Submission + - Chimps recognize others' ignorance and act
RogerRoast writes: Don't think that only humans can recognize ignorance in others and act to remediate it. According to a new research report, chimpanzees consider the knowledge of others before sounding an alarm. The study shows that chimpanzees produce a specific 'alert' call to threats, such as a deadly snake. They produce these calls more when audience members are ignorant, rather than knowledgeable, about the presence of the snake. The research suggests that chimpanzees keep track of the information available to other chimpanzees and make selective decisions about the messages they convey based on that understanding. "Chimpanzees really seem to take another’s knowledge state into account," said Catherine Crockford of the University of St Andrews, UK, the first author of the study. The study conducted in the Budongo Forest, Uganda was published in a recent issue of the journal Current Biology.