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Species‐specific Considerations: Primate Learning
Betsy Herrelko

A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) sees a world of processes and industry and other
banana, a high‐value piece of food, high primate species have not. Detailed texts
above the ground and out of reach. Jumping outlining contributions of primate learning
up to reach the banana does not get the literature are available from iconic primatol-
chimpanzee close enough to grab it, nor does ogists such as Tomasello and Call (1997),
trying to hit it with a pole. Over time, the Matsuzawa (2001), Lonsdorf et al. (2010),
chimpanzee gathers items around the enclo- amongst others.
sure to stack as a way to get closer to the cov- Learning is a part of everything we do; at
eted item. After much trial and error, boxes least it should be if we have opportunities to
and a stick were combined to be able to reach experience new things. Mentally stimulating
the food reward. In Wolfgang Köhler’s (1925) challenges need to be appropriately challeng-
study of problem solving and tool use, we see ing (Meehan and Mench 2007), animals need
many instances of learning: an animal chang- to have the tools to solve the problem, be it
ing its behaviour as a result of an experience. physical tools (as in the Köhler study) or
Primates represent the quintessential mental abilities (e.g. being able to understand
example of animal learning, this is in large the rules of a task or what a complicated
part because we (humans) are primates and training cue means). We do not want to over-
are drawn to anthropocentric concepts that whelm or expect too much of an animal
appear to be similar to us (e.g. Rees 2001). when we have not done the groundwork to
We expect them to be smart because we are prepare them for the task at hand. An impor-
smart. There are risks and benefits of attrib- tant concept in designing opportunities for
uting human characteristics to animals learning success is factoring in animals’ natu-
(anthropomorphism), but when it comes to ral history, particularly with respect to their
the world of cognition and how animals pro- physical characteristics, sensory abilities,
cess information, scientists work hard to help and life history.
animal abilities shine through.
An area of cognition that is regularly
debated is the concept of building upon Physical Characteristics
information learned by those who came How an animal physically functions in the
before them, the ‘ratchet effect’ (Tomasello world is key to understanding the way they
1999). Also discussed as cumulative trans- learn. Failed learning may be the result of not
mission, it is presumed to be the reason why ensuring the animal has the ‘tools’ to solve
humans have developed such a complex the problem or because we are simply not

Zoo Animal Learning and Training, First Edition. Edited by Vicky A. Melfi, Nicole R. Dorey, and Samantha J. Ward.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.