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Chimps Have a Built-In GPS

Posted by kdawson on from the please-return-to-the-highlighted-route dept.

destinyland writes "European researchers have discovered that chimpanzees have a built-in mental GPS, keeping 'a geometric mental map of their home range, moving from point to point in nearly straight lines.' Using GPS, two primatologists followed 15 chimpanzees for 217 days, and determined that the apes were 'using a mental map built around geometric coordinates.' They're not just identifying landmarks in their surroundings, and in fact, even when swinging through trees, the chimps planned out their route several trees in advance. Here's the paper in the journal Animal Behavior."

15 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Pay per Paper by spacefight · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the 2nd link: "Price: US $ 31.50". Sounds like another slashvertorial. No thanks, chimps.

    1. Re:Pay per Paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      1. Create pay per paper site
      2. Get shitty story submitted by kdawson
      3. Massive profit

  2. But... by ATOMISCHE · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Calling it GPS implies they are using external signals to locate. The article says the chimps are creating and using internal distance transform maps.

    1. Re:But... by GooberToo · · Score: 4, Funny

      The last time the chimp community lost GPS signals they all started crashing into each other and exploding. It was a real tragedy.

      Rumour has it Microsoft's Ballmer was repeatedly spotted running into walls and throwing chairs.

  3. THere's no way i'm having a chimp on my dashboard by Barsteward · · Score: 5, Funny

    they sh*t everywhere and you'd have to feed it bananas for directions.

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  4. What does the G in GPS stand for by edittard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No they don't. Drop them somewhere they've never been before and ask them to go somewhere else they've never been before and they'll either pull funny faces at you or initiate a poo barrage.

    Tell me again, what does the G in GPS stand for? It sure doesn't stand for "having a reasonable memory of your surroundings and a rough sense of direction". And neither do the P or the S.

    Bullshit summary again. Or maybe bullshit article. Who cares? After a while, you don't bother.

    --
    At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    1. Re:What does the G in GPS stand for by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's not just what GPS stands for, either. Not every positioning system that works globally is GPS. Yeah, I'm being pedantic, but "GPS" really is supposed to indicate the particular system, not just any system.

      So saying chimps have built-in GPS because they can navigate is a little like saying they have built-in Canon Powershot cameras because they can see.

  5. Isn't that just... by caitsith01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...a fancy way of saying "remembering where stuff is relative to other stuff"?

    My cat can do that. If she wants to come upstairs in my house, she'll walk in a straight line to the bottom of the staircase from wherever she is, up the stairs, and in a straight line from there to wherever she wants to be.

    I guess she's got "cat GPS" and/or is "using internal distance transform maps"... I never knew she was so talented.

    I would think most semi-complex animals have this ability.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
    1. Re:Isn't that just... by NineNine · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. I have a completely blind cat, and she gets around the house just fine, only running into stuff if I move furniture. It's really impressive to see, as she learns her environment the first time around. This article wasn't news to me.

    2. Re:Isn't that just... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny
      • Wakes up in middle of night. Bloody cats on the bed again
      • Puts cat out through front door
      • One minute passes
      • Cat comes back

      The animal had gone to the back of the house, climbed to the upper story and come into the house through a little window high in the shower cubicle of the upstairs bathroom. Then it walked back down the stairs and into our room.

      Of course it has a map. What it doesn't know is that I am going to strangle it if it keeps pulling tricks like that.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    3. Re:Isn't that just... by david.given · · Score: 4, Funny

      The animal had gone to the back of the house, climbed to the upper story and come into the house through a little window high in the shower cubicle of the upstairs bathroom. Then it walked back down the stairs and into our room.

      No, that's far too much effort. What actually happened was the cat read your mind, realised that you knew a plausible route by which it could get in, and so after being put out it just sat comfortably until you were out of sight and then teleported back onto your bed, knowing that you would never suspect anything.

      Cats put the kind of effort into being lazy that the most hardened work ethic afficionado could only dream of.

  6. Re:Built-In Mental GPS by flu1d · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft Sues Chimps.

    You really think they'll sue themselves?

  7. JPS by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    They have JPS: Jungle Positioning System

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    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  8. It's dead reckoning . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...a fancy way of saying "remembering where stuff is relative to other stuff"?

    Yeah, I was thinking that this is just a bit of "dead reckoning," combined with old salty pirate skills:

    "Arrrgh, when yee see the rock, that looks like the skull of a monkey, turn left, take twenty paces, and the treasure is buried below. But beware the curse . . ."

    I guess she's got "cat GPS" and/or is "using internal distance transform maps"...

    Just to be on the safe side, see if your cat can perform the same trick, while wearing a tinfoil hat. And please get back to us if she can. Maybe those felines are up to something behind our backs.

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  9. Re:Built-In Mental GPS by Linker3000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a bonobo cluster of those!

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    AT&ROFLMAO