SHOW & TELL

Teaching was once considered a uniquely human behaviour, but science now recognises a small and very diverse group of species as animal teachers

- JO WIMPENNY

SOMETIMES, AN ORANGUTAN mother must step in to stop her progeny from eating poo or poisonous leaves. Baby orangutans, like all youngsters, have a lot to learn about life. The mother is the infant's primary role model - for up to nine years, the longest dependency period of any non-human primate - and it is from watching and interacting with her that the youngster learns many of its survival skills, including the technical know-how for processing more than 200 food items.

The word 'teaching' comes to mind. But this is where things get tricky. Because, while the concept of animals 'teaching' their young may not seem controversial, it elicits lively discussions in the scientific world.

Teaching is so fundamental to how our children learn that historically it was considered a uniquely human trait. We are, after all, intelligent, intentional beings, so surely teaching must reflect these traits? At the heart of this is the assumption that when we teach, we are using our big brains to work out the best method, balancing our own beliefs and motivations with what we know about those of our pupils.

This capability to predict what others are thinking is termed 'theory of mind'. For a long time, other animals were thought to lack any of these 'mind-reading' abilities, so they were also assumed incapable of teaching.

IMAGINE THE SHOCKWAVES WHEN, in 2006, a little species of ant overturned this assumption. "It was the last thing people expected," says Nichola Raihani, professor of evolution and behaviour at University College London. "For such a long time, people were looking for examples of teaching in chimpanzees. And the next thing is it comes from an ant."