The games, designed by primate researchers, challenge the orangutans to match sounds and images (right answers are rewarded with food pellets) or to make pictures using simple colors. Researchers at he zoo hope to use the
games to gain insight into the animals’ memory, reasoning, and socialization, which can aid efforts to protect endangered orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. Tara Stoinski, a zoo conservationist, explains, “The more we understand about orangutans’ cognitive processes, the more we’ll understand about what they need to survive in the wild.” Elliott Albers, a neuroscientist, adds, “Hopefully we can get the animals to find better sources of food more easily” —better, presumably, than the food pellets at the zoo.