Shiva is twice his normal weight and carries much of it in his belly.
Shiva sits around too much, eating rich, fatty foods and sipping sugary drinks, like many these days. He has the pot belly to prove it, one that nearly touches the floor — when he’s on all fours, that is.
Continue reading… “Scientists Fatten Up Monkeys to Study Human Obesity”
Ironically, the idea of training monkeys to fight was first invented by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA in the Vietnam War initiated a program that used the peanuts and bananas as prizes to train some “monkey soldiers” to kill Vietnamese in the jungle.
In a fascinating example of vocal mimicry, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and UFAM (Federal University of Amazonas) have documented a wild cat species imitating the call of its intended victim: a small, squirrel-sized monkey known as a pied tamarin. This is the first recorded instance of a wild cat species in the Americas mimicking the calls of its prey.
The grooming behaviour displayed by primates is due to less rational behaviour than often thought. According to a computer model developed by scientists at the University of Groningen, one basic rule explains all possible grooming patterns: individuals will groom others if they’re afraid they’ll lose from them in a fight.
Scientists once thought of tool use as a defining feature of humans. That’s until examples of tool use came in from other primates, along with birds and an array of other mammals. Now, a report in the December 14th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, adds an octopus to the growing list of tool users. (Video)
Continue reading… “Coconut-Carrying Octopus Surprises Scientists”
Research at the universities of Liverpool and Oxford into the finger length of primate species has revealed that cooperative behavior is linked to exposure to hormone levels in the womb.
Continue reading… “Hormone That Affects Finger Length Key To Social Behavior”
The intense exchanges that human mothers share with their newborn infants may have some pretty deep roots, suggests a study of rhesus macaques reported online on October 8th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Continue reading… “Rhesus Macaque Monkey Moms ‘Go Gaga’ For Baby, Too”
A study of female monkeys’ grooming habits provides new clues about the way we humans socialise. New research, published September 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society, reveals there is a link between the size of the brain, in particular the neocortex which is responsible for higher-level thinking, and the size and number of grooming clusters that monkeys belong to.
Continue reading… “Monkeys’ Grooming Habits Provide New Clues To How We Socialize”
Well-preserved craniodental fossil remains from two primate species have been discovered during excavations at an Algerian site. They reveal that the small primate Algeripithecus, which is 50 million years old and until now was considered as the most ancient African anthropoid, in fact belonged to another group, that of the crown strepsirhines.
Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Florida used gene therapy to cure two squirrel monkeys of color blindness — the most common genetic disorder in people. Continue reading… “Scientists Cure Color Blindness In Monkeys”
Smith makes this conclusion in an article published the September issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Science (Volume 13, Issue 9). He reviews this new and rapidly developing area of comparative inquiry, describing its milestones and its prospects for continued progress. Continue reading… “Evidence Points To Conscious ‘Metacognition’ In Some Nonhuman Animals”
A monkey that has acquired the sole power to hand out apples is generously rewarded with grooming sessions by the other monkeys in its group. But as soon as another monkey can hand out apples as well, the market value of the first monkey is halved. Continue reading… “Monkeys Follow Economic Rules Of Supply And Demand”