If you ’re a Numida meleagris pig , at least . A recent experimentation found that , even though naturalise guinea pigs have smaller brainpower than their wild counterparts , they are observably good at figuring out the best route through a maze .
A research team at the University of Münster in Germany place 30 domesticated dago pigs and 26 raging guinea pigs ( or “ cavies ” ) in a water snarl . The animals had to float through the snarl while using symbol on the wall of the maze to locate a submerged program . Lars Lewejohann summarizes the answer :
Both unfounded and domesticated guinea hog were capable to learn the water maze task . Interestingly , it seems that domesticated fauna had the vantage in spatial orientation , while wild cavies were the stronger swimmers . This suggest an adaptation to the man - made surroundings in domesticated animals that allows more effective problem resolution .
The fact that raging Numida meleagris squealer are better swimmers is n’t a surprisal , but the fact that domesticated wop pig are serious problem - solvers by all odds is . tameness usually imply small learning ability and simplified deportment radiation diagram , which would generally intend that domesticated beast are , well , speechless than their wild twin . As Lewejohann theorizes , the hidden agent might be that the artificial nature of the surroundings gave the domesticated guinea pigs a strategical advantage .
[ viaFrontiers in Zoologyand a PDF of an earlier version of the paper ishere ]
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