When did a human-like mind first emerge, setting its owner on a path distinct to that of other apes?

We paleoanthropologists have long looked to tool use as the marker - particularly the appearance of a cutting tool known as a flake.

It now seems we were wrong.

Recent research published in Nature by a team led by Tomos Proffitt at the University of Oxford shows that capuchin monkeys regularly produce sharp-edged flakes indistinguishable from those made by early hominins.

Could these South American simians be taking the same first steps that eventually delivered the spanner, wheel and smartphone? As it turns out, no. The flakes are produced by accident when the monkeys smash rocks together. Nonetheless, the capuchins have thrown a spanner in the works for archaeologists.

Since the flakes they make are not tools at all, we can no longer assume the flakes found in the archaeological record are tools either.

We know that monkeys can make tools of other kinds, of course. Ever since British primatologist Jane Goodall's pioneering work in the 1960s, we have known our chimpanzee cousins use tools to shell nuts and to fish for termites.

Nor is tool use confined to primates. Other mammals, birds, snails, octopuses and even insects all turn out to be tool wielders. In fact, back in the 19th century an American husband and wife team, Elizabeth and George Peckham, first documented tool use outside human beings. They observed wasps hammering dirt with pebbles to build their burrows.

A young amateur footballer from Mozambique has died after being attacked by a crocodile while jogging along the Zambezi riverbank.

The tragedy occurred earlier this week, with Estevao Alberto Gino's death being confirmed by his club, Atletico Mineiro de Tete.

The bodies of ten beheaded turtles have been found washed up on the same beach over two months leading to a cruelty warning.

The turtles mutilated bodies were found on Plaka beach on Naxos Island in Greece.

Archelon, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece has said it believes that number is too high to suggest the animals were accidentally killed.

'We believe that the percentage of dead turtles without head in the same area (Plaka) is large enough to be a coincidence,' the organisation said.

It is calling on people to help authorities stop anyone who is killing the reptiles on purpose, Tomos News reported.

A case emerged last year when a dead turtle was discovered with a breeze block tied around its head.

Some years ago, I visited the local Boys Club early one morning. There had been a break-in. Two young brothers had gotten caught making off with pool balls and cues. They weren't going to be arrested, merely suspended. Police phoned their mother. It must have taken 10 minutes to persuade her to come get them. She kept insisting it was a case of mistaken identity. Her sons were at home with her the whole time.

The cop kept saying, "Ma'am, I keep trying to tell you we've got them right here." They finally had to put one of her sons on the line to make her quit fabricating alibis.

I kept thinking of that incident during recent encounters with what it's tempting to call the Pit Bull Cult. You see, I'd written a column about an unprovoked attack on my two dogs by an unleashed pit on a city park playground. Because my dogs are 120-pound Great Pyrenees who spent nine years guarding livestock (and cats) on our farm, they were never in danger.

A dead whale washed ashore Friday afternoon in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Dave Hallac, the superintendent with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, confirmed that the whale washed ashore near ramp 38, between the towns of Avon and Buxton.

The whale measured approximately 29′ ft. long. Hallac also said it is not uncommon for dead whales and dolphins wash up on seashore beaches.

The cause of the whale's death is not known at this time.

A dead humpback whale washed up on the shore of an isolated tourist area south of San Felipe in Baja California, according to Mexico's environmental protection agency, PROFEPA, on March 18.

The agency said the whale was already in an advanced stage of decomposition, but said no evidence was found that its death was caused by fishing equipment.

Who knows what Arturo the polar bear was thinking as he paced back and forth in the dark, air-conditioned chamber behind his artificial grotto?

Just down the pathway Cecilia sat quietly in her cage, contemplating whatever chimpanzees contemplate.

In recent years, both creatures, inhabitants of the Mendoza Zoological Park in Argentina, have been targets of an international campaign challenging the morality of holding animals captive as living museum exhibits. The issue is not so much physical abuse as mental abuse — the effect confinement has on the inhabitants' minds.

Last July, a few months after I visited the zoo, Arturo, promoted by animal rights activists as "the world's saddest polar bear," died of what his keepers said were complications of old age. (His mantle has now been bestowed on Pizza, a polar bear on display at a Chinese shopping mall.)

But Cecilia (the "loneliest chimp," some sympathizers have called her) has been luckier, if luck is a concept a chimpanzee can understand.

In November, Judge María Alejandra Mauricio of the Third Court of Guarantees in Mendoza decreed that Cecilia is a "nonhuman person" — one that was being denied "the fundamental right" of all sentient beings "to be born, to live, grow, and die in the proper environment for their species."

Agreeing to a petition by animal rights lawyers in Argentina for a writ of habeas corpus — a demand that a court rule on whether a prisoner or inmate is being legally detained — the judge ordered that the chimpanzee be freed from the zoo and transferred to a great ape sanctuary in Brazil.

In an earlier case, an appeals court in Buenos Aires upheld a judge's demand that the city zoo provide an orangutan named Sandra with a way of life consistent with her "well-being, behavioral complexity, and emotional states."

Argentine law applies, of course, only in Argentina. But the decisions in the two cases have been taken as encouragement by activists in other countries. In the United States, the Nonhuman Rights Project has been trying for years — so far unsuccessfully — to use habeas corpus to free captive chimpanzees from labs and private zoos and have them declared nonhuman persons.

Neighbors in the Weddington area of Union County say coyote sightings have recently spiked. They say the wild animals are coming within feet of their homes and are becoming aggressive.

"People told me they would never go after something big like that and he's 92-pounds, so people were wrong," says Debbie Rucker, who says Gabriel, her 92 pound German Shepherd was attacked by a pack coyotes last month.

Rucker says it was around 7:30 in the evening when she let Gabriel out for a bathroom break and then heard an eerie crackling noise and her dog begin to yelp.

"I heard it and started running because I saw that he wasn't right by me. They had ripped open both sides of his back and they had chewed up one of his legs," says Rucker.

Rucker says she and her husband rushed Gabriel to the animal hospital where at first, the veterinarian said there is no way coyotes would attack a dog so large, "But within 30 seconds of looking at his wounds, he looked up and said there must have been a bunch of them," said Rucker.

A person was today mauled to death by a panther near Sariska area in the district of Rajasthan, officials said, adding that the animal was later killed by villagers in retaliation.

"Rampratap Gurjar was killed in the panther attack in Madhavgarh near Sariska. After attacking the man, the panther hid in a cave-like place. The villagers set that place afire, leaving the panther charred," R S Shekhawat, Sariska field director, told PTI.

He said the body of the man has been handed over to family members, adding that a compensation was also provided to the aggrieved kin.

Jacob Boy Cele (66) died after he was attacked by a pack of dogs in Bhobhoyi in the Nyenyezi area recently.

Police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Zandra Wiid, said Mr Cele was bitten all over his body and later died in hospital.

An inquest docket was opened and the Lower South Coast SPCA was called by the police to collect four of the dogs for euthanisation.

However, Lt-Col Wiid said one dog was very aggressive and officials could not approach and catch it. "The assistance of the police was called and the dog was euthanised after consultion with the owner."