James Balog/Aurora
By Alun Anderson
JULIA FISCHER is a leading primatologist best known to the public for her work with a dog called Rico that she spotted on a German TV show.
Rico, it was claimed, could remember the names of some 70 toys and fetch them on command. Despite Fischer’s initial scepticism, her experiments showed that the Border collie’s talents were even greater than claimed. The story of Rico and the press frenzy that followed its publication in Science is retold in Fischer’s new book Monkeytalk. It is a delight, especially when we learn that another Border collie has learned the names of 1022 toys.
But to Fischer, head of the cognitive ethology department at the University of Göttingen, Germany, the story has a deeper significance. A dog’s range of barks, growls and whines is restricted, as are the vocalisations of monkeys: the vocal organs of these animals are simply not wired up to the bits of the brain that could provide the fine motor control needed.
That means the range of things an animal can communicate about vocally may tell us little about what it can think about and act upon. To get “inside the worlds and minds of primates”, as the book’s sub-title claims, requires us to put aside language-biased preconceptions and to come up with imaginative experiments. Fischer’s book is a wonderful, short guide to the ingenious and patient work that is giving us deeper insights into primate psychology.
I particularly loved the studies that reveal the secrets of monkey social __life through broadcasting “audio dramas”, created by cutting and pasting the recorded voices of members of a monkey group. Using some hidden loudspeakers, researchers created apparently scandalous goings-on and saw how their monkey audience reacted.
In one, a threat call from a low-ranking female chacma baboon was followed by the screams of a higher-ranking female from a different family, suggesting that she was being attacked. This shocking breach of inter-family etiquette excited the listeners and showed how well they knew individuals and their place in society.
In another, a bachelor male heard the voice of a male grunting in the undergrowth and then his consort’s mating call some way off. The bachelor’s head spun: if the male and his consort were apart it might mean a break-up – and an opportunity. Moments later he “ambles nonchalantly towards ‘her'”, Fischer writes.
“Monkeys react strongly to fake ‘audio dramas’ of other monkeys’ shocking breaches of etiquette”
These and many other experiments show that monkeys possess profound social intelligence and can solve problems in their own environment. But as we move towards more abstract intelligence and language, a gap opens up between them and us.
Fischer adroitly explores the big questions now being asked about primate minds. Can they understand the intentions of others? Are they able to “time travel” and plan for the future? How much can they learn by watching others? Are they capable of metacognition, of knowing what it is that they know?
Monkeytalk has its faults: it starts like a textbook and it takes a little time before you discover its unusual mix of science and insight, interspersed with funny anecdotes from African field work, including how to dress for “survival in the bureaucratic jungle”. Pink pumps, a plastic handbag, lots of rhinestones and glittery appliqué were all needed for Fischer to meet local expectations of what a lady looked like – and obtain a vehicle permit.
The book ends on a serious note, though. The only way we will really understand our own origins is to explore the minds of other primate species along with the bewildering differences in the societies they live in, their ecology, neurobiology and genetics. But primate populations are being destroyed so fast that our close relatives may vanish from the wild before we can find out what made us human.
Monkeytalk: Inside the worlds and minds of primates by Julia Fischer, University of Chicago Press
This article appeared in print under the headline “Smarter secrets”
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