Monkeys Use Perfume, Too.

Matthias Laska, a professor of zoology at the Linköping University in Sweden, discovered that monkeys use perfume too!

In most of these cases, the scientists speculate that the leaf mash might have been used to mitigate topical skin infections or repel bugs.

But Laska and his team found that of the plants used by the Mexican spider monkeys, only wild celery is known to have insect-repelling compounds and antifungal properties. The other plants simply smell good.

The scientists, therefore, conclude that self-anointing "may play a role in the context of social communication, possibly for signalling of social status or to increase sexual attractiveness".

Link