Monkeys are kidnapping babies of another species on a Panamanian island, perplexing scientists

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Initially, the behavioral environment scientist Zoe Goldsburo believed that the small number seen on the back of the cable monkey in her camera trap shots was just a child caboushene. She said something seemed. A closer look revealed the coloring of the unexpected shape. Soon I sent a screenshot to the search collaborators. They were confused.

Goldsburo said: “I realized that it was something that we had never seen before,” Goldsburo said.

More observation of the video and the interrupted verification among the researchers revealed that the small number was actually a monkey for different types-the child’s shoulders.

“I was shocked,” said Goldsburo.

When GoldsBorough searched through the rest of her footage, she noticed the same adult monkey-a white-faced Kaposhene called “Joker” of the scar on his mouth-carrying a monkey for the child in other clips as well. After that, I noticed that the other male cabins, known scientifically as the imitator Sebus Kabosinos, do the same. But why?

Using 15 months of the camera calamity shots from their research site on Jicarón Island, and a small island 55 km (34 miles) off the Panama coast and part of the Coiba National Park, and studied collaborators with GoldsBorough from the MAX Planck Institute of Animal Conduct, Konstanz University, and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, among others, for strange behavior to the answer.

They found that, starting with Joker, four Kapochin monkeys were kidnapped from Joker and four monkeys between January 2022 and March 2023. With no evidence that cabushin would eat, or care for the test from the treasury, the authors of the study are difficult to kidnapping is a kind of “convergence of culture” – and there is possible that there are symptoms of uniqueness. Jikaron. They reported their initial results on Monday in the magazine Current biology.

However, many questions remain. The researchers said that revealing ambiguity may be it is very important. Al -Wow Residents in Jicarón is an extinct sub -type. Alouatta Palliata Coibensis, according to IUCN Red List for threatened speciesGlobal assessment of the weakness of the species of extinction. In addition, the monkey monkey mothers give birth only once every two years, on average.

Advanced hypotheses

“It was like a rotating ship where we continued to have various interpretations, and then we will find something that has proven this error.”

Jicarón Island is uninhabited by humans. With the absence of electricity and rock terrain, scientists must transfer their equipment and other materials to the island with boats when the tide is right, which makes the personal observations of the fallen caboshin monkeys difficult. For this reason they use camera traps: hidden and motor motor cameras take pictures and videos of the ground residence.

But there are great restrictions on their work: you do not know what you cannot see, and the camera traps do not pick up what happens in the heads of trees, where the monkeys live. Therefore, the study team could not confirm categorically how, or when, or why the rawsin kidnapped children.

Initially, the researchers believed it was a rare case of one time. It is known that monkeys “adopt” the displaced infants of the same species or others. But Joker was not concerned with faults – he was only carrying them on his back, without any clear benefit to himself, until the infants eventually perished by hunger without reaching breast milk.

“It is a strange behavior for male monkeys. He said that in primitive diseases, it is somewhat common to find females that adopt or mix infants to care for them as the mother’s instinct. But on Jicarón, males were not caring for the mother.

When I read the behavioral environment, Korina first, about the kidnapping of the Jicarón monkey, I suspected that something else was happening. “They may eat these children,” most of her, a assistant professor at Iowa State University, who is studying Babon, said about her initial ideas.

The kidnapping of predation in the animal world added, most of them, who did not participate in the research. But when I learned more about the team’s observations, I was surprised to find that it hadn’t happened in this case either.

Instead, the cabins wandered around the factors of children for several days with a little reactions – without playing, minimal aggression and little attention. Brendan Barrett, the behavioral environment scientist and Goldsburo’s advisor, said the reason behind the energy to steal children is largely unclear.

However, it is important to note that these island’s cabins have evolved in a different environment from their relatives of the mainland. He said that the cabin is “destroyed, exploratory factors for chaos.” Even on the mainland, they tear things, strike the tanus nests, wrestle with each other, annoy other species and wander only to find out what is happening.

“This makes it less dangerous to do stupid things,” said Barrett. The island’s cabins can spread because they do not need strength in numbers for protection, allowing them to explore.

With this relative safety and freedom, Capuchin monkeys in Jicarón may feel bored a little bored.

Boredom

It turns out that boredom could be a major motor for innovation – especially on carrots, especially among younger individuals. This idea is the axis of research of Goldsburo’s thesis On Kaposhin Jikaron and KibaThe only monkeys in these areas that were observed Use stones as tools to break the nuts. Watching with kidnappings Only males Those who use tools on jicarón, which are still a mystery for researchers.

“We know that cultural innovation, in many cases, is linked to the youngest, not the oldest.”

For example, it was evidence of washing potatoes in Makax on the Japanese island of Kushima It was noted for the first time In a young female vaccine imo.

Das explained that there are some possible reasons for this. Adolescence is a time when the main are independent of their mothers, when they start feeding and exploring on their own. At that point, the monkeys are not fully combined into the community of their group yet.

Most of them said excessive inclination in human children to imitate others’ behavior even if they do not understand it-it can be in play as well.

She pointed out that this excessive summons is not found in other animals, but most I feel that this is what these other cabinets do, “perhaps as a means of socially linking with Joker, I noticed.

Most of her said she usually believed that necessity, instead of free time, is the mother of invention in nature. But “this paper offers a good argument (the idea that) may be really smart animals, like cabinhin, get bored.”

Goldsburo said that people and other monkeys participate in a certain level of intelligence specified by using other tools and standards, but some common features may be less desirable.

She added: “One of the ways we differ from many animals is that we have many of these arbitrary cultural traditions that do almost not work that harm other animals.”

When a child grew up in the northeast of the United States, Barrett said he used to hunt frogs and lightning in the Mason tractor while exploring outdoors. Although he never intended to harm them, he knows that these activities are usually not enjoyable for the animal.

The behavior of the kidnapping of the cabin can be similarly – if not moderately entertaining for them. Barrett and Goldsburo said they hope that this new behavior will fade, just as heresies between humans come and go. Or perhaps the monkeys will arrest what is happening and adapt their behavior to better protect their children, as Goldsburo added.

“It is like a mirror that reflects ourselves,” Barrett said. “

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