Memory of chimps "far better than human" Chimpanzees can far outperform humans in some mental tasks, including rapidly memorising and recalling numbers, Japanese scientists have shown. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute, showed remarkable videos of chimpanzees displaying mental dexterity that would be way beyond most people. The star performer among the institute's 14 chimpanzees, a 12-year-old male called Ayumu, has learnt all the numerals from 1 to 19. Several other Kyoto chimpanzees have learnt 1 to 9. When the numbers flash up in random places across a computer screen and in random order, and disappear after less than a second, the apes can point immediately to the exact locations where the numerals had been, in the correct numerical order. Prof Matsuzawa said a few exceptional people, such as those with savant syndrome, might be capable of such memory feats but they are far beyond the average human brain. "One person in several thousand may be able to do this," he said. All the chimps I have tested can do it. Prof Matsuzawa, who combines the study of wild chimpanzees in west Africa with research using the captive colony in Kyoto, said such a good working memory - the ability to take in an accurate, detailed image of a complex scene or pattern - was an important survival tool in the wild. For example, the apes can quickly assess and remember the distribution of edible fruit in a forest canopy. Or, when two rival bands of chimpanzees encounter one another, they can assess the strength of the rival group and decide whether to fight or flee. Such findings "are very controversial because not many people, particularly in the west, are pleased to see that chimps are mentally better than us," Prof Matsuzawa said. But they add support to the growing movement across the industrialised world to give special legal protection to chimpanzees and other apes, above that accorded to other laboratory animals. The UK banned biomedical research using great apes 25 years ago but in the US the National Institutes of Health is only now phasing out their use. The NIH announced last month that 310 of its 360 laboratory chimpanzees would be relocated to a sanctuary, leaving just 50 available for research in the event of an unforeseen medical emergency. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, told the AAAS meeting: "There really has been a seismic change in our attitude to these animals recently, recognising their abilities and their vulnerability."