The BBC tells how Chimps mentally map fruit trees

Chimpanzees remember the exact location of all their favourite fruit trees.

Their spatial memory is so precise that they can find a single tree among more than 12,000 others within a patch of forest, primatologists have found.

More than that, the chimps also recall how productive each tree is, and decide to travel further to eat from those they know will yield the most fruit.

Amazing. I’ll have to incorporate this into my next presentation on network monitoring. Although it seems thorough, the study left some things undone.

Intriguingly, female chimpanzees travelled shorter distances to eat than males. The researchers don’t know why, but speculate that it is either because females better remember the locations of trees, or because males simply compete with one another by ranging more widely through their territory.

Technology and data analysis can only get you so far, apparently, as the researchers leave this one open to interpretation. Who can crack the mystery of gender-based differences in chimpanzee navigation? Perhaps the females stop to ask for directions?