Find photos of family and friends you haven’t seen in 26 years
“Feel the emotion of ‘longing’ like a human”
Research has shown that apes can also remember and recognize old family members and friends they haven’t seen in decades.
According to CNN on the 18th (local time), chimpanzees and bonobos (a type of primate living in the Congo River rainforest) can recognize photos of old friends or family members who have last seen each other more than 25 years ago, and can recognize old friends. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people reacted more positively to photos of .
Christopher Krupeny, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said in an interview with CNN that he was inspired by his experience working with great apes and feeling them recognize him even though it had been years since he last saw them. .
The research team selected photos of individuals who had not seen each other for at least 9 months and up to 26 years and analyzed their relationship with the apes who participated in the experiment. Afterwards, the apes were shown two pictures, one of an ape they were familiar with and one of an ape they were not, and we measured which picture the ape looked at longer.
The results showed that apes looked at photos of familiar apes significantly longer, regardless of how long it had been since they last saw them. It was even found that people looked at photos of apes with which they were close friends, especially for a longer period of time.
The research team explained, “The social memory of apes exceeds 26 years,” and “this is thought to be similar to humans, who can remember up to about 48 years.”
“This is a kind of lifelong memory for these animals,” Professor Krupeni said.
Laura Lewis, a biologist and psychologist at the University of California, USA and co-author of the study, said, “Through this experiment, we found that apes remember friends and family they lived with,” and added, “The emotion of ‘longing’ is thought to be possessed only by humans. “It made me think again about what I had already done,” he said.
“Bonobos may become extinct in our generation,” he said. “I hope that the results of this study will help people empathize more with apes, which are our closest cousins.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.