Endangered Primates Learn to Use iPads and iPhones

A group of scientists from University of Portsmouth will try to teach the endangered Sulawesi crested macaques how to play with touch screens. The main goal is to convince the primates to use high-tech devices in order to express their choices, as a part of a study aiming to find new things about animal behavior.

This initiative is possible due to a partnership between University of Portsmouth and Marwell Wildlife. Their work is supposed to provide enough material for the world's first cognitive study center, the Mirror reports.

The new facility will look like amazing labs we usually see in movies, displaying glass test areas where the creatures can be closely monitored by a team of scientists.

Moreover, the see-through materials will allow visitors to see the results of scientific research with their own eyes.

The entire study should let the experts know how macaques make their choices, communicate and harness social relationships, without stressing the already vulnerable creatures, since they are free to leave and return to their daily activities whenever they want.

Experts say these primates can voluntarily enter a research area and play with touch screens for as long as they want.

Since macaques get easily involved in complex social interactions, just like humans, scientists put all their hopes in the success of this project, aiming to learn more about animal memory, behavior and psychology, areas insufficiently exploited so far.

"This method is an excellent way to study the animals because they are curious about the tasks and keen to participate in activities with the researchers," declares Dr Waller, one of the scientists behind this project.

"Understanding more about their social interactions, from the results of the touch screen work, will allow us to understand how and why primates, including humans, have evolved such good social skills," concludes Waller.