You might be surprised to learn that there are many animal gamers out there. For instance, in California, U.S. Navy sea lions are trained to: manipulate a cursor on a screen using their noses to press four buttons (up, down, left, and right) to navigate through a maze.

The sea lions, utilized by the Navy for locating and retrieving underwater objects, earn real herrings as rewards for completing their tasks, as opposed to loot boxes or power-ups.

This game is specifically designed to assess the cognitive skills of the sea lions; however, they face tough competition from the Navy’s bottlenose dolphins, which have been trained to control a joystick with their mouths to play the same game.

On land, primates reign supreme as gamers. Chimpanzees and orangutans at zoos in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Leipzig, Germany, have recently been trained to forage for food in a virtual setting.

When one of them discovers a digital snack (with apples, grapes, and bananas scattered throughout the game), they are rewarded with a real-life equivalent of the food.

This game offers valuable insights into how these animals utilize landmarks, like trees, to navigate while searching for food.

Meanwhile, chimpanzees in the United States have showcased their ability to navigate virtual mazes. A 2014 survey conducted by the Language Research Center at Georgia State University revealed that they perform comparably to children aged 3 to 6 years old.

However, like sea lions, primates also face strong competition. In 2021, four pigs in the United States were taught to operate a joystick using their noses to guide a cursor on the screen to a target, a task that requires a “conceptual understanding of the task and skilled motor skills.”

There are even digital mice and tablet apps for cats that let them “catch” fish with their paws.

Where will this all lead? A hedgehog playing Sonic Racing? A hamster playing Grand Theft Auto? Perhaps not, but these animal gamers reveal that we still have much to learn about their cognitive capabilities.

This article addresses the question posed by Guy Russell via email: “Can animals play video games?”

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