Monkey Business

Humans and chimpanzees are almost identical genetically, andwe often act alike as well. We recently wrote aboutants that aresuper-efficient farmers. Now it turns out there are primatepolice. Monkeys also like to scratch each other?s backs ANDmonkeys are willing to pay for sex.

Bjorn Carey writes in LiveScience.com about new researchthat reveals that monkey cops help make their fellowprimates behave through intimidation and seniority (likehuman police). If you remove the primate police from agroup, the rest of the groups gets more violent andaggressive. One of the ways they keep order is by getting inbetween warring groups or by chasing misbehaving monkeys away.

But these primate police aren’t dictators?they are voted inby the group. Monkeys vote for a candidate by baring theirteeth in order to “elect” their favorite candidate.

Robert Roy Britt writes in LiveScience.com that monkeys also”pay” for sex. Male monkeys will give up their juice rewardsfor a glimpse of a female monkey?s bottom, just like humanmales do in a strip show. They also enjoy looking at imagesof higher ranking male monkeys, the way we humans like toread about movie stars other famous folk.

Monkeys like to scratch each other?s backs, and it’s beendiscovered that one monkey tells the other just where toscratch, which is another thing we humans do too.Anthropologist John Mitani says, “The more we learn, themore we see chimpanzees employing remarkable, seeminglyhuman-like behaviors.”

Art credit: http://www.freeimages.co.uk

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