LEIPZIG, Germany, June 9 (UPI) -- Scientists who mapped fruit trees and tracked chimpanzees in Ivory Coast say the animals can remember the locations of thousands of trees.
Emmanuelle Normand of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who headed the study, told the BBC she and her colleagues mapped 12,499 fruit trees in Tai National Park, using GPS to get exact locations.
"We were amazed by the apparent easiness by which chimpanzees discover highly productive fruit trees," she said. "Or how after being separated from other group members for hours or days, they could join each other silently at a large fruit tree, like if they would have had an appointment at this place."
The chimpanzees the group tracked reached favorite trees by shorter routes than they would have by chance, suggesting spatial memory. They also appeared to remember when various species of tree would be bearing fruit.
