The lengths to which some researchers will go to attempt to discredit human exceptionalism are an assault on reason and common sense:
In a recent experiment, researchers determined that chimpanzees need to be taught how to use stones to crack nuts; individuals don’t grasp the idea for themselves. In a series of four experiments, 35 parties of chimps were given oil palm nuts and stones but “on no occasion did the chimpanzees crack or eat either oil palm or Coula nuts,” presumably because they did not know how.
Then the primatologists go on to draw an amazing conclusion:
“Their culture is therefore more similar to human culture than often assumed…
News, “Chimps who can’t crack nuts prove they are more like humans? Huh?” at Mind Matters News
Takehome: The fact that no chimpanzee figured out on its own how to crack a nut using a stone does NOT make them more like humans, rather less.
You may also wish to read: But, in the end, did the chimpanzee really talk? A recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine sheds light on the motivations behind the need to see bonobos as something like an oppressed people, rather than apes in need of protection.
and
A philosopher simply invents animals’ concept of death. She demands that we accept her invention so we can “rethink” human exceptionalism, and the “disrespect for the natural world that comes with it.” Susana Monsóis’s beliefs about how predators think are a work of the imagination. Like it or not, we are stuck with human exceptionalism. It’s who we are.