From David Robson:

Re: Sticks appear as "dolls" in hands of chimps (Dec. 20): A nice article about the importance of sticks as a play thing for chimps.

I've long held the theory that we humans as vicious, as selfish, as ignorant as we are don't really have the ability to think of animals as equals or better than equals. I'm not sure if this comes from our in-bred arrogance, our zest to cast a cursory glance at things which are far more important than they ostensibly seem or our desire to remain as number one nihilists on the planet.

I watch wildlife and in particular Corvids, since we tend to get more than a few in the garden. These birds are seriously clever, ingenious and cunning, (not in the human sense of nihilism). We just don't give other species the time of day really. It's about time we did. We might learn a few things from them.