Natasha Image Credit: MPI EVAN, Esther Herrmann
Many have suspected and some have known that certain species of animals have special intelligence that impresses even human beings. But one animal in particular stands out from the rest. Meet Natasha the genius chimpanzee described as ‘exceptional’ by researchers.
Natasha lives at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, and has out scored 106 other Chimpanzee’s on an intelligence test proving that she is the smartest of them all.
In her young life she has learned to escape from her enclosure, teases human caretakers, and out score other chimps in communication tests.
According to Mike Adams Natasha outscored some human teenagers in a comparative analysis done by myscienceacademy.org.
In one experiment, chimps were asked to find food in a container after it had been shuffled around with empty containers. In another, they had to use a stick to get food placed on a high platform. The researchers analyzed the data to determine if the scores in some tests helped predict performance in others.
The study is being done to assess various factors that may play a factor in intelligence including temperament, and attention from caretakers. The goal is to understand what social or genetic factors make the apes score higher than others.
