Gorilla thriller: scientists direct short movies for apes

Carefully directed films could help scientists explore the inner workings of the animal mind

Japanese researchers have made two short films, both involving a gorilla suit. They have shown them to a bunch of bonobos and chimpanzees. Why? By tracking the animals' eye movements, they claim to have got inside the minds of apes.

The two films are certainly the highlights of this study, "half-minute movie clips depicting novel and potentially alarming situations for the participant apes." These apes, captive animals at the Kumamoto Sanctuary in Japan, "have some experience watching commercially available films and TV programs since youth," the researchers write in Current Biology.