Chimps have tools for sex

Here is a great item from Tierney in this past Tuesday's NYTimes Science section. With the use of about 20 different tools having been documented in different groups of chimpanzees, now a 'come hither' tool for a male trying to get a female to mate has been recorded.

The male will pluck a leaf, or a set of leaves, and sit so the female can see him. He spreads his legs so the female sees the erection, and he tears the leaf bit by bit down the midvein of the leaf (making a rasping noise), dropping the pieces as he detaches them. Sometimes he’ll do half a dozen leaves until she notices.,,,And then?...Presumably she sees the erection and puts two and two together, and if she’s interested, she’ll typically approach and present her back side, and then they’ll mate.

...you might see this chimp as the equivalent of a human (wearing pants, one hopes) trying to attract women by driving around with a car thumping out 120-decibel music... But it would be fairer to compare the clipped leaf with the most popular human sex tool...the vibrator, considered taboo a few decades ago, has become one of the most common household appliances in the United States....