Orangutans Are The Only Non-Human Primates We Know of Who Can Talk About The Past
JACINTA BOWLER
28 DEC 2018
Dogs, cats, or goldfish probably can't have conversations with each other about times long gone by – it's a feature we've thought was pretty much exclusive to humans.
But a recent study is shaking up that idea, showing that orangutan mothers wait on average seven minutes after a potential predator is out of sight, before sounding the alarm to warn others.
"The results are quite surprising," Carel van Schaik, a primatologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland who was not involved in the work, said to Science Magazine back in November.
Orangutans have quite a specific alarm call – it sounds kind of like a human kiss noise. Scientists think it helps warn others about danger, but if it's used, it might also inform the predator that it's been spotted.
https://www.sciencealert.com/orangutans-are-the-only-non-human-primates-we-know-of-who-can-talk-about-the-past
