Tinder for Monkeys: Technology for Understanding Monkey Emotions

Unable to speak, scientists are turning to technology to understand animals, and scientists at a Dutch university have gone one step further by providing monkey touchscreens that they can play with as they try to understand their emotions and intelligence, and possibly improve their chances of finding a mate.

The project aims to “obtain more information on how orangutans they communicate their emotions to each other, how they react to each other and how their emotions relate to the decisions they make, whether it be how they cooperate or trust each other, or how they engage each other to give them more options when choice of partners. , explains Mariska Kret, a cognitive psychologist and principal investigator of this program at the University of Leiden, South Holland.

Tinder for monkeys

while orangutans perform computer tasks, experts in various disciplines observe them to analyze how they express their feelings and thus improve their understanding of their intelligence.

Participation in this activity is voluntary, Kret emphasizes, so orangutan forced to use these screens, rather “they go and sit in front of the computer and they won’t if they don’t want to” although previous research has shown that monkey those who perform computer tasks experience “less stress”, and it is, in addition, a distraction that “challenges them” and “a form of relaxation”.

Those who dare to tinker and play with the computer will be able to make certain decisions on the touch screen, and the “eye-tracker” – a special camera that follows the movements of their eyes, records exactly what they look at. Crete points out that monkey they have complex emotions and take into account how their peers feel.

There are researchers who focus on specific questions, such as doctoral student Tonko Zijlstra, who studies the human smile. orangutanssince “emotions are very contagious among humans, but what about monkeys? Do they do it like people? scientists ask.

His colleague Tom Roth finds out what it is. orangutans find “attractive” in others, meaning it tries to predict if a woman will feel attracted to a particular man, which is why he called this project “Tinder for monkeys”, although Kret believes that this research is much more difficult than a dating app.

“Sometimes females are transferred to another zoo as part of a breeding program. So far, this has been based on the genetic profile, but personal preference has not been taken into account. We want to see if we can predict gravity. So the project has a direct application in terms of improving animal welfare,” Kret adds.

complex context

 orangutans they are the largest arboreal mammals, spending most of their time in trees, although they share 96.4% of human genes and are highly intelligent creatures.

But human pressure, deforestation and low reproduction rates mean the population orangutans be vulnerable: females give birth to a calf every 3-5 years.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF, English acronym) today considers them to be critically endangered and “threatened with extinction”. In 2017 the third kind orangutantapanuli, which, with their 800 individuals, are the most vulnerable of all great apes.

So far, studies like this one in Leiden have been carried out in closed enclosures away from the public, but the special thing about this project is that it is being done “for the first time” in front of visitors at the Ouwehands Zoo in Utrecht, so visitors can see how orangutan play with touch screen.

According to the university, the researchers hope that visitors will learn more about orangutans and the idea is that later on, the most curious may also find themselves in front of these screens to better understand what this research implies and contribute to it in some way.

This study, part of an international breeding project, aims to measure the attention span, memory and emotional levels of these animals.

“We want to show how smart orangutans and how rich their personalities are. I hope this will increase respect for these animals and have a positive impact on the protection of their species in the wild.” (EFE)

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