Feb 7, 2025 08:27 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 7, 2025 08:33 PM by C C.)
https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/mon...friendship
EXCERPTS: On the lush, green Japanese island of Yakushima, two species of animals have struck up an unusual relationship seemingly out of a fable. The resident Japanese macaque monkeys and sika deer have developed a close, mutually beneficial inter-species bond.
The macaques ride around the island on the deers’ backs like miniature jockeys, grooming their soft woolly fur as they go. In turn, the deer chow down on fruit dropped by the monkeys and head to their sleeping grounds at night to feast on the macaques' poo, effectively cleaning the monkeys' homes.
And far from being a mere coincidence, it seems the two species actively give signals to one another to initiate the behaviour.
“There is a kind of observation, a kind of thinking or insight – I think that they really try to interact and to have benefits of interacting together,” says Prof Cedric Sueur, an animal behavioural complexity expert based at the University of Strasbourg. “For me, they really understand [one other].”
It’s relatively common for animals to pick up behaviours from members of their own species. [...] But Sueur and his colleagues theorise that the behaviour of the deer and monkeys suggests that social learning is also common across, not just among, species. They call this the rise of ‘co-culture’.
[...] Observations of these shared cultural relationships are growing. In Yellowstone Park during the winter, ravens follow grey wolves around to find carcasses in the woods for them to eat. In the rainforests of Costa Rica, different species of bats share roosts, forage together and team up to defend their nests from predators. In the Indian Ocean, octopuses and grouper fish have been observed forming packs and hunting together.
“The idea that nonhuman animals could have culture was taboo for a long time, and now the examples are everywhere,” says Dr Jean-Baptiste Leca, an ethologist from the University of Lethbridge in Canada.
[...] Leca has studied how long-tail macaques have learned to barter with tourists in Indonesia. In Bali, the cheeky monkeys have learned to steal valuable objects from humans such as sunglasses, hats and smartphones, and hold on to them until they can get food in return as a token of exchange.... (MORE - missing details)
Monkeys on deer's back or riding: clips 3 to 5, including "naughty monkey" .... https://youtu.be/peYCBIa0fpk
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/peYCBIa0fpk
EXCERPTS: On the lush, green Japanese island of Yakushima, two species of animals have struck up an unusual relationship seemingly out of a fable. The resident Japanese macaque monkeys and sika deer have developed a close, mutually beneficial inter-species bond.
The macaques ride around the island on the deers’ backs like miniature jockeys, grooming their soft woolly fur as they go. In turn, the deer chow down on fruit dropped by the monkeys and head to their sleeping grounds at night to feast on the macaques' poo, effectively cleaning the monkeys' homes.
And far from being a mere coincidence, it seems the two species actively give signals to one another to initiate the behaviour.
“There is a kind of observation, a kind of thinking or insight – I think that they really try to interact and to have benefits of interacting together,” says Prof Cedric Sueur, an animal behavioural complexity expert based at the University of Strasbourg. “For me, they really understand [one other].”
It’s relatively common for animals to pick up behaviours from members of their own species. [...] But Sueur and his colleagues theorise that the behaviour of the deer and monkeys suggests that social learning is also common across, not just among, species. They call this the rise of ‘co-culture’.
[...] Observations of these shared cultural relationships are growing. In Yellowstone Park during the winter, ravens follow grey wolves around to find carcasses in the woods for them to eat. In the rainforests of Costa Rica, different species of bats share roosts, forage together and team up to defend their nests from predators. In the Indian Ocean, octopuses and grouper fish have been observed forming packs and hunting together.
“The idea that nonhuman animals could have culture was taboo for a long time, and now the examples are everywhere,” says Dr Jean-Baptiste Leca, an ethologist from the University of Lethbridge in Canada.
[...] Leca has studied how long-tail macaques have learned to barter with tourists in Indonesia. In Bali, the cheeky monkeys have learned to steal valuable objects from humans such as sunglasses, hats and smartphones, and hold on to them until they can get food in return as a token of exchange.... (MORE - missing details)
Monkeys on deer's back or riding: clips 3 to 5, including "naughty monkey" .... https://youtu.be/peYCBIa0fpk