Orangutans Monkey Around With Video Games
He's a story that gives new meaning to the term "monkeying around". Zoo Atlanta has been encouraging Sumatran Orangutans to interact with touch screens incorporated into a fake tree, in an effort to study their cognitive abilities.
"Four-year-old Bernas isn't the computer wizard his mom is, but he's learning. Just the other day he used his lips and feet to play a game on the touch-screen monitor as his mom, Madu, swung from vines and climbed trees. The two Sumatran orangutans at Zoo Atlanta are playing computer games while researchers study the cognitive skills of the orange and brown primates. The best part? Zoo visitors get to watch their every move."
Zoo officials hope the exhibit will raise awareness of the rapidly diminishing wild orangutan population, which is on track to completely disappear in the next decade.
