KYOTO Chimpanzees could be useful as assistants in casinos, according to research. They may also make good spies, say scientists, who found that young chimps are better at recalling numbers than adult humans.

The ability is described in the journal Current Biology. Researchers in Japan tested three pairs of mother chimps and their offspring, along with a group of university students. Both groups were presented briefly with various numerals from one to nine on a touch-screen monitor. The numbers were then replaced with blank squares, and participants had to remember which numeral appeared in which location, and touch the squares in the right order.

The juvenile chimps were able to memorise many numerals at a single glance, remembering them just as easily when the time they appeared on the screen was shortened. In general, the three young apes performed better than their mothers. They were also faster in their response rate than humans.

Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa, who led the research, said the chimps exhibited what looked like “eidetic imagery”, better known as photographic memory – an ability to retain a detailed and accurate image of a complex scene or pattern.

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