Monkey flosses its teeth with a bird feather

• Autores: Richa Malhotra
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3152, 2017, pág. 9
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Honnavalli Kumara at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History in Coimbatore, India, and colleagues followed 20 Nicobar long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis umbrosus) on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian Ocean. Many of the macaques' favored foods are thorny, slimy or mucky. To get rid of these inedible coatings, the macaques either wash the food in puddles or wrap it in leaves and rub them clean. They also wrap leaves around foods to make them easier to hold. After eating, adult and sub-adult macaques clean their teeth. Nine were seen holding a fine fiber between their teeth and pulling at it. These included a tree needle, a bird feather, a blade of grass, a coconut fiber, a nylon thread and a metal wire.