Ayumu is a chimpanzee currently living at the Primate Research Institute

Primate Research Institute

The Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University is a national research center for the study of primates. It was founded in 1967 by primatologists Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani. The Institute works toward understanding the biological, behavioral and socioecological aspects of primates, and the...

 of Kyoto University

Kyoto University

, or is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university, and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.- History :...

. He is the son of chimpanzee Ai, and has been a participant since infancy in the Ai Project, an ongoing research effort aimed at understanding chimpanzee cognition. As part of the Ai Project, Ayumu participated in a series of short-term memory tasks on a touch-sensitive computer screen. His performance in the tasks was superior to that of comparably trained university students, leading to a conclusion that young chimpanzees have better eidetic memory

Eidetic memory

Eidetic , commonly referred to as photographic memory, is a medical term, popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume. The word eidetic, referring to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall not limited to, but...

than adult humans.