Chimpanzees, Children and Chickens

I’m back – after two weeks of story writing, deadlines and then illness. And (as I’m rather late for my post-Diwali story) I thought I’d kick off with this one.

Whilst reading Last Chance to See I was reminded of the fact that chimps can count. What surprises me with this is the amount of research that scientists will put in in order to confirm such a fact. After all, it seems obvious really – given that much more lowly animals are also fine in the counting stakes. Take my hens, and particularly my cockerel – not only are they very family oriented and protective but they do a mean job of counting too.

            Each morning when I let them out of their cabins (the younger ones still insist on sleeping in a separate cabin) they all undergo the registration rigmarole imposed upon them by their very loving (though rather bossy) cockerel. Before he will touch a morsel of grain he runs around, taking a count and checking they are all present and correct. It’s a lovely sight. Similarly at bedtime, you will see him carefully rounding them up – and he won’t stop and go to bed himself until he knows they’re all accounted for.

            So if a lowly hen can count then it really isn’t much stretch of the imagination to think that chimps would also be able. Of course, You Tube reveals that chimps recognise numbers – and I haven’t seen that replicated in hens yet so maybe there is a point to the research.

            What I did find interesting was the following experiment – a test to see who are the better learners, chimps or children? Watch carefully.

            Now I’m not sure the researchers have covered every possibility of why the children fail to learn for themselves – I think there are other issues, not least of which is that the researchers talked a lot when they were showing the children how to tap and slide (they don’t do this with the chimps because they don’t expect them to understand spoken language). Were the children given the chance to learn for themselves? Did the artificial setting alter their reactions?

But I thought it was worth sharing and as far as I know, no animals were hurt in the making of this film – though the chimps do appear to be living behind bars which is a shame.