Biology

2007-01-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

DID YOU KNOW?!

Japanese macaques(Macaca fuscata), also known as the Snow Monkey, ( YES, THE CUTE MONKEY YOU SEE ABOVE) invent new behaviors and pass them on by imitation.

BEFORE I GO ON,

Let me introduce it to you guys first.

Japanese monkeys are the most northerly-living non-human primate, living in the mountainous areas of Honshu, Japan. They survive winter temperatures below -15 degrees , and keep warm in naturally heated volcanic springs.

HOW YOU MAY ASK?

Well, In 1963 a young female named Mukubili waded into a hot spring in the Nagano Mountains to retrieve some soybeans that had been thrown in by the keepers. Soon the other monkeys joined her. At first the behavior caught on only with the young macaques and their mothers. Over the years the rest of the troop took up the behavior, which now finds shelter in the hot springs to escape the winter cold.

WANT ANOTHER EXAMPLE?

Young monkeys have also learned, perhaps from human children, how to roll snowballs, which they have a lot of fun with.

NOT ENOUGH?

HOW ABOUT POTATO WASHING?

Monkey washing potato

Monkey washing a ball of wheat

Potato washing by a troop was first started by a one and a half year old female named Imo.

Researchers put sweet potatoes along the beach to bring the monkeys out in the open for their research.

Imo found that she could get the sand off the potato better by dipping it into the river water, rather than brushing it off with her hands, like the other monkeys were doing (SO SMART RIGHT??).

Her brothers and sisters imitated her first and then their mother. Over time the entire troop started to wash sand off the potatoes with river water.

At first, they simply washed the sand off, but Imo soon found that the potatoes tasted better if seasoned with salt water from the ocean(EVEN SMARTER!!).

They began to bite into the potato, dip it into the sea water to season it and bite again.

Imo was a bit of a genius for a monkey (SEE, WHAT I SAID) because she also discovered wheat washing.

She would make a ball of wheat and sand and throw it into the water. The wheat would float up to the top where she could pick it up and eat it without the sand.

WANT MORE??

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