Published on June 6, 2015 at 5:45
UK: Scientists working in Brazil recently listened a clever little monkey using a new tool, popularly known as a toothpick.
They could notice a bearded female Capuchin (a new generation Monkey), which was was using a “sneeze stick. This is a thin stick used in nostrils to make oneself sneeze.
Primatologists Dr. Michael Haslam and Dr. Tiago Falotico of the University of Oxford in the UK could spot out the careful and intelligent monkey in the wilds of the Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) in Brazil.
Actually the scientists were studying another group of monkeys in the area, which regularly use stone tools to pound and break open hard nuts and fruits to eat.
Their attention towards monkeys which use toothpicks as well as nasal sticks were absolutely accidental.
Dr Haslam told that he could hear a monkey sneezing, and that incident draw his attention to a female monkey which was seemed to be sneezing quite a lot, at regular intervals.
He realized that she was using a stick tool to trigger her sneezes, in fact a series of grass and stick tools.
Then he could view the monkey using the same tool as a toothpick. She was using it in quite casual fashion as if it was a normal and regular behavior. On seven occasions the monkey was inserted a stiff stick into her teeth on the right side of her mouth, and wiggled it to and fro, working the teeth, before licking it. He added that he was very much astonished by viewing their actions with the tools.
According to him, it was for the first time such behaviors had been seen in wild Capuchins. They have published the details in the journal Primates.
Now scientists are in a set out to discover a wide variety of primates, of different species and groups within species which are inventing and using tools for a variety of purposes.
Video on Capuchins which use toothpicks and nasal sticks