Monkeys kidnap offspring from other animals for unknown reasons

Capuchin monkeys on the island of Jikaron, in Panama, baffles the scientific community When it is caught by the kidnapping ovens of the howl Without any clear benefit.

Behavior, documented by trap cameras Between January 2022 and March 2023A group of researchers led by the environment scientist from Zoë GoldsBorough, from the Max Planck Institute for animal behavior.

The strange behavior was initially detected at Goldsburo Review one of the hidden cameras on the island. What seemed to be a common scene of Kabushino carrying his young, it was found that it was a monkey a child’s howl. The team was quickly alerted, which started checking for hundreds of video hours.

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A phenomenon that you did not see among the male major

Within 15 months of photography, scholars Determine at least 11 kidnappings Commit Four male cabosin monkeys, including one nickname “Joker” For a bear in the mouth.

Unlike other cases of adoption in the majority, the cabin did not care or suffer from a howl, who eventually starved. He was not playing, great aggression or predatory behavior.

This type of interaction has no known precedents among males from the princesses, who rarely kidnap young people of another kind without reproductive or food purposes or mothers. “I stayed in shock,” said Goldsburo.

A cultural method between monkeys?

Research indicates that kidnappings can be a form of “cultural fashion”, which is a social innovation without a clear function that spreads among younger individuals in society.

This concept is not new in the initial pathology: from washing potatoes with makak monkeys in Japan, to the use of tools by cablemchane monkeys in other benati islands, and researchers documented how behavior can be transmitted by simple imitation.

The author of the study, Brendan Barrett, stressed that the cabinets in Gekaron live in an environment without natural predators, which prefer exploratory behaviors.

“It is less dangerous to do nonsense,” he said.

This, in addition to the low population density and various social structures, could have encouraged this practice.

In danger: the distance of memorization

This phenomenon occurs in an area where the Alouatta Palliata Coibansis is in the risk of extinction, according to the red laja menu. Cellman has only young people every two years, which exacerbates the impact of these losses on the population.

Since the trap cameras do not record what is happening in tree drinks, scientists have not been able to determine how to steal young people, or the number of times. The geographical conditions of the island – companies, without electricity and difficult access – make direct monitoring limited.

Boredom or excessive?

Among the latest hypotheses is boredom as a behavior engine. In very smart animals such as cabosheen, The excessive free time can enhance new behaviors Without a clear purpose.

“This article is firmly defending the idea that smart animals sometimes are simply filled,” said Corina, a primitive scientist of Iowa State University.

Excessive recognition, human behavior is also mentioned, as the procedures that were observed even without understanding their goal are repeated. “I feel that this is what these other hats do,” he added.

Goldsburo concluded that the study represents a mirror of human contradictions itself: “We have many arbitrary cultural traditions that really harm other animals.”

BGPA