Orangutans Reinvent The Hook
We all know that primates are some of the most intelligent animals on earth, but if you discover the results of experiments like this, you will realize how surprising they can be. Orangutans have managed to leave us speechless with their ability to make hooks.
Scientists have discovered a practice never seen before in any species except our own. Orangutans have proven to be one step above other primates with a successful experiment in which they have brought out all their imagination and skill.
Result of the experiment with orangutans
In the study carried out by the universities of Vienna and St. Andrews, it can be observed how apes are able to use different wires to gain access to places where their fingers cannot reach.
In the first test it was seen how the orangutan was able to make a hook with a straight wire. The goal was to get a reward placed in a basket inside a tube, for which he managed to make a hook with his teeth while holding the wire straight.
In the second trial, a bent wire was used with which, at first, it did not reach a reward placed in a horizontal tube. To achieve their goal, several orangutans were able in a few minutes to unbend the wire enough to reach the target without problems and be able to push it out of the tube, an action never seen before.
Amazing results
To assess the scope of these discoveries, and to be able to compare the intelligence of these primates with that of humans, children of different ages were subjected to similar tests, with more than surprising results.
From the age of five, a human being is capable of engineering and using quite complex tools to achieve goals. However, when they were faced with the problem of retrieving a basket from the bottom of a tube with the only help of a straight wire, things got quite complicated.
Between the ages of three and five, most children did not succeed, and very few came up with the idea of bending the wire to make a hook. Even a high percentage of seven-year-olds did not achieve their goal, which gives us an idea of the level of intelligence of orangutans to solve problems.
It is not until children are eight years old that a majority success rate is seen. What was striking is that children, regardless of their age, achieved much greater success when they were previously shown the possibilities of a wire, although the youngest did not carry it out despite having understood the functions of the wire. hook.
Isabelle Laumer, in charge of carrying out the experiment at the Leipcig Zoo in Germany, said that this study has shown that orangutans have a skill with the use and manufacture of tools that is far superior to what was believed, and that they are capable to surpass humans of up to eight years in the creation of these.
Future of the species
This magnificent species is in serious danger of extinction. Only 104,700 individuals remain of the Bornean orangutan, while the current population of the Sumatran orangutan is less than 14,600 individuals.
The disappearance of the lush tropical forests where they live is reduced day after day by the extraction of wood, minerals or to turn them into farmland. Currently, only 50% of orangutans live in the wild.
On the other hand, the illegal market for baby orangutans is also making a dent in their population and, after killing the mother, they suffer a journey from which very few survive to be sold as pets to different parts of the world.
Until much more forceful measures are adopted, its population will not stop declining and, as has happened with many other species, we will lose a totally irreplaceable asset.
