Smart Animal Log: Chimp’s Intelligence, Like Human’s, Is 50% Genetic
For Chimps, Social Skills and Spatial Understanding Run in the Family
FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS (Virginia Hughes): “Chimpanzees and other great apes are known for their intelligence… But just as for humans, cognitive abilities vary from one animal to the next. Now, in one of the largest studies ever conducted on chimp cognition, researchers report that those individual differences are due in no small part to genetic makeup.”
I do seem to be on a “smart animal” roll, lately. Forgive me.
This is an interesting article and more evidence “that animals are not passive machines but rather are sharp, active thinkers.” (Just like kids!) It also discusses the relationship between nature and nurture when it comes to how smart chimps — and taking other mitigating factors into account, we — are likely to be. The study appears in the most recent issue of Current Biology.
You can read the National Geographic article here.
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