Animal Culture comes to Edinburgh

Crow toolsThis week we are at Edinburgh Zoo with our Animal Cultures exhibit. Sited in the Budongo Trail, you will be able see Edinburgh’s resident chimpanzees (including the two-month old baby) in their state-of-the-art home while you have go at a chimp puzzle. Will you be as good as a chimp at learning how to find the hidden food?

The stand explains how researchers from Scotland and further afield have used a combination of thousands of hours of observations, advanced gadgetry and fun experiments to work out how animals, from guppies to capuchins monkeys, learn from one another and form traditions. You can try your hand at recording the behaviour of wild vervet monkeys, attempt to hook out some delicious grubs using crow tools and see how meerkats teach their young to catch deadly scorpions.

The stand will be in the lecture theatre at the Budongo Trail from 10.00 to 16.00 until Sunday 28 September. Each day researchers from the projects featured in the exhibit will be on hand to explain what they do and answer your questions.