• Aquatic Monkey Theory

    From Pandora@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 12 20:46:00 2023
    There's even a lttle bit of bipedalism (supplementary video 6).

    Behavior of snow monkeys hunting fish to survive winter

    Abstract

    Japanese macaques, Macaca fuscata, of Kamikochi in the Japanese Alps
    endure one of the coldest and harshest environments during winter when
    scarcity of food puts them at risk. However, various behaviors have
    evolved to mitigate potential mortality. These macaques typically eat
    bamboo leaves and the bark of woody plants in winter, but our previous
    study using the feces of Japanese macaques collected in the winter and
    DNA metabarcoding analysis revealed conclusively for the first time
    consumption of riverine benthos and brown trout. In this paper, we
    investigate how Japanese macaques hunt fish and collect these riverine
    biota by extensively observing their behavior, including the use of
    infrared sensor cameras. Many researchers have tracked Japanese
    macaques as part of behavioral and ecological studies, but previously
    the techniques by which Japanese macaques capture swimming fish has
    not been documented. Herein, for the first time we consider how novel
    macaque foraging behavior traits have evolved to secure valuable
    animal protein for winter survival when food resources are scarce.

    Open access:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23799-1

    The same species also likes to sit in the jacuzzi: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.20454

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