New research shows that young orangutans learn essential nest-building skills by watching others and practicing over many years Primatologists from the University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, have discovered how young orangutans acquire one of their most vital survival skills: building secure treetop nests. Why Nests Matter Nest-building is critical to orangutans, who spend their lives high in the forest canopy. A well-built nest provides: Despite its importance, nest-building has often been overlooked…

Researchers introduce a new term to explain apes’ fondness for fermented fruit—and how it could illuminate human evolution. What Is ‘Scrumping’? A recent study conducted by academics at Dartmouth and the University of St Andrews introduces a name for a behaviour that has been long observed but never explicitly characterised in great apes: scrumping. The phrase denotes the act of collecting or appropriating fermenting fruits—usually those that have fallen from trees—by apes. “We never bothered to differentiate fruits in trees…

A recent study conducted by experts at the University of Waterloo suggests that female pilots may excel above their male colleagues in high-pressure flight scenarios. The results contest conventional beliefs in aviation and indicate that female pilots may possess distinct advantages that warrant more acknowledgement in pilot training and assessment frameworks. “These findings are exciting because they push us to rethink how we evaluate pilots,” Naila Ayala, the principal author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar at Waterloo’s Multisensory…

Psychological and philosophical research has consistently demonstrated that an individual’s subjective moods and emotions profoundly influence their perception of life’s significance. Philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe noted that an individual’s mood significantly influences perception and is crucial in shaping their understanding of life’s meaning. Empirical studies in psychology have examined the influence of mood on the perception of life’s purpose. Phenomenology has demonstrated that the embodied, first-person experience significantly shapes our perception of the world. In related disciplines, the notions of affordance,…