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In 2010, scientists announced the discovery of a new primate species, the Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey, which we posted here. At the time, the only known specimen was a carcass. Now, photographs of a group of these monkeys have been taken with a camera trap in the mountains of Kachin state in Burma. Researchers are especially excited to see that this critically endangered species is producing babies. Link -via Geekosystem
(Image credit: FFI/BANCA/PRCF)
Pete (the monkey) watched Louis (the man) washing dishes at an animal sanctuary in Bolivia. Pete learned fast! Read more about Pete and the baby he is “babysitting” at Amazing Stuff. Link -Thanks, Duncan!
Screaming Monkey Slingshot – $5.95
Has workday stress got you down? Is it time to unleash the flying monkeys? You need the Screaming Monkey Slingshot from the NeatoShop. This hilarious plush monkey screams as he zooms through the air. Hey, don’t knock it till you try it. Letting loose the flying monkeys certainly seemed to make the Wicked Witch of the West feel better.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Cubicle Toys and awesome Wizard of Oz items!
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Can
you teach a monkey the basics of market economy?
In this article over at our pal mental_floss, Allen St. John wrote about an intriguing research by Laurie Santos and Keith Chen of Yale University to see if they can teach monkeys to spend money:
A video of one of these early experiments shows that when Felix, the group’s alpha male, entered, he received a “wallet” with 12 of those round aluminum tokens. Two student researchers, one wearing a pink T-shirt, the other blue, stood on either side of that 3-foot cubic enclosure, each holding a different tray of food. The premise at this stage was pretty basic: Felix could swap his tokens for food with either of the two researchers. He didn’t seem to care much about the students. But he did care profoundly about what the researchers would sell him in exchange for that little metal token.
Felix and the others were cautious, observant shoppers. As the video shows, Felix would head first to the researcher holding out pieces of orange, examining them carefully; before leaving, he stopped to smell them. He went to the other researcher and did exactly the same thing—looking, sniffing, shopping. He then headed back to the first researcher and handed over a token to complete the transaction. Oranges, please.
“When you watch it, it looks like they’re contemplating, thinking about what they’re going to buy,” says Santos. What separates these capuchins from the scores of animals who have been trained to perform complex behaviors in exchange for food is the option presented by that second researcher.
“The critical aspect of money is that it’s fungible. It represents a choice,” explains Chen. “A coin is fundamentally different than, say, pressing a lever.” Santos and Chen had not only achieved their preliminary goal, they had made history: The monkeys were using cash. The capuchins were now operating in a sphere where humans had been dwelling alone.
Sock Monkey Coin Purse – $6.95
Are you looking for a great place to sock away your lunch money? You need the Sock Monkey Coin Purse from the NeatoShop. Your friends are going to go wild over the handy dandy way you carry loose change.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Back to School items!
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In a story we brought you last week, a monkey grabbed photographer David Slater’s camera and took several pictures, including this one of himself. This picture doesn’t have a copyright notice, but two other pictures at Mail Online have a watermark from Caters News Agency. Techdirt finds that a little strange.
So here’s the legal question: how did the copyright get assigned to Caters? I can’t see how there’s been a legal transfer. The monkeys were unlikely to have sold or licensed the work. I’m assuming that it’s likely that the photographer, Slater, probably submitted the photos to the agency, and from a common sense view of things, that would make perfect sense. But from a letter-of-the-law view of things, Slater almost certainly does not hold the copyrights on those images, and has no legal right to then sell, license or assign them to Caters.
I don’t think anyone is worrying about the monkey filing an infringement suit, but it is an interesting question. Link -Thanks, Marilyn!
Update: Caters News Agency contacted Techdirt, and asked them to take down the two pictures. Someone in the comments offered to pay for the monkey pictures with a picture of a spider. Link -Thanks, wernerna!
(Image credit: an unnamed Indonesian Macaque)
Giggles Coat – $29.95
OK, it’s not really Dress Like A Monkey Day. I just made that up. BUT, doesn’t Dress Like A Monkey Day sound like a fun holiday.
Can we talk seriously? Do you ever have the urge to dress your child like a monkey? Well, now you can with the Giggles Coat from the NeatoShop! Remember, you are not weird you are just an attentive parent.
Monkey Hat – $16.95
Don’t worry the NeatoShop has a matching Monkey Hat for you too. Oh, you are dressed the same! That is so cute! It’s also a little weird, but hey who am I to judge.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fabulous Apparel & Accessories!
Happy Dress Like A Monkey Day!
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George Seurat’s famous painting “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte” shows a monkey at the feet of a woman. It could be that the model actually had a monkey at the beach, or it may symbolize that the woman was a prostitute! Minnesotastan put together a post exploring the monkey as a symbol of prostitution. Some images contain art nudes, which may be NSFW. Link
Comments Off You’ve seen this trick before, but this one is particularly well executed. -via Arbroath
Early this year, scientists heard of a new and different monkey in the Kachin state of Myanmar. When they arrived at the site, they found the monkey had been “discovered” by the hunters who killed it. It was eaten soon after.
Scientists first learned of “Snubby”—as they nicknamed the species—from hunters in the remote, mountainous Kachin state (map) in early 2010, according to the U.K.-based conservation group Flora & Fauna International (FFI), which announced the discovery Wednesday.
The hunters told the team of R. strykeri’s fleshy lips, upturned nose, and odd respiratory issue: Rain falling into the monkeys’ noses possibly causes the animals to sneeze, so they often spend soggy days with their heads tucked between their knees, the hunters said.
Local hunters told the FFI team that the rainy season was a good time to look for the monkeys because they made more noise during rain. Eventually, more of the snub-nosed monkeys were seen, but they moved so fast no photographs could be taken. Link
(Image credit: Ngwe Lwin)
If it’s cute and it’s viral, Parry Grip will write a song about it. Here he lends his talents to the Boar-riding Monkey at the Fukuchiyama Zoo in Kyoto, Japan. -via Laughing Squid
Previously at Neatorama: The Nom Nom Song and He’s a Cat Flushing a Toilet.
This baby monkey clings to a young boar for security as it roams about the Fukuchiyama Zoo in Kyoto, Japan. TV reports on the two have caused five times the usual number of people to visit the zoo!
Baby monkeys are known to cling to their mother for many months after they are born, and Miwa the orphaned monkey seems to think of the boar as his mommy (even though the boar is a boy). Miwa has also taken a liking to the woman who works at the zoo’s ticket counter. When he’s not riding the boar, Miwa is usually sleeping in the woman’s lap.
Both the monkey and the wild boar are growing up fast. The rodeos will only continue until the monkey grows out of the stage at which he feels it needs to cling to a parent – or – until the the boar will no longer tolerate the presence of a monkey on his back.
See several other videos of Miwa and the boar at Japan Probe. Link
If you were impressed that 19-year-old fugitive from justice Colton Harris-Moore has a Facebook fan page with almost 90.000 fans, listen to this: an unnamed fugitive monkey in Florida also has a Facebook page with over 80,000 fans! The rhesus macaque has been roaming the Tampa Bay area for a year.
Home video shot by Tampa residents and broadcast on local TV stations shows the macaque rummaging through trash bins, scaling walls in a single bound, even hanging out poolside and swiping fruit.
On at least a dozen occasions Florida Fish and Wildlife officials shot the plucky primate with tranquilizer darts. Increasingly large doses barely fazed him. One professional trapper, hunting the monkey, wondered whether the monkey had become a “drug addict.”
The monkey’s origin is still unknown. Link -via Environmental Graffiti -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!
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Fifteen ninja monkeys on trees
Evil scientists, beware! Cages, plodding henchmen …er, "graduate students" and even seventeen-feet tall electrified fence are match for … the ninja monkeys:
A group of 15 monkeys at Kyoto University’s primate research institute in Aichi Prefecture, which are the focus of a string of high-profile scientific studies, escaped from their forest home which is encased by a 17ft high electric fence.
The monkeys made their bid for freedom by using tree branches to fling themselves one by one over the high voltage electric fence located nearly three metres away.
The ninja monkeys are invincible … well … except for one teeny tiny weakness:
However, despite the intelligence shown in their great escape, the primates appeared unsure as to what to do with their newfound freedom: the monkeys remained by the gates of the research centre and were lured back into captivity by scientists armed with peanuts.
Why play boring old hand games like rock-paper-scissors, and lame derivatives, when there is another game that includes the awesomeness of pirates, ninjas and robots?
Here is the new version of rock-paper-scissors, or rochambeau, as it is sometimes known. As you can see from the schematic below, each thing can beat two other things, and is, in turn beaten by two other things.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by drtundra.
In reference to this post.
This would be dangerous if it were a real ad. Link -via Nag on the Lake
They may look like the subspecies of an Ewok but they’re actually monkeys with incredible abilities and the strangest habits; food seasoning and hot tub bathing are but a few. See more photos at Environmental Graffiti.
(image credit: Alexandra Boldereva)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Is shaking one’s head to mean "no" solely a human gesture? Perhaps not. This film from the BBC shows a mother Bonobo ape shaking her head at her rascal child to stop it playing with it’s food.
Bonobos are already known to use head-shaking to initiate interactions with other members of the group, such as playing.
However, this is the first study to film and observe an ape shaking its head in a negative context to stop or prevent other bonobo behaviour. [...]
The Germany-based scientists observed the behaviour whilst studying bonobos as part of wider study on the communication of great ape infants. Using video recordings they studied the gestures and behaviour of bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans in six European zoos.
During the study, they witnessed four individual bonobos shaking their heads in this way on 13 different occasions.
Previously only anecdotal reports have noted individual chimpanzees shaking their head to signal ‘no’.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
This dreamy space music video featuring a lovable monkey, will tug on your heart and soul.
Created as a collaboration between World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, “Space Monkey” carries a message about our planet, and features Ben Lee’s track, “Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe”.
-via The Daily What
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Move over police K-9 unit! There’s a new animal cop in town: the Monkey Police.
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.
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.
The History Bluff (motto: "Making a mess of history") brings us another headscratcher with the sad news that the first monkey to ever walk on the moon has passed away.
On June 3, 1981 Harlan the Monkey became the first primate to ever walk on the moon. Harlan died on November 18, 2009 of an apparent Tang overdose.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by geezyreezy.
This coming winter, ditch the slanket and get yourself warm the good ol’ fashioned geeky way: with USB hand/foot/eye(!) warmers and blanket. GeekAlerts blog has got your (chilly) backside covered with this article: 10 USB Gadgets to Help You Through the Winter
Link (Previously on Neatorama if you’re wondering, but I like the monkey gloves)
Our pal Asylum blog has a fantastic article about how some of the world’s most bizarre riots got started. Like this one in New Delhi, India in 2007, that was caused by … monkeys!
In New Delhi, where monkeys are a touch more revered and tolerated than they would be in most countries, rhesus macaques, numbering over 20,000 in the city, have a history of biting people. They’ve also been known to break into hospitals to pull out I.V. feeding tubes and drink the liquid themselves (because monkeys are diabolical like that). Somewhat more impressive is that the monkeys have a political agenda and actually killed the deputy mayor of New Delhi by pushing him off a balcony.
Unlike most riots, this one was fought the old-fashioned way, with more monkeys. Langurs, which are just bigger monkeys, have been brought into the city and strategically placed around important buildings to scare off the nuisance monkeys. Never has a more awesome solution to a problem been devised.
Check out the article here: 5 Unlikely Reason for Riots – Thanks Alex!
If you plan to visit the Knowsley Safari Park near Liverpool, England, beware of monkeys. Bad, bad monkeys:
The cheeky monkeys – who are known for tearing off the odd wiper or wing mirror – have been targeting cars carrying the roof boxes before pouncing on the unsuspecting visitors, who are forced to watch helplessly as their things disappear. [...]
‘Their technique involves the largest baboons jumping up and down on the box, flexing it until the lock bursts open, then the rest of the baboons pile in to see what they can find,’ Mr Ross said.
‘Obviously, we’re well used to them helping themselves to the odd wing mirror or wiper blade, but this has taken things to a whole new level.
‘Let’s face it, nobody wants to see a baboon running up a tree with their underwear.’
The Daily Mail has the story and pics: Link (Photo: Cavendish Press) – via Asylum
You can buy tea that has been picked from the bush in China by monkeys! The idea is that the rare and delicious strain of wild tea grows on steep hillsides that humans cannot reach. From the product page:
Legend has it that monkeys were first used to collect tea ten centuries ago, because upon seeing it’s master trying to reach some tea growing wild on a mountain face, the monkey climbed up the steep face and collected the tea growing there and brought it down to his master.
Monkey-picked tea is now harvested in only one small village in China. Link -via the Presurfer
Taxonomy: Keeping the family in order
Got a loved one who loves to monkey around? Do you have an ardent Creationist friend who you’d love to poke a little fun at? Here’s a new T-shirt from the Neatorama Shop that will fit him or her nicely.
The Taxonomy: Keeping the Family in Order T-shirt is designed by the super-talented (and available for hire) Chris Murphy of ChrisM70 Graphic Design. Words by our very own national treasure, Neatoramanaut Kalel.
For more geeky science T-shirts, check out the Neatorama Shop: Link
Some jobs could be done by a trained monkey. So it’s all the more impressive that an untrained monkey on a farm in India herds 75 goats out to and back from the fields every day. National Geographic reports:
Martin K, Estate Manager- “She takes out the goats for grazing and brings them back. A shepherd is usually required to accompany the goats all day long and bring them back in these hills. But because of her, manpower can be spared. She is as good as a shepherd. The only thing is that she does not speak, but otherwise carries out all responsibilities.”
They say they feel confident that the goats will be safe when Mani accompanies them.
Mani is said to make a strange sound when she discovers a goat is missing or when danger lurks.
There’s a (non-embeddable) video of the monkey at the link.
image by flickr user eirikref used under creative commons license
Results from a 20 year study on monkeys and their diets show that eating fewer calories can help you live longer. Animals with a restricted diet of 30% were shown to outlive those that were given the freedom to eat what when and how much they wanted. The monkeys also had improved chances of avoiding age related diseases, cancer, diabetes and brain atrophy.
In terms of overall animal health, Weindruch notes, the restricted diet leads to longer lifespan and improved quality of life in old age. “There is a major effect of caloric restriction in increasing survival if you look at deaths due to the diseases of aging,” he says.
The incidence of cancerous tumors and cardiovascular disease in animals on a restricted diet was less than half that seen in animals permitted to eat freely. Remarkably, while diabetes or impaired glucose regulation is common in monkeys that can eat all they want, it has yet to be observed in any animal on a restricted diet. “So far, we’ve seen the complete prevention of diabetes,” says Weindruch.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
People, meet your new grammar Nazi: a study by Harvard University linguist Ansgar Endress has revealed that monkeys can recognize poor grammar!
For their study, Endress and colleagues played recordings of made-up English words to a population of captive cotton-top tamarins for roughly 30 minutes a day.
Half of the tamarins were exposed to words with a varied stem but a constant suffix (such as bi-shoy, mo-shoy, and lu-shoy). The other half were exposed to a constant prefix followed by a varied stem (such as shoy-bi, shoy-mo, and shoy-lu). [...]
When tamarins were exposed to words that "broke" the rules they had learned, they looked toward the speaker in a startled manner, observers noted.
The finding is dramatic, Endress explained, because it reveals that our distant cousins seem to have the mental machinery to identify verbal structures like suffixes and prefixes.
