![]() Until relatively recently, the scientific view has been equally confused. ![]() People have always valued the companionship of animals, and many species have been venerated and even worshipped as gods. On the other hand, people have always ascribed emotions, intelligence and even 'rights' to their fellow beasts. On one hand, animals were thought to be inferior in all aspects to people many religions, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, teach that animals are essentially chattels, placed on Earth by God for us to use as we will. The traditional view of animal intelligence was a mixed one. In fact, the more science discovers about the animal mind, the less comfortable, philosophically, the findings become.Īnd this has led to a small but growing movement that says we have to rethink our relationship with the animal world. Most uncomfortably of all, can it be right to kill and eat creatures which may be less bright than ourselves but may nevertheless be fully sentient beings? So what is going on here? Are chimps really brighter than us, even in this sort of memory test?Īnd if so, what does this mean for the way that we treat them? After all, how could it be right to lock up creatures more intelligent than ourselves in zoos or laboratories? This astonishing result, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that in at least some respects our position at the top of the intellectual tree may be a bit shakier than we thought. In a test of short-term memory involving numbers flashed on a computer screen, the apes comfortably beat their human opponents. ![]() Researchers in Japan have pitted human adults against five-year-old chimpanzees in a test of mental agility and memory - and the chimps won. ![]()
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