Instrumental problem-solving abilities in three lemur species (Microcebus murinus, Varecia variegata, and Lemur catta).

Apes and some New and Old World monkeys (i.e., haplorhine primates) are known to routinely use tools. In strepsirrhine primates (i.e., lemurs and lorises), no tool use has been reported, even though they appear to have some basic understanding of the spatial relations required for using a pulling tool. To facilitate direct comparisons of the underlying abilities between haplorhine and strepsirrhine primate species, we experimentally examined instrumental problem-solving abilities in three captive lemur species (Microcebus murinus, Varecia variegata, and Lemur catta), using methods from previous experiments with haplorhine primates. First, lemurs were supposed to use a stick to gain access to an inaccessible food reward. Only one ring-tailed lemur solved this task spontaneously on the first attempt. After offering the stick repeatedly, 13 individuals of all three species solved it successfully. Second, lemurs had to choose between pairs of reachable objects with a food reward on or near them, where one object did not afford pulling in the food. Ring-tailed and gray mouse lemurs generally selected the correct (connected) object, thus performing comparably with haplorhine primates, and ruffed lemurs even matched chimpanzees in their performance. Thus, although strepsirrhine primates may lack the fine motor skills to use a stick as a reaching tool, they performed comparable with naturally tool-using haplorhine primates on means-end problems. Our findings suggest a dissociation in primates between the judgment of spatial relations between two objects, which appears to be roughly equivalent across species, and facility at handling sticks for instrumental purposes, which favors species with enhanced manual dexterity. (PsycINFO Database Record