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COCKATOOS ARE SKILFUL SHAPE-SORTERS

Goffin’s cockatoos, a species of small parrot native to Australasia, have been shown to have similar shape-recognition abilities to a human two-year-old. Thoughnot known to use tools in the wild, the birds have proved adept at tool use in captivity. In a recent experiment at the University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, cockatoos were presented with box with a nut inside it. The clear front of the box had a ‘keyhole’ in a geometric shape, and the birds were given five differently shaped ‘keys’ to choose from. Inserting the correct ‘key’ would release the nut. In humans, babies can put a round shape in a round hole from around one year of age, but it will be another year before they’re able to do the same with less symmetrical shapes such as squares, triangles or crosses. This ability to recognise that a shape will need to be rotated into a specific orientation before it will fit is called an ‘allocentric frame of reference’. In the tests

NEWLY IDENTIFIED ORANGUTAN IS WORLD’S MOST ENDANGERED GREAT APE SPECIES.

A population of orangutans that lives in a remote part of northern Sumatra, and that was only discovered in 1997, has now been identified as a separate species. Withonly around 800 individuals known to exist, it’s now also the most threatened of all great ape species. It was once believed that all orangutans were one species, but since 1996 science has recognised two: the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelli, respectively). The following year, a longrumoured population of orangutans living in the Batang Toru region of northern Sumatra was seen for the first time, but initially the apes were thought to be of the species P. abelli. However, close study of an adult skeleton found in 2013 has revealed significant differences in the skull and teeth of the Batang Toru apes, leading to their new classification: Pongo tapanuliensis, or the Tapuli orangutan. Genomic analysis suggests that the species must have split from P. abelli around 70,000 y

WHY DO ANTS WALK IN A LINE?

Ants are highly social insects, thriving in colonies of millions of individuals that work as a team. Good communication skills lie at the heart of their success. They rely heavily on chemical scents, called ‘pheromones’, to defend territories and exchange complex information – from the location of food sources and nest sites, to the presence of predators. Each ant species has its own chemical vocabulary of up to 20 different pheromones that can be secreted to form specific scent trails. The tips of their antennae translate the chemical ‘words’, thereby guiding the ants, in a line, to or from the desired destination.

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