About  |   Contact  |  Mongabay on Facebook  |  Mongabay on Twitter  |  Subscribe
Rainforests | Tropical fish | Environmental news | Blog | For kids | Madagascar | Photos | Non-English languages | Tropical Conservation Science | Jobs
SHARE:




Orangutans and chimps are smarter than monkeys and lemurs
mongabay.com
August 1, 2006




The great apes are the smartest of all nonhuman primates according to scientists at Duke University Medical Center.





The researchers found that orangutans and chimpanzees consistently outperformed monkeys and lemurs on a variety of intelligence tests, conclusively proving that apes are more intelligent than monkeys and prosimians.

"It's clear that some species can and do develop enhanced abilities for solving particular problems," said Dr. Robert O. Deaner, who led the study as part of his doctoral dissertation. "But our results imply that natural selection may favor a general type of intelligence in some circumstances. We suspect that this was crucial in human evolution."



In a battle of minds, the gorilla beats the lemur. Photos -- silverback gorilla in Gabon and a Verreaux's sifaka in Madagascar -- by Rhett A. Butler

Scientists have long observed that some species perform better than others in intelligence testing but they have had difficulty proving that these differences could be attributed to intelligence, according to Deaner.

"The trouble is that one species may outperform another in a problem-solving test not because it's smarter, but because one species is poorly suited to that particular testing situation," he said. For example, one species may be more comfortable grabbing a joystick.

According to a release from Duke University, "Deaner and his colleagues reasoned that they could refute this premise -- that performance differences resulted from particular testing situations -- by demonstrating that some primate species surpassed others across a wide range of problem-solving tests. Primates are an excellent comparison group because their similar perceptual and motor skills means that the same tests are generally appropriate for all of them, Deaner said. But developing a suitable data set to test this idea was not easy."

The researchers examined hundreds of published studies and found evidence that some species truly outperform others on a wide range of intelligence tests.

"Our research strengthens the long-standing notion that some animal species truly are more intelligent than others," Deaner said. "The smartest species were clearly the great apes -- orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas — which performed much better than monkeys and prosimians."







This article used quotes and information from a Duke University news release.



Recommend this article? Comments?
>Digg this article | >Hugg this article | Contact

News options







CITATION:
mongabay.com (August 01, 2006). Orangutans and chimps are smarter than monkeys and lemurs. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0801-apes.html


Tags:
primates apes gorillas mammals orangutans rainforest animals Evolution animals wildlife happy-upbeat environmental Lemurs Animal behvaior green

print


News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home


Advertisements:


Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing




Mongabay Store
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt
Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant t-shirts
Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog t-shirts
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog
Licking this frog may make you crazy t-shirts
Licking this frog may make you crazy





WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Email:





SUPPORT
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

Help support mongabay.com when you buy from Amazon.com



POPULAR PAGES
Rainforests
Rain forests
Amazon deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation stats
Why rainforests matter
Saving rainforests
Deforestation stats
Rainforest canopy

News
Most popular articles
Worth saving?
Forest conservation
Earth Day
Poverty alleviation
Cell phones in Africa
Seniors helping Africa
Saving orangutans in Borneo
Palm oil
Amazon palm oil
Future of the Amazon
Cane toads
Dubai environment
Investing to save rainforests
Visiting the rainforest
Biomimicry
Defaunation
Blue lizard
Amazon fires
Extinction debate
Extinction crisis
Blackwashing
Industrial deforestation
Save the Amazon
Rainforests & REDD
Brazil's Amazon plan
Malaysian palm oil
Avatar story
New Guinea
Sulawesi
Amazon ranching
Madagascar
Borneo

News topics
Amazon
Biofuels
Brazil
Carbon Finance
Conservation
Climate Change
Deforestation
Energy
Happy-upbeat
Indonesia
Interviews
Oceans
Palm oil
Rainforests
REDD
Solutions
Wildlife
MORE TOPICS



Non-English Sites
Chinese
French
German
Greek
Indonesian
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Other languages

Nature Blog Network









Photos
Alaska photos
Alaska

Argentina photos
Argentina

Australia photos
Australia

Belize photos
Belize

Brazil photos
Brazil

Cambodia photos
Cambodia

China photos
China

Colombia photos
Colombia

Costa Rica photos
Costa Rica

Deforestation photos
Deforestation

Frog photos
Frog

Gabon photos
Gabon

Grand Canyon photos
Grand Canyon

Honduras photos
Honduras

India photos
India

Indonesia photos
Indonesia

Kenya photos
Kenya

Laos photos
Laos

Lemur photos
Lemur

Madagascar photos
Madagascar

Malaysia photos
Malaysia

Monkey photos
Monkey

New Zealand photos
New Zealand

Panama photos
Panama

Peru photos
Peru

Peru photos
Rainforest


Sunset

Suriname photos
Suriname

Tanzania photos
Tanzania

Thailand photos
Thailand

Uganda photos
Uganda

United States photos
United States

Venezuela photos
Venezuela



HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS


CALENDARS
  • Mount Kenya
  • East Africa Safari Wildlife
  • Kenya's Turkana People
  • Peru
  • African Wildlife
  • Alaska
  • China
  • Madagascar Chameleons


    CANVAS BAGS

  • Hallucinogenic frog bag
  • Madagascar wildlife bag








  • Copyright mongabay 2010

    Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect,
    an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region.
    Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant.