Chimpanzees have remarkable spatial memory and sense of direction

Chimpanzees are renowned for having the most complex memory among animals, apart from humans. Their short-term or working memory is especially impressive.

They can remember not only when and where fruits are ripe, but also use this knowledge to plan which fruit-bearing trees to visit and even where to sleep — ensuring they can feast on these fruits first thing in the morning. 

However, while much is known about how chimpanzees locate and exploit plant-based resources, the cognitive strategies they use to obtain animal-based foods have remained less explored.

Locating elusive prey underground

Until recently, researchers had limited understanding of how chimpanzees locate critical non-plant foods.

Now, a team from the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Jane Goodall Institute in Spain has led a study revealing that wild chimpanzees in Africa employ sophisticated cognitive skills to find and consume army ants concealed in underground nests. 

This discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications Biology, marks the first documentation of how chimpanzees rely on spatial and episodic-like memory to extract social insects hidden beneath the surface.

The study shows that these primates can successfully overcome a challenging cognitive task to exploit a difficult animal food source in the wild over extended periods.

By doing so, chimpanzees provide insight into the evolutionary underpinnings of cognitive abilities shared by both non-human primates and humans.

Challenge of locating hidden insects

Army ants (Dorylus spp.), also known as marabunta, boast the largest colonies of social insects on Earth.

Rich in protein and minerals — key nutrients for chimpanzees — these hymenopterous insects are notoriously elusive.

They build their nests under rocks, roots, and fallen vegetation, and move unpredictably, posing a significant foraging challenge.

To uncover how chimpanzees meet this challenge, the team analyzed 679 visits by chimpanzees to four army ant nests in Senegal’s Dindefelo community nature reserve from 2018 to 2022.

Chimpanzees’ memory of hidden nests

Study first author Andreu Sánchez-Megías is a PhD student at UB.

“We studied if chimpanzees intentionally return to nests, the strategies they use to detect if ants are present, the availability of these insects and the extent to which chimpanzees consume them.” 

According to Sánchez-Megía, ant nests are scarce and nearly always impossible to see, and thus, for the chimpanzees, remembering the exact location of the nest is a good foraging strategy.

“The nests are abandoned and reoccupied at irregular intervals, and this key component of the ants’ behavior allows chimpanzees to repeatedly visit the same nests to feed on these insects,” said Sánchez-Megías.

Spatial memory in chimpanzees

By recalling not only where the nests are located but also past outcomes — whether ants were found previously — chimpanzees exhibit episodic-like memory.

In humans, this type of memory corresponds with the ability to remember where, when, and what happened in past events.

Since non-human animals cannot verbally communicate their memories, scientists refer to this as episodic-like memory, indicating it is similar yet not identical to human episodic memory.

A key finding of this study is that chimpanzees employ four senses — sight, smell, taste, and touch — to inspect empty nests and detect whether ants are present.

This multi-sensory approach adds a new dimension to our understanding of how primates navigate complex foraging challenges.

Broader implications of the study

Study senior author R. Adriana Hernandez-Aguilar is an evolutionary anthropologist at UB,

“It is important to emphasize that the study of chimpanzee cognition in an ecologically relevant context — such as the savannah where our research was carried out — contributes to better understanding the evolution of human cognitive capacities, given that the first hominins inhabited similarly dry, open, and hot landscapes,” said Hernandez-Aguilar.

This research advances our knowledge of primate cognition and has important implications for conservation.

As chimpanzees are endangered, understanding the strategies they use to secure essential foods can inform efforts to protect their habitats and ensure their survival. 

By revealing that chimpanzees rely on advanced memory and problem-solving abilities to exploit challenging animal food sources, this study broadens our perspective on primate intelligence and its evolutionary roots.

The findings serve as a reminder that these extraordinary creatures possess cognitive talents that can inspire deeper appreciation and inform more effective conservation measures.

The full study was published in the journal Nature Communications Biology.

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