordon and Philippa Schroor, and Serge Wich of the Great Ape Trust.

Other primates to show past fishing behavior include the Japanese macaques, chacma baboons, olive baboons, chimpanzees and orangutans.