Animals Using Touchscreens: The 'Digital Natives' of the Animal Kingdom

Since touchscreens became an everyday interface, millions of people have sought to capture animals' reactions to them, whether to share on the web or for more complex purposes like studies on behavior and language. Dogs, cats, penguins, apes, bears, and even tortoises have managed to grasp the basic concept of a touchscreen, and today we'll explore some of those cases.

The Frog and the Chimpanzee

A viral video that exploded five or six years ago taught us about a frog eating virtual insects on a smartphone, and venting its frustration on its owner's thumb. Touchscreens hold a privileged position in our mobile devices, which has given rise to a wide range of humorous situations involving animals, but it also enabled the possibility of studying with some precision the cognitive and communicative capacity of several species. The process is much more complicated than it seems. One of the first barriers is the resistance of the touchscreen. We can easily calculate the force required for each touch, but in a moment of special frustration, a chimpanzee could pierce the screen with a single blow. As we can see in the video below, the Edinburgh Zoo had to take special precautions:

This example is one of the most interesting because it initially shows what appears to be a failure. After playing with a real ball, Cindy had many problems detecting the red circle, and it is evident that she is only testing all the options to guess the result. The solution was to replace the red circle with a photo of a hand holding the ball, just as she remembered it from the original game.

Japanese Macaques at Lincoln Park Zoo

In the case of Japanese macaques, the staff at Lincoln Park Zoo decided to offer a more tempting objective: Food. If they press the circles in the correct order, a small fruit will appear in the tube. The training of the macaques was divided into a minimum of ten phases, and each one responded at a different pace, but most ended up interacting with the screen.

Assistance Dogs and the FIDO Project

Now, what about dogs? We all know their learning capacity is extraordinary, as is their versatility in training. Georgia Tech's FIDO Project aims to introduce touchscreens and sensors into the equation to optimize communication between assistance dogs and their owners. Sensors on the harness allow the dog to alert certain actions, such as a person ringing the doorbell or an alarm sounding in the background. If a medical emergency arises and no one is nearby to help, the dog uses its nose to touch two circles and send an alert.

Do Animals Enjoy Touchscreens? The Wolf Science Center

However, there is a question that all scientists have asked themselves at some point in their research: Do animals actually enjoy touchscreens? According to Lina Oberliessen of the Wolf Science Center in Ernstbrunn (Austria), the answer is yes. The training of wolves and dogs there is based on rewards with food or reinforcement clicks, and the researcher indicates that some of them are almost addicted to the tasks they are presented with. In moments of greater excitement, wolves have been known to touch the screens using their paws instead of their noses, and there have been cases where they didn't even take the reward, focusing all their attention on the panel.

Tortoises: Surprising Learners

Finally, we have to talk about tortoises. Yes, tortoises. In 2014, a team formed by researchers from the universities of Lincoln and Vienna trained tortoises with touchscreens to evaluate their learning methods and spatial perception. Only two tortoises of the four participants managed to solve the exercise, but the speed with which they absorbed the rules was impressive (faster than dogs, according to the researchers), and judging by their behavior, they didn't seem bothered by the work.

The relationship between animals and touchscreens goes far beyond cats trying to catch fish or birds in a YouTube video. The fact that they can be trained to use this tool is formidable, and it helps us get to know their minds a little better.