What Are Chimpanzees Intelligent As Humans?

Jane states, “For a long time I never liked to look a chimpanzee straight in the eye. Although, she started doing that after she knew the chimpanzees better. The mind of a chimpanzee is just as good as a humans, and sometimes better. Chimpanzees know how to do a lot of different things. I personally think it is awesome when Jane Goodall talks about the things that happen in a chimpanzees mind. In Chapter Two it says that Lucy said the colors of objects in a book that Jane was reading out loud. After reading the book Through a Window, I have a different perspective on chimpanzees and their mind.

Chimpanzees are great apes that are the closest living relatives to humans (Larsen, 2014). These primates have been studied and observed intently for decades, and there are many theories that explain why they are the way they are. Chimpanzees learn the necessary skills of survival through social and cultural contexts and pass these traits along to their offspring. In researching these smart and interesting primates I have understood the social and cultural roles chimpanzees have that are necessary for survival. The mother- infant bond is crucial to the development of young chimpanzees and these females are known for teaching their young social roles and behavior, communication

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

According to National Geographic, scientists have sequenced the genome factor of the chimpanzee and found that humans are 98.5% similar to the ape species. The chimpanzee is our closest relative in the animal kingdom; however, some people are not aware of our resembling traits with chimpanzees. Jane Goodall’s, In the Shadow of Man, describes some similar traits humans and chimpanzees have such as their facial expressions and emotions, use of tools, and diet.

This paper aims to study the traits of non-human primates. By observing two types of primates including Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and Western Gorillas (Gorilla Gorillas), I try to find out their characteristics, pattern of their behavior, and differences between these two primate species. Especially, characteristics and behavior such as social interaction, food acquisition and intelligence will be discussed and compared in this paper. In order to enhance the persuasiveness of my observation, I recorded and examined at least 25 distinct characteristics of both Common Squirrel Monkeys and Western Gorillas. It is also helpful for me to compare these two primates. Apart from exploring the primates’ traits and differentiation between them, this paper will discuss the effects of captivity. How being in captivity and on display in a zoo would influence their behaviors and emotions? The observation was a great success and I have successfully derived with a hypothesis base on our observing data. The ultimate goal of this paper is arousing humans’ awareness of the importance of studying primates.

Animal Intelligence Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge. Psychologists have exploited this concept in many ways to try and determine whether non-human animals are capable of intelligence. From social learning it is logical to assume that, since non-human animals are able to both acquire and use new behaviours, they must be intelligent in some way. Heyes stated that there are 6 types of behaviour which suggest intelligence. These are imitation, self-recognition, social relationship formation, role-taking, deception and perspective taking.

Primate intelligence correlates to primate cognition which is the study of the intellectual and behavioral skills of primates (Low). In the book Human Evolution and Culture, chapter five "Human Evolution Biological and Culture" states that primates share a lot of common features with mammals but what makes them uniquely different than many other mammals is that primates have a wide range of physical and social traits (86). The social relationships of primates are unique because just like humans, they relationship begin with the mother and other adults that the younger dependable primates. "The dependency of infant primates offers an evolutionary benefit that allows infant primates more time to examine and master the intricate behaviors necessary to survival while enjoying the care and protection of mature adults."(87) Primates have the privilege of having a large brain the size similar to body size to learn the culture and the way of life they live. Larger brains give primates the advantage to obtain an enormous amount of learning and integrate data. Primates have a special gift in areas of their brain that's dedicated to speech and language. (94) Primates have the special ability to communicate with each other as well as with humans and are the "only habitual toolmaking animal" (96). Although primates are more cognitively advanced than many other animals/mammals, researchers and critics still debate on how to define, compare and study intelligence and the growth of

One of the experiments in the “Ape Genius” documentary involves the use numerals to understand the emotions of apes. Two chimpanzees are used in this experiment. The procedure involves placing two bowls of candy in front of one of the chimpanzees. The bowl that the chimpanzee picks will be given to the other chimpanzee while it gets the other bowl. One bowl is filled with more candy than the other. When shown the two bowls, the chimpanzee points at the bowl with more candy and hence it gets the one with less candy while its counterpart gets the bowl with more candy. The same experiment is repeated with number cards in place of candy. When the bowls are placed before the chimpanzee, it points at the bowl with less number cards. It is given the bowl with more cards while the other chimpanzee gets the bowl with less cards. However, when the experiment is repeated again, this time with candy, the chimpanzee cannot resist pointing at the bowl with more candy. This is despite learning from the other trials

Marshall-Pescini and Whiten (2008) discuss social learning with chimpanzees in East Africa, focusing on the task of nut-cracking. Nut-cracking is unique to wild chimpanzees who live in West Africa, so this study intended to measure whether or not chimpanzees who do not live in the wild in West Africa would demonstrate the same ability to learn nut-cracking. The study took place on Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria, Uganda at a

Many attributes found in humans are also found in chimps. Similar to humans, chimps have long childhoods which involve long term affection, bonds and learning. Like humans, chimps display nonverbal communication through Kissing, holding hands and fist shaking. They also show emotion and personality which is thought to be a human attribute (Goodall, 2002). They say we are only 4% smarter than chimps, what defines smart? If we are so smart, why are we destroying our planet? Chimps have been doing the same thing for millions of years without damaging their environment. Maybe we should not ask who is smarter, but who is wiser.

In Seth Borenstein’s article about non-human primates, he discusses how humans and apes are similar. Likewise, the author states that it appears that apes have the skill sets to walk in someone else’s shoes, just as humans can. The author ties in a study that was conducted on select great apes to see if they shared this trait with humans known as the “theory of the mind.” Borenstien points out the study focuses on the idea of false beliefs and how these primates react to this information. He continues by expressing that previously, the great apes were thought to be unable to understand this concept that human toddlers could, but according to recent research involving primates and clips of King Kong, these apes are capable of understanding that what is happening is not true. An expert, Kano, from the University of Kyoto commented on the study and remarked that while this is a big step, it does not imply full complex understanding. However, Borenstien insists that this is very important because previous studies were unsuccessful and this expresses complex cognition among non-human primates. On the other hand, the author includes the facts that the sample size for this

Apes and primates come in all different shapes and sizes. They all exhibit different characteristics and most importantly different behaviors that separate these different primates. The thing that is the most fascinating is really how similar they are to us. The similarities go past structure, similarities can also be seen in their behavior and how they think similar to a rational human being. Gorillas are the biggest primate currently alive on earth and they are also one of the smartest as seen through Koko the gorilla who actually understands english and can effectively use sign language. Gorillas are truly fascinating creatures that exhibit behaviors

One of the main reasons why we are so interested in the other primates is that by looking at them we can obtain some ideas of what our ancestor must have been like a few millions years ago. Even though, we are not descended from any modern-type monkey or ape, our lineage does appear to have gone through stages in which we were a medium-sized, reasonably intelligent creature with good binocular vision, hands that were good at manipulation and the ability to climb trees. An evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth and their integration into complex social systems. Another trend in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In addition to brain size and gestation periods,

Some people think animals are dumb but they are just calling themselves dumb. Animals are smart because in the article speaking bonobo it states, “ Kanzi touched the symbols for fire and marshmallow, then hi was given matches and marshmallows on a stick…” The animal had to remember the marshmallow symbol and the fire symbol to want them.

Cognitive psychologists apply animal research to humans. For example, discovering whether chimpanzees can learn language helps psychologists develop theories about how humans learn language. Gardner and Gardner (1969) study of teaching ASL to a chimp supports this.