LONDON - A French researcher has found that grooming acts as a common currency among monkeys, and that the non-human primates exchange it for food, greater tolerance from dominant members of the group, and sex.
Ronald Noe, associated with the University of Strasbourg, created an artificial market in groups of vervet monkeys by introducing a plastic box filled with food that only one subordinate female was trained to open. The aim was to see how the exchange system works.
The researcher says that just an hour after the female opened the box, it was observed that she was rewarded by being groomed more often and for longer by other group members, and that she could afford to groom dominant group members less often.
Noe and colleagues later halved the importance of the female’s ability to provide food, by introducing a second lunch box that only a second female could open.
The first female’s grooming “stock value” decreased, while the second monkey’s rose, until both arrived at roughly the same value and were groomed for the same amount of time.
“One can say that the second provider was groomed at a cost of the first provider,” New Scientist magazine quoted Noe as saying.
A research article describing the study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)
Filed under Monkey, News | Tags: London | Comment Below
Related?
Like humans, monkeys too are adept in the art of deceivingJune 19th, 2009 LONDON - Intentional deceit is not just restricted to humans, monkeys too can con others in order to get food, says a new study. According to Federica Amici and colleagues of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, some monkeys use simple forms of deceit.
Spider monkeys also diet to avoid obesityMay 22nd, 2009 SYDNEY - In the wild, spider monkeys restrict their daily protein intake in a similar way to humans in order to avoid obesity, suggesting common evolutionary origins. Annika Felton, a departmental visitor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at Australian National University (ANU), spent a year in the Bolivian rainforest following 15 Peruvian spider monkeys, observing their individual dietary habits.
Agra woman dies while escaping from monkeysJanuary 19th, 2009 AGRA - A young housewife died when she fell off the terrace of a three-storey building here after being attacked by monkeys but a baby she was holding had a miraculous escape. The incident took place Monday evening in New Agra locality when the woman was with her two-month-old child.
Monkeys seem to raise false alarms to steal foodJune 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A New York-based anthropologist has found that fruit-eating capuchin monkeys use false alarms to steal food. Brandon Wheeler, a graduate student at Stony Brook University, set up platforms in the trees of Argentina's Iguazu National Park, and filled them with highly prized banana slices.
Do You Look Like Your Pet?February 18th, 2006 If Fido is more than your friend -- he's actually your twin -- then you may enter this contest. Sharing an uncanny resemblance to your pet could win yourself an amazing first prize package worth $2,300.
Agra monkeys have the last laughFebruary 9th, 2009 AGRA - There is unlikely to be any let up in Agra's monkey business any time soon. The plan of local authorities to banish 7,000 monkeys from the city of the Taj Mahal has backfired.
Common ancestor of humans and monkeys evolved from primates in AsiaJuly 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new fossil primate from Myanmar suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa, as was earlier believed by researchers. A major focus of recent paleoanthropological research has been to establish the origin of anthropoid primates (monkeys, apes and humans) from earlier and more primitive primates known as prosimians (lemurs, tarsiers and their extinct relatives).
Himachal Pradesh sterilizes monkeys to check their populationJune 27th, 2009 SHIMLA - The unrestricted growth of simian population in Shimla has forced the authorities to step- in, to control its numbers. The forest department of Himachal Pradesh has deployed a team of doctors to sterilize monkeys as a measure to bring down their growing population.ill now the department has sterilized around 5,000 monkeys and is targeting to sterilize 75,000 monkeys in next 2-3 years.
