Don't Touch the Monkeys! Florida Macaques Carry Virus Lethal to Humans

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | January 11, 2018 01:42pm ET

Monkeys infected with the herpes B virus may be symptom-free, but in people the virus can be fatal.

Visitors to Florida's Silver Springs State Park should avoid monkeying around with the reserve's feral macaques; officials warn that the primates carry a strain of the herpes virus that can be fatal to humans.

About 175 free-roaming rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) inhabit the park, descended from a population of around a dozen animals that were released in the 1930s to promote local tourism. Hundreds more of the macaques can be found wandering the areas adjacent to the park.

Now, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that about 25 percent of the monkeys carry macacine herpesvirus 1 (McHV-1), which causes only mild symptoms, if any, in monkeys but can be deadly in people. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]

The scientists also discovered that as many as 14 percent of the monkeys shed DNA from the virus in their saliva, presenting a risk of virus transmission to humans, the researchers reported in a new study, which was published online in the February 2018 issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

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Smiling baby monkeys and the roots of laughter

Macaque findings point to older smile origins

Date: August 4, 2016

Source: Kyoto University

When human and chimp infants are dozing, they sometimes show facial movements that resemble smiles. These facial expressions -- called spontaneous smiles -- are considered the evolutionary origin of real smiles and laughter.

Researchers at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute show that this not only happens to higher-order primates like humans and chimpanzees, but also in newborn Japanese macaques, which are more distant relatives in the evolutionary tree.

"About a decade ago we found that chimp infants also display spontaneous smiles," says study author Masaki Tomonaga. "Since we see the same behavior in more distant relatives, we can infer that the origin of smiles goes back at least 30 million years, when old world monkeys and our direct ancestors diverged."

Lead author Fumito Kawakami caught macaque infants smiling when they were receiving routine health checkups. "These checkups can take quite long, so the infants tend to nap in between," says Kawakami. "We took this opportunity to empirically examine the behavior."

In total they observed 58 spontaneous smiles from seven macaque infants, all of which showed spontaneous smiles at least once. "Spontaneous macaque smiles are more like short, lop-sided spasms compared to those of human infants. There were two significant similarities; they both happened between irregular REM sleep, and they show more lop-sided smiles compared to symmetrical, full smiles," says Kawakami. "A major difference, though, is that the smiles were much shorter."

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Study finds 'rudimentary' empathy in macaques

December 1, 2015 by Bob Yirka report

(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Lyon, in France has conducted a study that has shown that macaques have at least some degree of empathy towards their fellow cage mates. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sebastien Ballesta and Jean-René Duhamela describe the experiments they carried out and why they believe the results suggest that macaques are aware of the emotional state of other macaques and express empathy towards them under certain circumstances.

The experiments carried out by the duo consisted of placing pairs of captive macaques opposite one another and then allowing them to take turns picking an icon on a screen that offered the other either a reward or a punishment. Rewards were juice sips, while punishment came in the form of puffs of air into the eyes. The researchers also used eye-tracking devices to monitor the gaze and blink rate of the monkeys as they performed their tasks—useful signals for signs of social engagement.

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Tidy Monkeys Shed Light on Human Cleanliness

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.

Read on …

Monkeys Recognize Family, Even if Separated at Birth (Op-Ed)

By Anwesha Ghosh, University of Rochester | August 09, 2014 03:08am ET

This article was originally published at The Conversation.The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Macaque monkeys grow up with their mothers and are often not familiar with their fathers. But they can recognise the paternal side of the family even without ever being introduced to them, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology. The researchers suggest that just looking at another monkey is enough to know whether they are related.

“There is some evidence that non-human primates can recognise facial resemblances between two other individuals, just like us,” Dana Pfefferle, lead author and post-doctoral researcher at Duke University, said. “We found that the macaques could detect their own relatives without being familiar with members of that side of the family.”

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Dam capacity test in China pushes macaques to higher ground

Over 3,000 macaques have had to be moved on to higher ground as full-capacity storage tests were carried out at the Three Gorges Dam in China's Hubei province.

As waters rose to 175m, areas where the monkeys used to feed were submerged - but the animals should return to their normal habitats once the waters recede at the beginning of 2013.

Tom Santorelli reports.

Watch video:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-19949594

Wanna be the leader? You gotta have friends

As ever, it's not what you know, but who: the structure of social networks, both online and off, seems to confer leadership on those with the most friends. Chains of command can form without members of a group – including the leader – ever needing to know who's on top.

It is often suggested that the most influential individuals are also the best connected, but the idea has been difficult to test in a real-world setting. Cedric Sueur of the Free University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium, and colleagues instead looked at how two species of macaque – Macaca tonkeana and Macaca mulatta – reach group decisions, such as when and where to move on.

They found that the leadership hierarchy in both species emerged via a simple rule-of-thumb: individuals followed the lead of their closest affiliates. Consequently, the individual with the most social connections becomes the leader in a self-reinforcing hierarchy.

There seem to be advantages to following the most socially connected individual. "If others in the group happen upon a bit of information then maybe [the socially connected leader] will have better access to that as well," says co-author Andrew King of the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield, UK. That means the leader will tend to make better-informed decisions. "From a very simple rule of following your mates, you get these decisions that seem to be best," he says.

King is now experimenting with similar network structures in fish. "We hope that these are general principles that we're uncovering," he says.

George Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, who was not involved in the study, suggests that such structures may indeed be common. "A lot of the properties we see in food webs [the feeding connections between organisms] can be obtained with really simple assembly rules," he says.

Sugihara also highlights the importance of identifying similar patterns of connectivity in human society. A recent study of Facebook connections suggests that when it comes to people, more variables come into play. Gender, age and relationship status all help determine our level of influence over acquaintances.

Journal reference: Complex System Society Proceedings, in press




http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21994-wanna-be-the-leader-you-gotta-have-friends.html

Japanese deer 'eavesdrop' on monkeys for food

Sika deer "eavesdrop" on monkey chatter in order to find food, say scientists.

A team from Kyoto University, Japan, tested how macaque monkey calls affected the feeding behaviour of the deer that live on Yakushima Island.

Previous research has focussed on species "listening to" one another to avoid danger.

But when scientists played macaque calls from hidden speakers, the deer gathered nearby, indicating that they associate the sounds with benefits.

The results were published in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Dr Hiroki Koda who led the study said it was a good example of "possible interspecies communication" and that the deer seemed to be eavesdropping as a "foraging strategy".

Yakushima Island lies to the south of Kyushu, Japan, and is protected by its Unesco world heritage status.

The island, which includes the ancient and famous Yakusugi Forest, is home to 1,900 species and subspecies of fauna. The deer and macaques that live there feed on the fruit of camphor trees.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18442081

Save a monkey to save a species

Would you save a baby monkey if you discovered it injured, alone and abandoned in the street?

There is something beguiling about a baby monkey.

It is a trembling, nervous thing, yet intelligent and fiercely inquisitive, full of potential. If you found it, you might feel an instant pull to help it, to save its life.

But saving individual animals seems an outdated approach to conservation. Surely saving a population, a whole species, or the habitat in which it lives is a more efficient, and effective way to conserve wild animals?

Not necessarily so, says Dr Wolfgang Dittus, who is known as the "monkey master".

Alongside his regular research, Dr Dittus and his colleagues in Sri Lanka spend their personal time and money saving macaques that have been injured by people.

By saving injured individuals, whether they be babies, orphans, or adults still part of a monkey "family", Dr Dittus's team are doing grass roots conservation, which they say is the only way to change the way people think about these animals, and help them to live alongside each other.

Dr Wolfgang Dittus, or Wolf as he likes to be known, first arrived in Sri Lanka in late 1968 to study communication in toque macaques for his PhD.

Six decades later he is still there, studying monkeys around the Polonnaruwa archaeological site, and rehabilitating those that need his help.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17937851

Macaques in agony as they're struck down with hay fever

The theory of evolution tells us we have quite a lot in common with macaques - unfortunately for them, one of the things they share with humans is the agony of hay fever as these photos show.

Monday the macaque could do with a handkerchief to wipe away the water from her eyes (Picture: Getty)

This Japanese macaque called Monday displays all the symptoms, from the crispy nose to weeping eyes and fits of the sneezes.

The 19-year-old female at Awajishima Monkey Centre in Japan was pictured wiping her tears with a tiny paw, in mid-sneeze and trying to soothe her swollen eyelids.



Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/894314-macaques-in-agony-as-theyre-struck-down-with-hay-fever

Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0730/Monkeys-hate-flying-squirrels-report-monkey-annoyance-experts]

Monkeys hate flying squirrels, report monkey-annoyance experts

Japanese macaques will completely flip out in when presented with a flying squirrels, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys.
By Adam Hadhazy, LiveScience Staff Writer / July 30, 2010

Researchers have observed small monkeys called Japanese macaques going bananas at the sight of a flying squirrel.

This riled-up response is probably just a false alarm, with the monkeys mistaking the squirrel for a predatory bird. On the other hand, male macaques – some of whom give chase and even attack a harmless rodent – might be trying to impress females in their troop. Although this tough-guy motive was not proved in a new study, "it is possible that adult or sub-adult male monkeys may be 'showing off' their fitness" as potential mates, said Kenji Onishi, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Osaka University and lead author of the paper being published in the current issue of the journal Primate Research.

Biologists and psychologists have long studied macaques' complex social interactions for insights into human evolution and behavior. However, much remains unknown about how macaques get along (or not) with other creatures. Better documentation of such encounters could reveal more about macaque societies as well as that of our shared primate forbearers.

"Human evolution occurred alongside primate evolution from a common mammalian ancestor," Onishi told LiveScience. "Therefore, it is important to learn the evolution of primates in understanding the previous steps in human evolution."

The real zoo escapees that mimic the cartoon characters in Madagascar

RIGHT: A Bactrian camel wandering through traffic. Dozens of animals at English zoos have managed to give their keepers the slip. Photo: ALAMY

A survey has revealed some of the unusual ways in which animals have succeeded in escaping from zoos across the country.

By Jasper Copping
Published: 8:45AM BST 04 Jul 2010

In the film Madagascar a group of cartoon animals breaks out of New York's Central Park zoo in an attempt to escape into the wild.

Alex the Lion is helped over the perimeter wall by his friend Melman the giraffe, while Gloria the hippopotamus smashes her way straight through, followed by Melman and some monkeys.

The scenario might sound fanciful, but real zoo animals appear to be just as determined and resourceful as their cartoon cousins in liberating themselves from captivity.

The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered details of exactly how dozens of animals at English zoos have managed to give their keepers the slip.

The methods of escape range from gnawing a hole in their cages, to scaling fences and crossing moats. In other cases, the creatures have simply capitalised on human error and got out through doors in their cages that were left open.

The real life escapees include:

• Akea, cheetah, who climbed over an 8ft high solar powered electric fence after it developed a fault. Fortunately, he was swiftly recaptured after he was spotted by a nine-year-old boy playing in his garden and returned to nearby Hamerton Zoo, near Huntingdon;
  
  
• A pack of dholes, or Asiatic wild dogs, which chewed through the fence of their pen at Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury. While some were quickly returned to the enclosure, others spread out in the surrounding countryside, leading police to warn the public not to approach the animals. The last one was not located for three days;
  
  
• A wolf which gnawed a hole in the wire mesh around its enclosure at Combe Martin Wildlife Park, Devon, and then crawled under the zoo's gate. The animal headed out onto a road near the adjacent village and was seen by a passing motorist, who raised the alarm;
  
  
• A wallaby at the same zoo which got out after the door to its enclosure was left open. The wallaby remained at large for several days in the surrounding countryside;
  
  
• A forest buffalo, an African creature which normally weighs up to 565kg, which managed to push the wire of its fence high enough to squeeze underneath it, although it did not succeed in getting out of the grounds of Marwell Zoo, near Winchester;
  
  
• A sulewesi crested macaque which got off its island compound at the same attraction. The animal was found to be wet when it was recovered elsewhere in the zoo, leading keepers to think it had been in the moat around the island;
  
  
• A flamingo, which flew out of the same attraction because staff did not realise it had not had its wings pinioned. It was spotted in a field by a member of the public and eventually recaptured.

Chris Newman, an exotic species expert and adviser to Defra, said: "Animals will be animals. Many of them are very inquisitive and this just shows how opportunistic they are."

One of the most endangered escapees was a red panda called Peter, which got out of his enclosure at London Zoo in the middle of the night and ran into Regent's Park where he climbed a tree.

Security staff alerted keepers who stayed under the tree monitoring him throughout the night. Attempts to coax Peter down with food failed and he had to be shot with a dart.

The information was disclosed in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to councils, which must be informed of escapes, under the conditions of the licences they grant to zoos.

Each attraction must also hold four "practice escapes" over the course of a year in which a member of staff will play the part of an animal which has got loose.

Miranda Stevenson, director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said: "We have to accept that things go wrong and to be prepared for these eventualities which we hope are very few and far between.

"Most escapes are not of dangerous animals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7870260/The-real-zoo-escapees-that-mimic-the-cartoon-characters-in-Madagascar.html

Monkey Phobia Woman Savaged By Macaques

11:14am UK, Friday June 18, 2010
Damien Pearse, Sky News Online

A British woman who went to a Thai nature resort to conquer her fear of monkeys has been savaged by a pack of macaques.

Dee Darwell, 56, lost consciousness after the monkeys surrounded her and sank their teeth into her arms and body.

Many of the primates remained hanging from her limbs as she lay collapsed with blood spurting from a "deep, deep hole" in her arm.

She was eventually rescued by Thai boatmen and was taken to Bangkok Phuket Hospital.

The horrific attack happened on Monkey Island near to the popular holiday island of Phuket in southern Thailand.

"I thought I was heading for safety under this rock in the shade, only to cool down," Mrs Darwell, from Peterborough, said.

"I laid the towel down and there were no monkeys in sight.

"The next thing I noticed, this monkey walked up next to me and I thought, oh dear, and I began to stand up to move away.

"Then, the monkey took my wrist and pounced on my right arm, sinking his teeth in and hung off it.

"He wouldn't let go; he was locked on. I was absolutely petrified."

Thai fishermen ran to the rescue after spotting more monkeys joining the assault and began prising them off.

Mrs Darwell said she had agreed to go on the Siam Sea Canoe tour with a friend to confront her fear of monkeys.

Her phobia had been triggered by her father bringing up a chimpanzee which she described as "positively evil".

She said: "I thought, this is it, I'm going to die, I'm going to be savaged by these monkeys - then I went into shock."

Mrs Darwell added: "I wouldn't have got off that bloody boat if the tour guide would have said at all that there was any danger, any risk, even the slightest risk."

Tour leader Mr Yongyut Buasod said: "We can't control the monkeys if they decide to bite someone, that's why we always warn the tourists.

"That day some people were teasing the monkeys. They don't necessarily attack the specific person teasing them."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Monkey-Phobia-Dee-Darwell-Attacked-By-Macaques-Near-Phi-Phi-Don-Phuket-Thailand/Article/201006315651299?f=rss

Thai Police Force Takes Monkey On The Beat

10:13am UK, Friday April 02, 2010

Tom Bonnett, Sky News Online

A Thai police force has begun taking a monkey dressed in officer's uniform on patrol each day to help improve relations with Muslim separatists.

The five-year-old pig-tailed macaque was adopted after policemen in Yaha province in southern Thailand found him injured with a broken arm.

Trainers taught Santisuk, which means peace in Thai, to pick up coconuts and he now lends a hand collecting the fruit with residents.

The monkey also helps supervise a police checkpoint and his boss says he has made it a much happier place.

Motorists now stop to play with Santisuk, rather than getting angry at the hold-up.

Other forces are now considering introducing monkeys to better their image in the troubled province.

Separatists are blamed for most of the attacks in Thailand's predominantly Muslim deep south.

Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state - such as police, soldiers, government officials and teachers - are often targeted.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Monkey-Police-Macaque-On-Patrol-With-Thai-Force-To-Help-Improve-Relations-With-Muslim-Separatists/Article/201004115591175?f=rss