Footage taken at a Chinese zoo shows a monkey that tries to smash through a glass enclosure with a rock in an attempted escape.

The incident took place at the Zhengzhou Zoo in Central China’s Henan Province on the 20th of August.

The video shows a Colombian white-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus) examining the glass with a rock in its hands. Then, it starts smashing the glass, eventually causing it to shatter into pieces.

According to a bystander, Mr. Wang, the monkey was actually sharpening the stone before the attempted escape.

‘The monkey was sharpening the stone, then, it started hitting it on the glass. The monkey scared itself away, but it came back to take another look and even touched it.”

Moreover, zoo visitors weren’t the only ones surprised, as the Columbian white-faced Capuchin scarpered once it realized what it had done.

Zhengzhou Zoo staff member Tian Shuliao explained that this monkey knows how to use tools.

‘This monkey is unlike other monkeys. This one knows how to use tools to break walnuts. When we feed walnuts to other monkeys, they only know to bite it. But it had never hit the glass before though. This is the first time. It’s toughened glass, so it would never have got out.”

Shuliao added that after the incident, they picked up all the rocks and took away all its ‘weapons’.

You might find it surprising, but quite a few members of the animal kingdom know how to use tools, and not all of them are monkeys. Live Science reports that chimpanzees use stone tools and even make spears for hunting other primates, and crows use various tools, from twigs to their own feathers.

Capuchin monkeys are a group of New World monkeys, members of the subfamily Cebinae. They are savvy tool-users and have been employing rocks to help them tackle various tasks for thousands of years. These monkeys use tools to dig, process fruits and seeds, crack open nuts, and even in sexual displays.

Watch this crafty monkey below:

Sources:
truththeory.com
www.iflscience.com
www.boredpanda.com