Orangutans also know how to make plans
For future plans have always been considered a typical feature of human intelligence, but scientists recently discovered that at least orangutans and bonobo (an ape produced in the south of the Congo River in Africa) also know how to "prepare for the future."
Gorilla
Scientists use a series of experiments to explore whether these apes can use tools as planned to open a device with food inside. After learning how to use tools to get food, the animals and tools are separated from the device containing the food for a period of time. As a result, in many tests, when apes returned to the room where the food device was placed, they all brought with them tools suitable for opening the device. In other words, they all acted in a planned manner.
Chimpanzee
Scientists say that the planned style of these apes is exactly the same as that of humans. The reason why humans plan for the future is that people remember the previous cases of wrong actions, and then they must prepare for doing the same things in the future. The performance of these apes in the experiment obviously conforms to the above characteristics.
boob
5 chimpanzees and 5 bonobos participated in the first experiment. They first learn how to use the right tools to get food in the device. Then they have 5 minutes to familiarize themselves with a range of tools, including two useful and six inappropriate ones. Five minutes later, the apes were taken to a waiting room, and the eight tools were taken with them. One hour later, they were allowed to return to the room where the food device was placed. To get food, they have to choose a suitable tool and take it with them. As a result, they made the right choices on average 7 out of every 16 tests.
boob
Only one chimpanzee and one bonobo participated in the second experiment, but the 1-hour interval above was extended to 14 hours. Although neither ape chose the right tool in the first test, the chimpanzee chose the right tool in the next 11 tests, and the bonobo also achieved eight successes in the subsequent tests.
gorilla
Scientists point out that unlike birds building nests, using tools is not an instinctive behavior. Bonobos in the wild state almost never use tools, let alone transport them for future needs. Although some chimpanzee populations in the wild know how to use tools to obtain food, they are just for the sake of immediate needs. In this way, apes can also learn to plan for the future like humans.
Gorilla
Some scientists believe that these techniques demonstrated by apes suggest that early human ancestors mastered these techniques about 2 million years ago, and even just 1.6 million years ago. But the latest experimental results above may greatly extend this time, the reason is that since chimpanzees and bonobos have been proven to be "savvy planners", then the pioneers of this ability (i.e., the first to master this ability) should be the apes as early as 14 million years ago, and humans have just inherited and carried forward this technique after they differentiated from the apes.
