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ramonmercado

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Monkeys have accents too, researchers say


To the untrained ear monkeys of a certain species may all sound the same, but Japanese researchers have found that, like human beings, they actually have an accent depending on where they live.

The finding, the first of its kind, will appear in the December edition of a German scientific journal Ethology to be published on December 5, the primate researchers said Tuesday.

"Differences between chattering by monkeys are like dialects of human beings," said Nobuo Masataka, professor of ethology at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute.

The research team analyzed voice tones of two groups of the same species of primates, the Japanese Yakushima macaque also known as Macaca fuscata yakui, between 1990 and 2000.

One group was formed by 23 monkeys living on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima, and the other group comprised 30 descendants from the same tribe moved from the island to Mount Ohira, central Japan, in 1956.

The result showed that the island group had a tone about 110 hertz higher on average than the one taken to central Japan.

Monkeys on Yakushima Island have an accent with a higher tone because tall trees on the island tend to block their voice, Masataka said.

"On the other hand, monkeys on Mount Ohira do not have to gibber with a high tone as trees there are low," he said. "Each group adopted their own accent depending upon their environment."

This suggests differences in voice tones are not caused by genes, Masataka said, adding the results "may lead to a clue to the origin of human language."


Accent
 
Monkeys' stone percussion studied

The capuchins appear to use noise to ward off potential predators
Research in Brazil has produced fresh evidence that primates may have something approaching human "culture".

A scientist has observed capuchin monkeys banging stones together, apparently as a signalling device to ward off potential predators.

The researcher says the animals appear to be learning this skill from each other - and even teaching incomers to the group how it should be done.

The research is reported in the scientific journal Folia Primatologica.

Dr Antonio Moura from the University of Cambridge, UK carried out his work in the Serra da Capivara National Park, in the Piaui state of north-east Brazil.

Hard alerts

The use of stone technology in foraging for food is well known in non-human primates; monkeys will use rocks to crack open nuts.

Stone-banging could be a social tradition in the population studied

Antonio Moura
But this may be the first time they have been seen using stones to create a noise to keep predators away, and warn one another of potential danger.

Dr Moura describes how the monkeys, as he approached several groups of them, would first search for a suitable loose stone, then hit it on a rock surface several times in an aggressive manner.

Only as they became more used to his visits over time did the stone-banging decrease.

Noisy lessons

The scientist said he saw adults and juveniles hitting the stones together without paying him any attention at all - suggesting that the younger monkeys were learning the skill from their elders.

What is more, captive monkeys released into the area to join the study animals appeared to learn to bang stones as well.

"Although banging objects is an innate behaviour in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella libidinosus), in all wild groups observed so far it has been observed only in a foraging context," Dr Moura said.

"Stone-banging is a novel behavioural variant that is most likely learned socially. The absence of this display in other populations of capuchins, which have access to stones, suggests that stone-banging could be a social tradition in the population studied."




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6481795.stm
 
Monkeys' cosy alliance with wolves looks like domestication

In the alpine grasslands of eastern Africa, Ethiopian wolves and gelada monkey are giving peace a chance. The geladas – a type of a baboon – tolerate wolves wandering right through the middle of their troops, while the wolves ignore potential meals of baby geladas in favour of rodents, which they can catch more easily when the monkeys are present.

The unusual pact echoes the way dogs began to be domesticated by humans (see box, below), and was spotted by primatologist Vivek Venkataraman, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, during field work at Guassa plateau in the highlands of north-central Ethiopia. ...

http://www.newscientist.com/article...es-looks-like-domestication.html#.VXHt48-rTIU
 
As I'm sure I said about Spear Chimps, voting Tory will ultimately end in a Planet of the Apes scenario.
Thanks, some of Britain!
 
As I'm sure I said about Spear Chimps, voting Tory will ultimately end in a Planet of the Apes scenario.
Thanks, some of Britain!


I'm hoping it's the original Apes films and not the remakes or the 70's tv show.
 
Perhaps baboons should run for office. Researchers tracking a troop of wild olive baboons have found that the primates make travel decisions democratically when disagreements arise over which direction to go.

The findings, published in the journal Science, could help shed light on the evolution of group decision-making in a variety of social animals living in hierarchical structures -- humans included.

Researchers have long wondered how animals that live in complex social groups make collective decisions. For example, do certain members take the lead or not? How does a group decide what to do when two or more parties don’t agree?

In theory, animals like baboons make good case studies, because they’re complex individuals living in social hierarchies, and they stick together when they travel. Tracking how they decide where to go would be a good way to answer these questions.

But it’s exceedingly difficult to track that sort of decision-making in the wild, said study coauthor Margaret Crofoot, an anthropologist at UC Davis. ...

http://www.latimes.com/science/scie...cial-group-majority-moves-20150618-story.html
 
The world’s first archaeology dig of an old world monkey culture has uncovered the tools used by previous generations of wild macaques – a group of primates separated from humans by some 25 million years of evolution.

The discovery means humans aren’t unique in leaving a record of our past culture that can be pried open througharchaeology.

Only a few decades ago scientists thought that humans were the only species to have worked out how to turn objects in their environment into useful tools. We now know all sorts of animals can do the same – but the tools of choice are usually perishable materials like leafs and twigs.

This makes the origin of these behaviours difficult to study, especially when you consider that the record of hominin stone tool use stretches back more than 3 million years.

Burmese long-tailed macaques are a rare exception. They are renowned for their use of stone tools to crack openshellfish, crabs and nuts, making them one of the very few primates that have followed hominins into the Stone Age.

Now, for the first time, researchers have carried out a successful “monkey archaeology” dig to begin studying the origins of the behaviour. ...

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...paign=hoot&cmpid=SOC|NSNS|2016-GLOBAL-twitter
 
Monkeys Retake Village From Human Overlords

This isn’t the plot of a movie … it’s a real-life monkey takeover. Hundreds of wild monkeys who once lived in relative peace and harmony with people in a Chinese village set up to be a tourist attraction have instead taken it over from the humans who once pledged to care for them and are now driving the ‘filthy humans’ out. Is this the start of a macaque massacre? A rhesus revolution? Monkey mayhem?

In 2003, He Youliang, party secretary of Xianfeng Village located in the city of Panzhihua in south-west China’s Sichuan Province, convinced fellow residents to invite macaques (Macaca mulatta) to the town from a nearby mountain as a way to increase tourism. A total of 73 monkeys accepted the offer of food and moved in. That number soon increased to over 600 and Xianfeng became a monkey metropolis, attracting thousands of visitors. The success of the village attracted wealthy investors looking to make money on monkeys, including main investor Zhou Zhenggui, who ran the tourism company. ...

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/06/monkeys-retake-village-from-human-overlords/
 
Monkeys Retake Village From Human Overlords

This isn’t the plot of a movie … it’s a real-life monkey takeover. Hundreds of wild monkeys who once lived in relative peace and harmony with people in a Chinese village set up to be a tourist attraction have instead taken it over from the humans who once pledged to care for them and are now driving the ‘filthy humans’ out. Is this the start of a macaque massacre? A rhesus revolution? Monkey mayhem?

In 2003, He Youliang, party secretary of Xianfeng Village located in the city of Panzhihua in south-west China’s Sichuan Province, convinced fellow residents to invite macaques (Macaca mulatta) to the town from a nearby mountain as a way to increase tourism. A total of 73 monkeys accepted the offer of food and moved in. That number soon increased to over 600 and Xianfeng became a monkey metropolis, attracting thousands of visitors. The success of the village attracted wealthy investors looking to make money on monkeys, including main investor Zhou Zhenggui, who ran the tourism company.

people-570x384.jpg

Monkeys and tourists in happier times

All was fine until two years ago when Zhou passed away. His daughter took over, monkeyed around with the books and the business went into a tailspin. When the cash ran out, villagers couldn’t feed the monkeys on their own. That didn’t faze the hungry macaques, who began raiding homes, farms, orchards and stores for food. “Raid” is the wrong word, since macaques are a Class II national protected species, entitling them to special treatment.

Panzhihua Baoding Ecotourism went out of business last month. Wildlife officials, with their hands tied by government protection, were only able to drive 300 of the monkeys back onto the mountain. The remaining 300 are running the show as the villagers run out of food and run away from the hungry animals.

Hungry animals? Who are the hungry animals here? The monkeys lured by food and cared for by humans? Or the money-hungry businesses and profiteers who used them until the cash ran out?

Who deserves to live out their lives in peace in Xianfeng Village?

Xianfeng-monkey-village3-600x899-570x854.jpg

Who is the overlord now?
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/06/monkeys-retake-village-from-human-overlords/
 
Monkeys Turn into Grumpy Old Men, Too
Old monkeys, like old humans, would rather not make new friends
Beloved crank and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David once told an interviewer that he tolerates people like he tolerates lactose—which is to say, I'm assuming, not well. David's particular degree of grumpiness might be extreme, and perhaps embellished in the interest his shtick, but his social misgivings echo those of many in their dotage who’d rather spend time with old friends than deal with the sweat and small talk required to go out and make new ones.

Humans may not be alone here. According to new research, our primate cousins also become more socially selective with age, preferring the companionship of their “friends” to monkeys that are less familiar (or maybe just a drag at parties). The findings also hint at a possible evolutionary explanation for why our social preferences change over the years.

The work, conducted primarily by researchers from the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, was recently published in the journal Current Biology and entailed observing the behaviors of over 100 Barbary macaque monkeys, an out-going, some might say "screechy," species hailing from North Africa. To get a sense of how interest in non-social vs social stimulation changes over the course of their lifetimes, monkeys of varying ages were observed in the presence of both inanimate objects and other monkeys. ...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monkeys-turn-into-grumpy-old-men-too/
 
Monkey studies reveal possible origin of human speech

Most animals, including our primate cousins, communicate: they gesture, grimace, grunt, and sing. As a rule, however, they do not speak. So how, exactly, did humans acquire their unique talent for verbal discourse? And how do our brains manage this complex bit of communicative magic?

Scientists in the lab of Winrich Freiwald have shed new light on the underpinnings of human speech by identifying neural circuitry in the brains of monkeys that could represent a common evolutionary origin for social communication. As reported in the journal Neuron, these circuits are involved in face recognition, facial expression, and emotion. And they may very well have given rise to our singular capacity for speech.

Working with rhesus macaque monkeys, Freiwald had previously identified neural networks responsible for recognizing faces—networks that closely resemble ones found in the human brain.

Other researchers, meanwhile, had suggested that particular areas of the brain might be responsible for producing facial expressions. But no one had imaged these facial motor regions while they were active, much less when they were being used for communication. Nor did scientists understand how these networks might interact with each other and with areas of the brain that handle emotion, another integral component of social interaction. ...

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-07-monkey-reveal-human-speech.html
 
A bad news monkey story.

A 12-day-old boy has died after he was snatched from his mother and bitten by a monkey in northern India.

The infant's mother was breastfeeding him at their home in the city of Agra when the animal entered the house and grabbed him, the family said. The monkey dropped the badly bitten child on a neighbour's roof after locals gave chase to the animal. The baby died of his injuries in hospital. Locals say monkey attacks in the area are growing more frequent.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46213304
 
Soon they will move on to their Bronze Age.

Excavations in Brazil have pounded out new insights into the handiness of ancient monkeys.

South American capuchin monkeys have not only hammered and dug with carefully chosen stones for the last 3,000 years, but also have selected pounding tools of varying sizes and weights along the way.

Capuchin stone implements recovered at a site in northeastern Brazil display signs of shifts during the last three millennia between a focus on dealing with either relatively small, soft foods or larger, hard-shelled edibles, researchers report. These discoveries, described online June 24 in Nature Ecology & Evolution, are the first evidence of changing patterns of stone-tool use in a nonhuman primate.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/capuchin-monkey-stone-tool-use-evolution-3000-years
 
Monkeys with chainsaws!

Safari park baboons are seen armed with knives, screwdrivers and even a chainsaw: Keepers suspect pranksters are responsible for handing animals weapons so they damage visitors' cars 'for a laugh'
  • Baboons at the Merseydie-based safari park were seen 'armed' with weapons
  • They are infamous for ripping off wing mirrors and windscreen wipers
  • Park workers believe some guests may have provided weapons for the animals
By SAM BAKER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 01:59, 26 July 2020 | UPDATED: 11:05, 26 July 2020

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...k-baboons-seen-armed-knives-screwdrivers.html
 
That's not funny but it is funny, if you see what I mean. The fact the monkeys are happy to go along with the charade. And the misprint of "Merseydie" is a bit worrying.
 
Nazi Monkey!

Russian prosecutors have launched an investigation after a monkey wearing a Nazi uniform performed at a state circus.

The show also featured goats wrapped in Nazi flags with swastikas, according to the Russian news website Znak. The performance was part of a show at the Udmurtia Circus in the city of Izhevsk on 8 January. It was commissioned by the Russian Orthodox Church, which said the show symbolised the "spurning" of Nazism.

In a statement, prosecutors said they first became aware of the performance while monitoring the internet and have since launched "an investigation into the display of Nazi symbols". Russian law forbids public displays of Nazi symbols.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55646608
 
Nazi Monkey!

Russian prosecutors have launched an investigation after a monkey wearing a Nazi uniform performed at a state circus.

The show also featured goats wrapped in Nazi flags with swastikas, according to the Russian news website Znak. The performance was part of a show at the Udmurtia Circus in the city of Izhevsk on 8 January. It was commissioned by the Russian Orthodox Church, which said the show symbolised the "spurning" of Nazism.

In a statement, prosecutors said they first became aware of the performance while monitoring the internet and have since launched "an investigation into the display of Nazi symbols". Russian law forbids public displays of Nazi symbols.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55646608

A Chimpnazi's tea party at the zoo could prove popular.
 
Macaque miscreants.

A few years ago, the scientific news broke of a group of long-tailed macaque monkeys in Bali, Indonesia who would steal stuff from people and hold it ransom for food. You want your hat back? Gimme an apple.

Researchers kept studying the monkeys, and discovered something even more wild: The animals learn which items humans regard as high-value, and which will produce superior ransoms.

Stealing a low-value item, like an empty phone case? That won't get much food. Steal someone's glasses, or a wallet? Now that is gonna get a human to cough up a high-end ransom. The monkeys demonstrate "unprecedented economic decision-making processes", as the researchers write in their paper, online here.

What's more, the behaviors are socially learned, and the monkeys get better at judging high-value items with experience. The older ones, researchers found, tended to steal higher-value items. ...

https://boingboing.net/2021/01/20/l...-to-steal-high-value-goods-from-tourists.html
 
Monkey's mass maul.

A massive monkey brawl broke out on the streets of Lopburi, Thailand, stopping traffic on a major road.

Thousands of monkeys live around the nearby Phra Kan Shrine and the occasional skirmish occurs but one onlooker said "he had never seen so many monkeys wrestling with each other before, which he likened to a gangster fight in a movie." Video below. From the Indian Express:

"As a result of this incident, several monkeys were injured. There was blood on the road surface. And not until the leader of the losing side resigned himself, they did not retreat," the eye-witness added[…]

However, this is not the first time it has happened. In 2020, two gangs of monkeys were embroiled in a fight in the same city and video started serious conversation about taking care of animals during the pandemic.

https://boingboing.net/2021/07/28/w...monkeys-that-stopped-traffic-in-thailand.html
 
Sisters are doing it for themselves!

In a rarely seen phenomenon in the simian world, a nine-year-old female known as Yakei has become the boss of a 677-strong troop of Japanese macaque monkeys at a nature reserve on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

Yakei’s path to the top began in April when she beat up her own mother to become the alpha female of the troop at the Takasakiyama natural zoological garden in Oita city. While that would have been the pinnacle for most female monkeys, Yakei decided to throw her 10kg weight around among the males.

In late June, she challenged and roughed up Sanchu, the 31-year-old alpha male who had been leader of “troop B” at the reserve for five years.

Surprised wardens at Takasakiyama, where there has never been a female monkey boss in the reserve’s 70-year history, carried out a “peanut test” on 30 June, putting out nuts for the group and seeing who ate first. Sanchu backed away and gave Yakei first dibs on the treat, confirming her alpha status.

“Since then, Yakei has been climbing trees and shaking them, which is an expression of power and a very rare behaviour in females,” Satoshi Kimoto, a guide at Takasakiyama, told the Guardian.

“She has been walking around with her tail up, which is also very unusual for a female,” added Kimoto, who said that staff at the reserve were at a loss as to the causes of Yakei’s dominant antics.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rve-get-first-alpha-female-in-70-year-history
 

Puppy taken hostage by a wild monkey for three days

Saru, a two-week-old black-and-white dog, was snatched by the primate last Thursday and taken to the top of an electricity post in Taman Lestari Putra, Malaysia.

Residents eventually spotted the hostage situation and gathered under the post to assess the situation.

Onlooker Cherry Lew Yee Lee said: ‘The puppy looked tired and weary but the monkey did not seem to hurt it.

‘It looked like it was treating the puppy as a friend or its baby, it was very strange.

‘However, we still needed to save the poor dog because it appeared to have been starving.’
Cherry and her neighbours attempted to rescue Saru three times, but the monkey kept running away onto electricity lines and into trees while holding the puppy.

Eventually after throwing things at it the residents managed to scare the animal into dropping Saru into the bushes below, and the monkey ran away into the trees.

A local took Saru home to feed her and check her for injuries, but she was found to be well.

It is thought the puppy was snatched from a litter of a stray dog in the neighbourhood, so Saru has now been adopted and is settling well into her new home.
1633600203998.png

Video at link.
 

Puppy taken hostage by a wild monkey for three days

Saru, a two-week-old black-and-white dog, was snatched by the primate last Thursday and taken to the top of an electricity post in Taman Lestari Putra, Malaysia.

Residents eventually spotted the hostage situation and gathered under the post to assess the situation.

Onlooker Cherry Lew Yee Lee said: ‘The puppy looked tired and weary but the monkey did not seem to hurt it.

‘It looked like it was treating the puppy as a friend or its baby, it was very strange.

‘However, we still needed to save the poor dog because it appeared to have been starving.’

View attachment 46240
Video at link.

More on this topic, murderous Maharastra monkeys maul mongrels.

Two monkeys that allegedly killed hundreds of puppies in the Indian state of Maharastra have been captured.

Villagers in Lavool village, in the Beed district of Maharastra, reported the langur monkeys after they witnessed them engaging in what seemed to be targeted killings of the neighbourhood puppies by snatching them and taking them up to deadly heights.

The villagers claimed the monkeys were carrying out “revenge killings” after dogs had killed an infant monkey.

“In the last two to three months, there have been incidents where the langurs roaming in the area would catch puppies and take them to a place with considerable height to throw them from there. At least 250 dogs have been killed so far,” a villager told the Indian news agency ANI.

The monkeys were reported to have left puppies on roofs and in trees where they would die from lack of food and water, and in other incidents they would be thrown down and killed.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40770828.html
 
Monkey grabs seagull from sky and smashes bird to death

At Chester Zoo.

Bec Adamson was enjoying a 'lovely day out' at the Chester Zoo with her son when he saw the monkey at the top of the pole, the Manchester Evening News reports.
"We'd just been to see the rhinos, so we were walking across, then I saw all these seagulls circling and then this monkey caught one as it was flying past. It was really clever.

"I told Jamie and Dominik looked too, so I started filming. When I zoomed in I could see he was battering the f**k out of this seagull. I couldn't believe I was catching it on video."
1646837397168.png
 
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