This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/science/science-study-shows-monkeys-pick-up-social-cues.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
In Social Settings, Monkeys See and Monkeys Do Monkeys Are Adept at Picking Up Social Cues, Research Shows
(about 4 hours later)
If you’re eating lunch in Pittsburgh or Dallas, you might grab a sandwich and a Snapple to go. But if you happen to get transferred to Paris (quel dommage!), chances are you’ll start eating like the French: two- or three-course sit-down lunches complete with a glass of wine. If you’re eating lunch in Pittsburgh or Dallas, you might grab a sandwich and a Snapple to go. But should you get transferred to Paris (quel dommage!), you’ll probably eat like the French: multicourse sit-down lunches plus a glass of wine.
You’d just be doing what people do: adapting to the local culture. But it turns out people aren’t the only ones who make monkey-see-monkey-do cultural shifts. Monkeys — and apparently several other species — do too. But it turns out people aren’t the only ones who make monkey-see-monkey-do cultural shifts. Monkeys, and apparently several other species, do too.
In a clever, groundbreaking study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers showed that when Vervet monkeys roam, they act in when-in-Rome fashion.In a clever, groundbreaking study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers showed that when Vervet monkeys roam, they act in when-in-Rome fashion.
In the study, wild Vervet monkeys, conditioned to eat only pink-dyed corn or blue-dyed corn and to shun the other color, quickly began eating the disliked-color corn when they moved from a pink-preferred setting to a blue-is-best place, and vice versa. Wild Vervet monkeys, trained to eat only pink-dyed or blue-dyed corn and shun the other color, quickly began eating the disliked-color corn when they moved from a pink-preferred setting to a blue-is-best place, and vice versa.
The switch occurred even though both corn colors were equally accessible, sitting side-by-side in open containers. Scientists said the only explanation was that the monkeys relinquished their strongly held color convictions because they saw the locals happily eating the hated hue. The switch occurred even though both corn colors were equally accessible, side-by-side in open containers. Scientists said the monkeys relinquished their color convictions because they saw the locals eating the hated hue.
The findings addressed a long-contentious question among animal experts: is animal behavior determined only by genes and individual learning, or can animals, like humans, learn socially?The findings addressed a long-contentious question among animal experts: is animal behavior determined only by genes and individual learning, or can animals, like humans, learn socially?
“Until relatively recently, culture was thought to be something only humans had,” said Carel van Schaik, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the study. “But if you define culture as socially transmitted knowledge, skills and information, it turns out that we see some of that in animals. Now this experiment comes along and I must say it really blew me away.” “Culture was thought to be something only humans had,” said Carel van Schaik, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich who was not involved in the study. “But if you define culture as socially transmitted knowledge, skills and information, it turns out we see some of that in animals. Now this experiment comes along and I must say it really blew me away.”
He added: “Imagine you’ve just learned to eat pink corn and for a while blue corn was really bad, but then you move to an area where it’s the opposite and basically you wipe your slate clean and you adopt the local preference. You think, ‘Oh, these locals, they must know what’s the best thing.'” He added: “Imagine you’ve just learned to eat pink corn and for a while blue corn was really bad, but then you move to an area where it’s the opposite and basically you wipe your slate clean. You think, ‘Oh, these locals, they must know what’s the best thing.’”
Other studies have shown similar social learning abilities in whales, orangutans and other animals that live in groups. Other studies have found similar learning abilities in social animals. In the same issue of Science, researchers reported that by observing others, humpback whales learned to whack the water with their tail fins to attract prey.
But while previous research often relied on anecdotes, observations or animals in captivity, the monkey study documented social learning in wild animals.
“We long believed that cultural transmission was important,” said Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University who did not take part in the study. “But I never thought it would be at the scale where the results would be so strong.”
The scientists set out pink and blue corn in adjacent Tupperware containers for four groups of wild monkeys in neighboring regions in a South African reserve. A study leader, Erica van de Waal, a researcher at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said she wanted to use red and blue, shades monkeys are known to see because they are the colors of male Vervet genitalia. But South African grocery stores stocked mostly blue and pink food coloring because people use them for cakes celebrating girl and boy birthdays.
After trying vinegar and chilies to make corn taste bitter, researchers settled on soaking corn in acrid-tasting aloe leaves. Pink corn was “aloe treated” for two groups; blue for the other two. Soon, monkeys in each group consistently rejected the colored corn soaked in aloe leaves.
After several months, researchers stopped treating the corn with aloe, but monkeys continued eating only the color that had never been made bitter. Dominant monkeys never sampled the disliked color; subordinate monkeys might, but only if dominants were hogging the liked color.
Baby monkeys, which received no color training, instantly ate only what their mothers ate, even squatting on the other color, “totally ignoring that there was an edible color under their feet,” Dr. van de Waal said.
Most strikingly, when male monkeys migrated from a different-colored region, they ate the local color. The one exception was a blue-is-best male who entered a pink area with no dominant male, took control and continued eating blue corn. But he “might be a stupid male that had too much testosterone and was just not looking at what the others are doing,” Dr. van de Waal said.
She said researchers hoped to test if social learning applied to other behaviors, like mating calls and grooming.
Experts said that to survive, species must balance experimentation with conservatism, so it makes sense that monkeys would develop rigid aversions to a once bitter-tasting color, and drop that aversion in another community. Both behaviors have advantages for survival, saving learning time and avoiding deadly risks.
“I don’t expect it in bacteria or slugs,” Dr. van Schaik said. “But in these long-lived species that are social, you’re actually willing to give up what you know, drop that memory like a hot potato, because those in the other place do something else.”“I don’t expect it in bacteria or slugs,” Dr. van Schaik said. “But in these long-lived species that are social, you’re actually willing to give up what you know, drop that memory like a hot potato, because those in the other place do something else.”