monkeys

All posts tagged monkeys

…but they help.

Posted by animalsdontthink on February 15, 2011
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Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled works to train capuchin monkeys to assist people with severe disabilities such as paralysis.  With the help of their companions, those in need can accomplish every day tasks that they would otherwise not be able to complete.  Monkeys in their program learn diverse jobs such as putting straws in drinks and preparing water bottles, adjusting eyeglasses, and loading and starting dvd players.  Trained graduates then spend 20-30 years with their individually matched human, creating a bond of communication and friendship.

 

 

Thanks, Mark!

…but they cry wolf.

Posted by animalsdontthink on January 15, 2011
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White faced capuchin monkeys have been found to fake warning calls with the goal of misleading their peers.  Occasionally, when a low-ranking monkey wants to steal a higher ranking monkey’s food, it calls out a red-alert, signaling imaginary predators. It then steals the other monkey’s dinner while its peers take cover and look for the threat.

…but they’ll work to cuddle babies.

Posted by animalsdontthink on November 10, 2010
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Monkeys trade grooming efforts for opportunities to touch new mothers’ babies, in what ScienceNews calls a “do my hair before you touch my baby” set of rules.  Monkeys who provide a few minutes of grooming are often granted the chance to sniff or pat babies, and those who more regularly groom a mother are more likely to be permitted to actually hold her child.

[Animal Behavior via Discover and ScienceNews, image]

…but they teach each other to wash their food.

Posted by animalsdontthink on November 3, 2010
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Researchers on a Japanese beach studying snow macaques quickly discovered that the treats they brought along changed monkey culture.  One Japanese snow monkey began washing all the newly received sweet potatoes in a nearby puddle, and shortly after, the behavior caught on across the whole group.  It even eventually evolved to include different rinses – in saltwater instead of freshwater – among younger members of the local monkey community. Researchers speculated that the saltwater rinse enhanced flavor.

Next, the researchers gave rice to the snow monkeys instead of sweet potatoes, expecting that it would take a while for the monkeys to sort the rice from the sand on the beach.  However, the monkeys quickly learned to simply scoop up piles of sand that held the rice and bring them to the sea, where the sand would fall and the rice would float.