🦇 Think bats are just creatures of the night? Think again! Israeli researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have discovered that wild Egyptian fruit bats possess impressive cognitive abilities once thought to be exclusive to humans. 🤯
In a groundbreaking study published in Current Biology, scientists tracked free-ranging Egyptian fruit bats in TAU's zoology garden as they navigated and foraged. Their mission? To uncover if these nocturnal flyers could remember past experiences and plan for the future.
The team focused on traits like episodic memory, mental time travel, planning, and delayed gratification. And guess what? The bats aced the test! 🥳 They showed evidence of mental time travel and episodic memory, meaning they can recall personal experiences and use that knowledge to plan ahead.
This is a big deal because these cognitive skills were previously thought to be unique to humans. It turns out our bat buddies are way smarter than we gave them credit for! 💡
So next time you see a bat swooping through the night sky, remember—they might be on a carefully planned mission! 🚀
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
