How do monkeys recognise snakes so fast?
A Japanese researcher has found that a monkey’s ability to rapidly detect snakes is because of the presence of snake scales as a visual cue. When edited images of salamanders with snakeskin were shown to monkeys, they reacted to the altered images of the harmless creature equally fast, or even faster, than to the snake. The results are “consistent with the snake-detection theory that snakes were a strong selective pressure favouring modifications in the primate visual system that allow them to detect snakes more quickly or reliably. Humans too react rapidly to snakes; infants as young as 8-14 months respond more rapidly to snake images than to say, flower, and snake pictures elicited specific neural responses in infants who are just 7-10 months old.
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