Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology Steven Lautzenheiser enjoys going to Zoo Knoxville when it first opens and the animals are most active. On one recent weekend, he headed to the chimpanzees first.
Their breakfast was still scattered around their enclosure for them to find. Ripley, one of the male chimpanzees, quickly gathered up some fruits and vegetables, sometimes using his feet almost like hands. After he ate, he used his feet to grab the fire hoses hanging around the enclosure and even held pieces of straw and other toys in his toes.
Lautzenheiser found himself feeling a bit envious. Why can’t people use our feet like this, quickly and easily grasping things with our toes just as easily as we do with our fingers?
Lautzenheiser answered the question “Why can’t I wiggle my toes individually, like I can with my fingers?” for The Conversation’s Curious Kids series. Read the full article on The Conversation.
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