Lanny-yap: Monkey Monday

03 September 2012

Monkey Monday | Genius Chimp

Natasha outperformed other chimps on tests given by researchers to measure intelligence.

Esther Herrmann | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Certain apes appear to be much smarter than others, with at least one chimpanzee now called "exceptional" when compared to other chimps. The standout chimp, an adult female in her 20s named Natasha, scored off the charts in a battery of tests. The findings, published in the latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggest that geniuses exist among non-humans, but that no one attribute constitutes intelligence. Instead, a perfect storm of abilities seems to come together to create the Einsteins of the animal kingdom.

Natasha's keepers at the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda knew she was special even before the latest study. "The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional," study authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology wrote. "All three of the most experienced caretakers included Natasha in their lists (of the most intelligent chimps)," they added.

Natasha has made headlines over the months for her attention-grabbing antics. For instance, she repeatedly escaped her former enclosure, surrounded by an electric fence. She did this by tossing branches at the fence until she didn't see a spark, letting her know that the power was off. She also learned how to tease humans, beckoning them to throw food her way, only to spray the unsuspecting person with water. Herrmann and Call decided to study this chimp, along with numerous others, to see if there really are chimp prodigies among non-human great apes.

Read more about Natasha and the study's methodology at Discovery News.

Via Primates in the News

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03 September 2012

Monkey Monday | Genius Chimp

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