Observation work was made at Senegal in 2006 and indicates that the animals had already made their first step towards fire control. The next steps would evolve the ability to contain it adding or removing fuel materials and the ability to generate it.

After the discovery that the chimpanzees from Senegal hunt certain night primates in the hole of trees with sharp lances, the chimpanzees of the Savana are news again. New observation of the closest relative of Senegal men indicate that these animals are able to deal with fire, with a completely distinct behavior from the majority of wild animals, which become nervous and unquiet.

According to Jill Pruetz, IowaStateUniversity, the chimpanzees of this population are used to deal with fire, which is used by local population to “clean” the land and promote hunting, so that the majority of the areas used by chimpanzees had been already target of bonfire.

Apparently, the chimpanzees of this region are able to predict the behavior of the fire, anticipating the direction it is going to take, which means, according to the scientists, the first step towards fire control.

The fire domain with humans consists in three steps. The first one is the prediction of its movement. After that it is the ability to contain or promote it, adding or removing fuel materials. And at last, the ability to generate it.

Scientist responsible for the study, whose results are now presented at magazine American Journal of Physical Anthropology, describes, on the other hand, other unique chimpanzees’ behavior facing a fire. The first one is a kind of “fire dance”, similar to the “rain dance”, but done directed to a fire. And the second one is the emission of a vocalization that is still unknown, probably done by the dominant male.

The scientists believe that these discoveries can be useful in the comprehension of how the first human beings started to control fire. According to the explanation of Jill Pruetz , “If the chimpanzees can comprehend and predict the fire movement, this could have been the fact that allowed the first biped hominids to acquire the ability to control the fire.”