We Are Primates

Note: This is dedicated to Charles Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection

Baby Chimps are as Bright as Human Infants

By Jack Grimston

Chimpanzees have long been known for their ability to mimic humans. Now scientists have found that baby chimps’ mental development can even be more advanced than children of the same age.

At nine months, the animals are just as curious and capable of recognising carers and familiar objects as the average baby. When compared with infants kept in isolated conditions in orphanages, the animals are even more advanced.

The scientists who carried out the research believe their research also provides valuable evidence that chimpanzees, like humans, thrive on social interaction. The more intimate their contact with their carers, the faster their brains develop.

Chimpanzees share about 96% of their DNA with humans. An adult chimp’s level of intelligence has been likened to that of a three-year-old child.

The new research shows that in their early lives, they develop along similar lines to people before humans race ahead.

“Nursery-reared chimpanzees . . . exhibited distress (screaming and crying) in those episodes when they were separated from their favourite caregiver and . . . [touched their toys] when their favourite caregiver was present,” says the study by scientists at Portsmouth University and Leiden University, Holland.

The researchers reached their conclusions, published in the journal Developmental Psychobiology, after analysing the care records of a group of chimpanzees kept at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. This included observations of their curiosity and powers of recognition.

The chimps were reared by humans after being rejected by their mothers. One group was given 4-5 hours a day of individually tailored “mothering” while the other chimps were given more basic human care.

The scientists found that the cognitive performance at nine months of those which had received the extra care was significantly better than the other group. They also outperformed infants in orphanages in Greece and Romania and were similar to a typical American baby.

The researchers believe the findings suggest the primates are close enough to humans when they are very young to be used as models to conduct experiments with different types of human childrearing.

Primate experts endorsed the findings.

“They are extremely social animals like human beings were hundreds of thousands of years ago. They are tribal.”

“Chimpanzees and orangutans have similar development to humans cognitively - physically they are leaps and bounds ahead,” said Alison Cronin, who runs the Monkey World rescue centre near Wareham, Dorset.

“They leap around and grip far earlier than a human. They cling to their mothers when humans are still being carried.

“They learn quickly that they are the centre of the group. They realise early what they should and should not reach out and touch.”

Many scientists believe some primates are even more intelligent than chimps. A Harvard study in 2007 found that orangutans and gorillas had the greatest power to learn and solve problems of all animals.

There is growing research about how the intelligence of primates is fostered by social contact. A group of orangutans in Sumatra was recently found teaching one another to make tools, play jumping games and blow kisses. The animals also folded leaves to make rain hats and roofs for their beds.

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The above article appeared on www.timesonline.co.uk