• Question: what do you do to test the primates intelligence?

    Asked by to Lewis on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      There are lots of different things that make up ‘intelligence’. Just like there are lots of different things that you or I could be smart at (I hope that I am quite smart at biology, but I know I am rubbish at French!), there are lots of different ways primates and other animals can be intelligent.

      In the zoo we can do many things. We can look at how quickly they solve puzzles and if they are able to watch other animals and learn from them. We can also see what choices they make; for example, if we offer them five peanuts all squished together vs. four peanuts spaced out, which do they choose? Also over the past few years, people have been working with touch screens to see if animals can learn the order that different shapes pop up on the screen.

      In the wild, friends of mine look at how animals work together and learn about their environment.

      So, you can see that there are many ways that we can learn about primate intelligence!

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