Credit: Oxford Brookes University
How primates get from A to B gives vital information about their cognitive evolution, say researchers in a new study looking at the travel paths of animals in the wild. Using data from 164 wild primate populations, the global survey examines the mental abilities that primates, including ourselves, use to know where and when to travel in the most efficient way.
A birds eye view
Co-author Miguel de Guinea, expert in Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University commented: Imagine looking down on a huge outdoor market from high in the sky, perhaps from a drone hovering quietly above. The people below move in different ways. Some wander haphazardly among the stalls: they are learning what s available but are clearly not busy. Others take bee-line routes across the market to a destination they obviously wanted to reach, then, after buying what they need, head back in much the same way.