14 DAY TRIAL // Chimps and orangutans have the ability to remember things that happened many years back, researchers have discovered. This means that apes and humans are even more similar than previously believed.
To determine whether or not chimps and orangutans have memories of events that took place in the past, a team of scientists from Aarhus University in Denmark carried out a series of experiments.
Thus, about three years ago, they taught 15 chimpanzees and 4 orangutans to search for and find tools that they needed to grab hold of treats that would have otherwise remained beyond their reach.
Recently, they asked the apes to perform the same tasks, and once again hid the tools.
18 of the apes that took part in these experiments had no difficulties remembering where to find the tools, and did not take long to get their reward.
“I was surprised to find out not only that they remembered the event that took place three years ago, but also that they did it so fast. On average it took them five seconds to go and find the tools,” comparative psychologist Gema Martin-Ordas explains.
Since the chimps and the orangutans needed just five seconds to locate the tools, it is unlikely that they had just a vague notion that they were supposed to go looking for something that would help them get their treats.
On the contrary, they must have known exactly both what they were looking for, and where to find it, Live Science explains.
“It was the recalled event that enabled them to find the tools directly,” Gema Martin-Odas wishes to stress.
Until now, it was believed that humans were the only species able to remember things that happened in the distant past and tap on this knowledge to deal with the present. As it turns out, this ability is one humans share with chimps and orangutans.
A detailed account of this investigation and its findings was published in the journal Current Biology this July 18.