Kanngiesser P & Call J (2010) Bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang utans use feature and spatial cues in two spatial memory tasks, Animal Cognition, 13, 3, 419-430

Abstract:n

Animals commonly use feature and spatial strategies when remembering places of interest such as food sources or hiding places. We conducted three experiments with great apes to investigate strategy preferences and factors that may shape them. In the first experiment, we trained 17 apes to remember 12 different food locations on the floor of their sleeping room. The 12 food locations were associated with one feature cue, so that feature and spatial cues were confounded. In a single test session, we brought the cues into conflict and found that apes, irrespective of species, showed a preference for a feature strategy. In the second experiment, we used a similar procedure and trained 25 apes to remember one food location on a platform in front of them. On average, apes preferred to use a feature strategy but some individuals relied on a spatial strategy. In the final experiment, we investigated whether training might influence strategy preferences. We tested 21 apes in the platform set-up and found that apes used both, feature and spatial strategies irrespective of training. We conclude that apes can use feature and spatial strategies to remember the location of hidden food items, but that task demands (e.g. different numbers of search locations) can influence strategy preferences. We found no evidence, however, for the role of training in shaping these preferences

  By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer

It wasn't long after Sally Coxe started learning about bonobos -- the chimpanzee-like primates that many scientists believe, of all living apes, is most similar to humans' long-extinct evolutionary ancestors -- that she quit her job to try to save them.

Her family thought she was crazy. For years, with a brutal war raging around the bonobos' habitat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was difficult to find people who worried about the apes as she did, or to raise money and travel there to help.

But somehow, Coxe and the small, offbeat nonprofit group she co-founded in a Woodley Park apartment have done some remarkable things. They forged alliances with villagers and Congolese leaders, and have implemented a grass-roots model for protecting endangered species.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121505029.html

Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
May 25, 2009

A partnership between local villages and conservation groups, headed up by the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), has led to the creation of a new 1,847 square mile (4,875 square kilometer) reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0525-hance_kokolopori.html

A Congolese nurse who travels to remote sections of central Africa to rescue bonobos and once left her family to spend Christmas day nursing an orphaned bonobo back to health has won the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) Siddle-Marsden Award for 2009, given annually to the African caregiver that best exemplifies the spirit of conservation and dedication at primate sanctuaries.