They might not have mastered GPS technology, but vervet monkeys can find relatively short routes, much the same way that humans do.
They might not have mastered GPS technology, but vervet monkeys can find relatively short routes, much the same way that humans do.
A new U of T study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found that when foraging for food, vervet monkeys apply simple rules-of-thumb (also known as heuristics) to find relatively short routes without having to think too much about it.
“People are amazed that animals can often find the shortest route when foraging for food, and the big question is how they’re able to figure it out,” says lead author Julie Teichroeb, an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at U of T Scarborough.
“Solving these kinds of routes is extremely difficult mathematically but we’ve found that these monkeys, much like us, rely on heuristics.”
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Image via University of Toronto.
