by Jennifer Viegas, Discovery
News | November 04, 2015 12:43pm ET
Japanese macaques are so tidy
that they even wash their food in salt water, and now a new study finds that
these monkeys have fewer parasites than other primates that are not nearly as
careful.
Female Japanese macaques, in
particular, are grossed out by sometimes disease bearing things like poop,
suggesting that feelings of disgust help to fuel cleanliness, and thereby
healthiness, among all primates, including humans.
The findings, published in the
journal Biology Letters, could carry over to other animals with tidy tendencies
too.
“There are a few other accounts of animals
washing food in water, like captive chimpanzees and capuchins, which both seem
to wash specifically to remove debris from food items,” co-author Andrew
MacIntosh of Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute and Wildlife
Research Center told Discovery News.
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