Tortoises Learn How To Use Touchscreen Technology
- 10 years ago
Humans aren’t the only animals who can figure out how to use a touch screen device. Researchers at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom and the University of Vienna, Austria have taught red-footed tortoises to use touch screen technology using strawberries as a reward.
Humans aren’t the only animals who can figure out how to use a touch screen device.
Researchers at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom and the University of Vienna, Austria have taught red-footed tortoises to use touch screen technology using strawberries as a reward.
As part of a study to learn more about how reptiles navigate their surroundings, the researchers put shapes on a screen and had the tortoises touch the colored spot with their head.
All four of the tortoises involved in the study were able to use the touch screen device, but two of them reportedly gave up after awhile.
Another part of the experiment to see if the tortoises could apply their touch screen use to a real world setting showed that they might be able to make navigational connections between an object on screen and a bowl of food.
Lead researcher Dr. Anna Wilkinson is quoted as saying: “This tells us that when navigating in real space they do not rely on simple motor feedback but learn about the position of stimuli within an environment.”
Other animals that have been trained to use touch screens include black bears, dogs, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, pigeons, and rats.
Humans aren’t the only animals who can figure out how to use a touch screen device.
Researchers at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom and the University of Vienna, Austria have taught red-footed tortoises to use touch screen technology using strawberries as a reward.
As part of a study to learn more about how reptiles navigate their surroundings, the researchers put shapes on a screen and had the tortoises touch the colored spot with their head.
All four of the tortoises involved in the study were able to use the touch screen device, but two of them reportedly gave up after awhile.
Another part of the experiment to see if the tortoises could apply their touch screen use to a real world setting showed that they might be able to make navigational connections between an object on screen and a bowl of food.
Lead researcher Dr. Anna Wilkinson is quoted as saying: “This tells us that when navigating in real space they do not rely on simple motor feedback but learn about the position of stimuli within an environment.”
Other animals that have been trained to use touch screens include black bears, dogs, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, pigeons, and rats.