Emergence of stone-tool use behavior in a population of common macaques

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38012960/

by paulpauper • 2 years ago

77 38 2 years ago

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

fuzzfactor• 2 years ago

These might be some uncommon macaques right here.

nullserver• 2 years ago

Rare or even legendary.

tetris11• 2 years ago

During the COVID-19 curfew, however, tourists were not allowed to access the island, and monkeys began to face food scarcity.

This can't have been the first time these monkeys have experienced food shortage.

I know we had a bioengineering boom in the 50s, and probably a lot of animals have been eating well for the past few decades because of that... but I wonder if the behaviors of the monkeys with tools and crows dropping nuts is something that often happens with animals during the down period where crop yields aren't doing so well, and then they revert back to scrounging when they are.

I guess we had luck that the tools we developed during our own shortages in the past could be used to kill and enslave other animals. Let's hope the crows and monkeys aren't taking notes.

hyperthesis• 2 years ago

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Humanity's greatest creation is therefore manufactured scarcity, through marketing, mortgages and competition.

onlyrealcuzzo• 2 years ago

There's definitely scarcity if you look around.

Check out the housing and infrastructure in Nigeria.

About ~2B people globally are in that situation or worse.

hinkley3• 2 years ago

Isn't it macaques that adopt guard dogs as well?

card_zero2• 2 years ago

I seem to know this factoid too, but it looks like it's just an echo from an old story about baboons living on a Saudi garbage dump among dogs.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/20150...

hinkley3• 2 years ago

Ah. I had a “was it macaques or baboons” moment and Google failed me.

There’s a theory that dogs domesticated us almost as much as we them. It centers on why the whites of our eyes are so big.

It would be interesting to see an uplift saga with baboons or macaques that relied not on Doctor Moreau style medical interventions but on selection and domesticated animals.

But then I’m also a weirdo who thinks birds use tools. I maintain that structure building counts as a tool. Particularly the ones who weave baskets.

diebeforei485• 2 years ago

I find it fascinating that 15 of the 17 were males.

Modified3019• 2 years ago

There was another study looking at gender differences in tool use linked on the page: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21905061/

In that one there doesn’t seem to be any clear difference in took use occurrence or skill between genders, though their were differences in what they used tools on, and the size/weight of the tools.

BlueTemplar• 2 years ago

"and mostly solitary"

Is this a species where young males get kicked out of the tribe (especially when food scarcity) while young females do not ?

begueradj• 2 years ago

I have read, in the past, the case of an orangutan who learned to spear fish with a stick as local fishermen do: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/oranguta...

wjholden• 2 years ago

I have a small pet theory on animal usage of tools: perhaps animals are watching humans and have learned from our example.

In the past, people believed that no animals used tools. We now have countless examples of animals using tools in clever ways. So our ancestors were completely wrong, right?

Well, perhaps the truth is in the middle: perhaps biologists of yesteryear didn't observe animal tool usage because it was less common at the time.

junon• 2 years ago

Perhaps primates might fit this theory, but cockatoos making spoons to fish out seeds from fruit whilst entirely isolated from human contact means it's not a learned behavior and is more clever deduction (birds are smarter than most people think).

Not a biologist though (simply a parrot and monkey lover).

ben_w5• 2 years ago

Perhaps, but also there were fewer biologists in yesteryear, and they didn't have access to a cheap and convenient supply of semiconductor golems with unblinking eyes and perfect memories to watch the birds while the researchers were doing other things.

Viliam1234• 2 years ago

Then why didn't animals learn from our ancestors already? In the past, progress was slower, they had plenty of time.

int_19h4• 2 years ago

For one thing, only some very specific animal species use tools, and then in specific ways that you need to observe closely to notice.

But also, what makes you believe that our ancestors didn't notice? In ecosystems where they observed that, it might have been so routine and obvious to them that it was not something even worth noting. After all, historically, humans have treated animals similar to people for a very long time (e.g. putting them on trial for theft and murder). When you already have that mindset, a tool-using animal is very unremarkable.

leobg• 2 years ago

They may still catch up with us. The way it’s going with social media and internet addiction and LLM hallucinations, maybe they actually do have a shot. :)

Emergence of stone-tool use behavior in a population of common macaques

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