Chimpanzees can recognize friends and family even after decades of separation

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that chimpanzees can recognize other animals of the same species even after more than two decades without seeing them. This means that primates have the longest-lasting non-human memories ever recorded.

The findings also strengthen the theory that long-term memory in humans, chimpanzees and bonobos likely stems from our common ancestor who lived between 6 and 9 million years ago. This means that experiments like this can help science understand how humans developed such good long-term memory.

We don’t know exactly what this representation looks like, but we know that it lasts for years. This study doesn’t show us how different we are from other apes, but how similar we are to them and how similar they are to us.

Laura Simone Lewis, lead author of the study

The results of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. In total, the images were shown to 26 bonobos and chimpanzees.

As the animals drank a full bottle of diluted juice, pairs of images alternated on the screens. The cameras monitored where the primates’ eyes wandered. And the computer recorded the time spent on each image in a fraction of a second.

What is not yet clear is what kind of memories were triggered during the experiment. Scientists hope to be able to answer this question in the future based on new research conducted on animals.

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Source: Olhar Digital