How smart can an orangutan be?
If you've seen the Rise of the Apes series, you'll remember the ape victory escape at the end. Although compared with the establishment of the initial society and the emergence of cold weapons and rifles, this time the well-prepared escape from prison does not seem to be a surprising thing.
But what if I, as an orangutan researcher, tell you that these prison break scenes are not invented out of thin air in movies, but something that has already happened in reality?
Although the "ape power" of the movie is greatly enhanced because of the plot setting, the intelligence of the ape in reality is far beyond most people's imagination. I had the privilege of working at the Great Ape Sanctuary in Africa for nearly a decade, and I saw first-hand how powerful the apes awakened; after witnessing chimpanzees and bonobos beautifully complete many experiments, I was most impressed by how they escaped.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > why did they run away? </h1>
First of all, it needs to be emphasized that the orangutans in these African shelters have not escaped because they are unhappy here. Instead, they are well fed and slept in these shelters, accompanied by their peers and cared for by professional veterinarians. Some shelters even have entire rainforests for them to play in. The escaped orangutans had had enough of wandering around outside and often jumped back on their own.
These shelters are unlike the zoos of the average, and even more different from the extremely bad pet adoption shelters that appear in Rise of the Apes 1; they are actually orangutan orphanages. The demand for wild meat has led to many wild orangutans being brutally killed by poachers. The orangutan toddlers left alone and enter the black market to be sold as pets. Lucky little orangutans were rescued to these shelters, all of which were tortured—bereavement, disease, hunger and thirst, bumps, physical and mental abuse. In such a state, they cannot survive on their own in the wild, and shelters provide them with the possibility of recovery.
The chimpanzee, who had escaped, circled around and returned to the entrance of the garden to wait for the keeper to let him go. Images courtesy of the author
Images courtesy of the author
(Top left: the newly rescued and seriously ill orangutans; bottom left: orphans and gorillas with their keepers; top right: sick bonobos eat; middle right: bonobos lead eagles to catch chicks; bottom right: There is a large primeval forest in the orangutan's hut, can you see where the orangutans are?) ）
But most of these shelters face a serious problem: hardware. Shelters have long been overloaded, and as the illegal wildlife and pet trade has become more rampant, more and more orangutans have been rescued. The orangutan sanctuary is basically supported by donations, which can also afford the daily diet of the orangutan and the salary and benefits of the keepers. Coupled with the fact that shelters are mostly in areas with poor infrastructure, the cost of maintaining and expanding the premises is unimaginable. For example, in these places, the power supply is unstable, there are often random power outages, the grid on the fence is useless, and the shelter often relies on the most primitive method - let the keepers crouch in all corners of the fence.
(What, you say why not use a backup generator?) First, the system of automatic switching to the generator is mostly unaffordable; second, the manual switching of the generator may not be able to power multiple cages at the same time; third, the cost of fuel consumption for power generation is also quite high. And even if it's not bad money, it doesn't have to work: I've seen long-term power outages caused by heavy rains, running out of fuel stored in the shelter, and then you can't buy more oil – because there is a bridge on the road to get in and out of shelter, and the bridge is washed away by the heavy rain... ）
The keeper squatted by the fence to supervise and wash his clothes by the way. Images courtesy of the author
Therefore, this gives those tricksters who are proficient in ape power an opportunity to take advantage of it.
They know that the world outside the fence hides all sorts of good things. Needless to say, the storage room for fruits and vegetables and the kitchen for human use are not spared. Orangutans, who are particularly chicken thieves, will also take some of the tools that breeders usually use— the things that they usually want to steal but have no chance of stealing.
Top: The baby bonobo escapes and walks toward the kitchen on the hill; Medium: He encounters "stubborn" resistance in front of the kitchen, a cat; Bottom: Quietly walks away with the broom
Naughty little orangutans usually just run out and run around, flipping over everything they encounter. In their eyes, human objects are particularly fresh toys no matter what. And they seem to enjoy being chased by angry breeders.
Top left: The bonobo walked along the tourist message book placed in front of the commissary; bottom left: then jumped to the window of the researcher's residence; right: rummaged through the trash can
There are also simple showmanship. After escaping, he didn't go anywhere, so he sat quietly outside the fence and looked at his companions who were still inside...
The chimpanzee escaped and sat on the roof of the garden and watched his companions inside the fence. | Kara Walker
For us researchers, data is more important than anything else. In case they break into our workshop, take a removable hard disk or something, but I want to cry without tears... So when we're in the shelter, we have an unwritten rule – when we hear a knock at the door, we first make sure it's not someone outside the door...
The little chimpanzee tried to squeeze the planks out of the door and squeeze into our workshop. | Christopher Krupenye
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" How do > escape? </h1>
One of the reasons why running away is a great example of ape power is the variety of their ways. Intelligence, or cognition in psychology, is the flexible use of existing knowledge to solve new problems. The key point is that unfamiliar problems can be solved without repeated rewards/punishments, and there may be more than one solution. Here are some of the ways they can escape:
Dig tunnels
This is an introductory move that is especially suitable for beginners, just find a soft corner of the dirt and dig down. The technical difficulty is not high, and you can dig after I continue to dig. The disadvantage is that it is too easy to expose.
Half dug tunnels and caught tricksters. Images courtesy of the author
However, if you happen to choose a hidden corner, it is really unconscious.
One evening, the shelter was closed to the public, and I sat alone in front of the commissary resting. Suddenly, the cry of the orangutan sounded in the ears, and one, two, three came out of front of the eyes... An entire group of orangutans escaped! They took the commissary directly and looted it in an instant. The leading orangutan, with an apple stuffed in his mouth; in one hand, he carried two bottles of Fanta, a third bottle under his armpit, and a rubber headband that he didn't know where to pick up in his upper arm; and a plastic chair with his son, who was less than a year old, on his arm, and walked toward the lakeside of the shelter. On the other side of the lake, there is another group of orangutans, who cannot escape, and can only stand by the lake and stare dryly...
Lead bonobos usually bring pictures of babies. Images courtesy of the author
One of the fleeing orangutans is particularly fond of digging pits and has long been the focus of surveillance. The keeper thought that all the pits had been filled, but after all, it was still a hundred dense. But the most ridiculous thing is that this orangutan did not escape at all! His companions were making a fuss at the commissary, and he was found alone by the keepers at the mouth of the cave.
A bonobo who did not escape. Images courtesy of the author
Flip over the fence
The first solution to the fence is the power grid. Some orangutans found that dry wood was not conductive, so they would collect long, thick branches to pry wires. But the branches they can find are generally not enough to cause any damage, because the keepers will take away the coarse ones while cleaning. So, you'll always find a lot of "crime tools" on the fence that have been abandoned by orangutans.
Top: Pry wires with branches; Bottom: Abandoned crime tools. Images courtesy of the author
But you think this will stop the ape's superb orangutans? Some shelters will use wood to build several "pavilions" in the garden for orangutans to climb and play. The first time I went to the shelter, I found that there were always a few orangutans who especially liked to stay in the pavilion, carefully studying each piece of wood. Until one day, when I saw one of the orangutans tear out a whole piece of wood and drag it to the edge of the fence, awkwardly erecting it for the fence, I suddenly realized that in the eyes of the escape master, every piece of wood was a ladder!
Wooden pavilions for climbing and playing, and chimpanzees on the pavilions. Images courtesy of the author
In addition, you will also find that some orangutans like to sit quietly on the edge of the fence and do nothing. But if you look patiently for a while, you will find that they quickly touch the wire with the back of their hands from time to time. Because shelters often lose power! As long as they find out that there is a power outage, what else can stop them from climbing out?
After the blackout, the last line of defense is the breeder's lure. Images courtesy of the author
Switch to smooth cement walls and they won't be able to climb out? Too naïve. They also stack arhats!
Do you guess the one who is being stepped on is a high or low level |? Alexandra G. Rosati
However, I guess they didn't do it in advance. Because it is always a high-level orangutan who pulls a low-level one to the wall and then unceremoniously steps on it...
unlock
The first thing we start researching every day is to check if each lock is locked. The orangutans in the shelter knew that the lock was the key to whether the door in front of them could be opened. So they always check repeatedly which lock keeper forgot to lock, especially the rusty old lock, often seemingly closed but not.
Of course, the doors in the shelter basically have more than two locks, and the important gates are even designed with double doors. But that doesn't stop the orangutans from obsessing over locks. Because as long as they find a padlock that is not closed, even if they can't escape, they will succeed in stealing a treasure - not only will they make themselves the focus of their companions in an instant, but the keeper will definitely exchange it for a heavy gift.
Top: The orangutan whose lock was broken by me; Bottom: The claws of the innocent little lock. Images courtesy of the author
Fortunately, no one seems to have figured out the relationship between the key and the lock. Some orangutans know that the key is another special treasure of the keeper, so they will try their best to steal it (with a branch enough for the keeper to hang from the keychain around his waist!). Some even know that "to unlock a lock, you need to stuff something into the keyhole." Breeders try their best to retrieve the stolen locks, and often find that the keyholes are stuffed with all kinds of things you can imagine, can't imagine, and imagine but don't want to think about. In the most powerful case, the orangutan who stole the lock did not know where to get a long-lost key, but unfortunately the key did not open the lock. You must know that the strength of the orangutan is more than five times that of humans, so the breeder finally wants to return a lock and a half-cut key inserted in the keyhole...
The ultimate human move
Most of the above cases occurred many years ago. Now that escapes are almost no longer happening, the average tourist can also visit these shelters with peace of mind. Not only because the infrastructure in these places is gradually being perfected (such as the construction of double-decker fences), but also because the staff has found a more worry-free way to put the orangutans on the island.
These small islands are generally uninhabited, covered by tropical rainforest, and have plenty of room for large groups of orangutans to move, and even wild fruit trees for the orangutans to feed. Keepers only need to row boats every day to feed food and occasionally land ashore for health checks. Unlike humans, orangutans have an atrium that makes them ideal for sinking in the water... So water is the most effective barrier known!
At least that's what stupid humans think...
Sunday jumped on a boat without anyone noticing, and the boat was caught up shortly after drifting out, and had to be dragged back in a gray and slippery way. | Vanessa Woods
at least...... They don't even cut wood to make boats!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="231" > awakened ape power in the midst of confrontation</h1>
The reason why the ape power can be revealed when escaping is because it is a scene of competition with humans, and competition is the most conducive to stimulating the ape power.
Scientists who study how intelligence evolves divide intelligence into two broad categories: "ecological intelligence" that deals with physical environments, and "social intelligence" that deals with others. Scientists focus on the latter – while there are a variety of problems in the physical environment (such as wanting to drink water when you are thirsty), the problems encountered in social scenes are much more complex (such as thirst for tea). The complexity of social intelligence increases exponentially with the number of others, so it has always been the focus of research.
One of the most talked about areas is mental theory, commonly known as "mind reading". Simply put, it is the ability to understand the mental state of others. Two examples:
"In order not to let the guard find out, I had to pass through here quickly after he turned around, and I couldn't make a sound" (I understand what the guard can see and hear)
"The next season of the Mother of Dragons must be very broken after learning that Snow is her nephew" (we understand that the Mother of Dragons does not know this fact that all viewers know at the moment, and then we guess that the Mother of Dragons does not like inbreeding)
For a long time, scientists had not been able to find similar abilities in orangutans. Take, for example, a particularly simple experiment. Place a jar on the left and right sides, and the experimenter hides a peanut kernel in one of them, but at the same time uses a baffle to block the orangutan's view and prevent it from seeing which jar is hidden. At this time, the experimenter pointed to the jar with peanut kernels in it, and then asked the orangutan to choose one of the two.
This experiment seems to be very simple, and both human children and dogs can easily handle it. However, the orangutan has been struggling, usually after dozens or even hundreds of repeated trial and error, before barely learning to choose the side of the finger.
Don't orangutans understand that experimenters can know where food is?
Orangutan, peanut experiments. | Herrmann et al. 2006
However, someone later made a simple change to the experiment [2]. They asked the experimenter to establish a competitive relationship with the orangutan before doing the experiment—taking away the banana in front of the orangutan several times in a row. Then I did the above experiment for the orangutan, but changed the experimenter's gesture from "with the index finger" to a "forbidden" gesture. As a result, the orangutan did it right away, stress-free.
Experiment again by replacing the Specify gesture with the Prohibit gesture. | Herrmann et al. 2006
It turns out that what the orangutan really can't understand is the experimenter's kindness of "I want you to eat delicious food". Just replace the experimental scene with "I don't want you to eat delicious food", and all kinds of "mind reading" are unlocked in an instant!
Since then, people have gradually discovered that ape power is so powerful by building a variety of different competitive scenes. For example, in this experiment[3], two orangutans sit facing each other with a wooden board in the middle and two identical strips of biscuits glued to one side (think Berry or Spicy Sticks). Each biscuit is exposed from the upper edge of the plank, but one is exposed in half and the other is only a small section. One of the orangutans (subjects) could see this side of the cookie, so it was clear that the cookie was the same length. But the orangutan sitting opposite (the competitor) can only see the two biscuits exposed, and will have the illusion that the one that shows more is longer.
Orangutan, cookie experiments. | Karg et al. 2016
The key to the experiment is that the experimenter first blocks the participant's view, asking the competitor to pick which cookie to ask for first, but not to take the cookie off immediately. When it was the test's turn to pick, she had to pick the one that hadn't been chosen by the other person, otherwise she wouldn't have eaten. That is, she needs to guess which one the competitor will just choose. If she looks at the problem from the perspective of a competitor, she will predict that the other party will be misled by the illusion, and choose the cookie that stands out a lot, so that she will choose another one.
Sure enough, under the stimulation of competition, the ape force awakened, and the subject quickly solved the problem.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="232" > the last ape power summoner</h1>
Orangutans escaping is just one of many examples of their use of ape power to deal with humans. Even in the wild, as humans continue to expand, it is difficult to find orangutans that have not been affected by human activities. With the support of ape power, they are all struggling to adapt to the world that is rapidly changing by humans.
(Picture A: Chimpanzees crossing the road in Guinea-Bissau; Figure B: Orangutan fed with palm fruits and leaves; Figure C: Bonobos in Wamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, examining metal rings on the fingers of adult female bonobos; Figure D: Mountain gorillas in Rwanda Volcanoes National Park peeling eucalyptus bark.|.) Hockings et al. 2015 Trends in Ecology and Evolution）
When crossing the road, chimpanzees adjust the way they pass depending on the width of the road. The wider the road, the longer it is exposed to the open flat ground, and the more time the orangutan spends on the side of the road before crossing the road. When the road is wide, the female will go first, and the higher-ranking male will take the initiative to go behind the temple; when the road is narrow, the opposite will be true.
[4] In areas where traps are popular for catching wild game, some chimpanzees learn how to safely trigger traps to invalidate them, while others learn to remove clips that hold their companions.
Orangutans, who live near human settlements, go to farms to dig up sweet potatoes to eat when food is scarce, and steal stone tools back into the forest to smash nuts. In order to bring as many of these scarce resources back into the forest as possible, they often take the initiative to walk upright – freeing up their hands to take more luggage!
Chimpanzees trying to use stone tools to open nuts. | Carvalho et al. 2012 Current Biology
How to adapt to this rapidly changing human world will be related to the fate of these last ape power summoners. Before the arrival of humans, the planet was also a real orangutan ball. The golden age of apes lasted for at least 15 million years, with more than 40 species of apes thriving in Africa and Eurasia. But today, ape power alone is no longer enough, after all, the limitations of ape power are obvious. If competition is the key to awakening ape power, then its limitation is that it is difficult to cooperate. Orangutans have complex "mind-reading" but have difficulty understanding the kindness of others. And the strong ability to cooperate with each other, to take the initiative to share, and to support each other is the most special thing for human beings [7].
But why do people have these things? Darwin once wrote: "... The greatest conundrum [explaining the origins of man] is how human intellectual and moral inclinations have reached such high standards..."[1]. Only by clearly understanding what ape power really is and what the difference is between human intelligence can we explain the nature of man.
The survival of the ape species depends on the human. But man's understanding of himself cannot be separated from the existence of apes.
bibliography
1.Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. Vol. 1. (Murray).
2.Herrmann, E., and Tomasello, M. (2006). Apes’ and children’s understanding of cooperative and competitive motives in a communicative situation. Dev. Sci. 5, 518–529.
3.Karg, K., Schmelz, M., Call, J., and Tomasello, M. (2016). Differing views: Can chimpanzees do Level 2 perspective-taking? Anim. Cogn.
4.Hockings, K.J., McLennan, M.R., Carvalho, S., Ancrenaz, M., Bobe, R., Byrne, R.W., Dunbar, R.I.M., Matsuzawa, T., McGrew, W.C., Williamson, E.A., et al. (2015). Apes in the Anthropocene: Flexibility and survival. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 215–222.
5.Hockings, K.J., Anderson, J.R., and Matsuzawa, T. (2006). Road crossing in chimpanzees: A risky business. Curr. Biol. 16, 668–670. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16950084.
6.Carvalho, S., Biro, D., Cunha, E., Hockings, K., McGrew, W.C., Richmond, B.G., and Matsuzawa, T. (2012). Chimpanzee carrying behaviour and the origins of human bipedality. Curr. Biol. 22, R180–R181. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.01.052.
7.Hare, B. (2017). Survival of the Friendliest: Homo sapiens Evolved via Selection for Prosociality. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 68, 1–32.
Author: Uncle Hippo
Edited by: Fangorn & Lyroat
Source: Uncle Hippo
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