A 6-year-old female chimpanzee at a Tokyo zoo demonstrated her ability to buy drinks from a vending machine to an audience of some 50 reporters Friday, zoo officials said.
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| Chiko the chimpanzee checks the drinks machine in Tama Zoo. |
Chiko, a chimpanzee at Tama Zoo in Hino, western Tokyo, learned to insert coins into the machine in order to purchase drinks as part of the zoo's research studies.
The zoo is aiming to gauge the learning abilities of chimpanzees and to develop them further.
On Friday, reporters watched as Chiko quickly grabbed 10 yen coins thrown to her by a zoo keeper and scampered over to the vending machine. She managed to buy five cans of juice in just 30 minutes.
The vending machine, modified to allow drinks to be purchased for 10 yen, was set up near the breeding ground of the zoo's 17 chimpanzees in July, according to the officials.
Chiko made her first successful attempt to operate the machine on Feb. 2.
Since late October, zoo keepers have been demonstrating how to insert the coins and extract cans of juice from the vending machine, they said.
Initial attempts to teach the animals this skill by showing them videos of humans operating the machine were unsuccessful, they added.