Søren Says

Comments

1. Anonymous says

   April 2, 2008 at 7:01 am

   Tool use by Old-World monkeys in the wild has rarely been reported and
   is limited to the crude manipulation of objects such as dislodging stones against
   enemies and the use of tools for feeding [van Schaik et al., 1999]. Most of these
   behaviors have not become habitual or customary in their societies. Some longtailed
   macaques use stones to open oyster shells in Thailand [Carpenter,
   1887; Malaivijitnond, in press], which is the only report that indicates a
   possible example of habitual tool-use behavior common to the group members
   in the wild. However, observations in captivity indicate that macaques have the
   ability to use some items as tools [e.g., Ducoing & Thierry, 2005; Ueno & Fujita,
   1997].
   Nonaka [2000] first reported that two individual Macaca fascicularis
   monkeys in Lopburi, Thailand used human hair as dental floss. A Japanese
   broadcasting team visited there in February 2004 and made a film, which aired on
   Published online 25 January 2007 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
   DOI 10.1002/ajp. 20403
   Received 22 June 2006; revision accepted 5 October 2006
   Contract grant sponsor: Kyoto University 21st Century COE Program (Formation of a Strategic
   Base for the Multidisciplinary Study of Biodiversity)
   Correspondence to: Kunio Watanabe, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kanrin 41-2,
   Inuyama, Aicih, 484-8506 Japan. E-mail: watanabe@pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp
   r 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
   March 28, 2004. The film clearly documented the monkeys removing human hair
   and using it to clean food from between their teeth. We conducted a brief survey
   of this behavior and herein describe the results of our field observations.
   METHODS
   Lopburi is a small city 154km north of Bangkok in which many ruins remain.
   In the center of city stands the old Buddhist shrine of Prang Sam Yot. During this
   study, we estimated that five groups or 850–1,100 monkeys lived in the area
   of approximately 300400m2; the largest group of about 350–400 monkeys in the
   shrine and four other groups of 80–200 monkeys on and between the buildings
   around it. The reason that such a large number of monkeys have survived in an
   area without forest is because the religion of the people in this area views
   monkeys as servants of God and therefore monkeys are offered huge amounts of
   foods every day. The foods include various kinds of fruits, vegetables, rice, juices,
   cake, etc. Many of these monkeys appeared overweight or obese. Although people
   chase monkeys off when these animals enter their homes or rob their goods,
   monkeys are left undisturbed at this temple. Many monkeys stayed on the roof or
   on the overhang of the building walls throughout the day. All buildings in this
   area were covered with iron nets to prevent monkeys from invading the buildings.
   We observed these monkeys for 5 days between May 30 and June 3, 2004.
   The Prang Sam Yot shrine covers an area of approximately 5050m and is
   surrounded by roads and railways. We prepared hairpieces, allowed the monkeys
   to examine them, and recorded how the monkeys reacted to the hairpieces and
   how they used them. We walked for about 1 h once or twice a day and showed the
   hairpieces to the shrine monkeys, carefully avoiding repetition of the same
   individuals.
   We also examined the reactions to the hairpiece in four other groups. We
   interviewed women that visited and/or lived in the area and asked if they had
   experienced the monkeys attacking them and pulling at their hair.
   Monkeys Use Human Hair as Dental Floss / 941

   Reply