Mandrills teach their daughters good hygiene practices

Mandrills teach their daughters good hygiene practices

Humans are not the only ones to teach their children good hygiene practices—mandrills do it too. In these primates, where many individuals are infected with contagious gastrointestinal parasites, some females systematically avoid grooming the peri-anal region of their groupmates. This “hygienic” strategy is then transmitted to their daughters, as shown by the study of Marie […]

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Study Shows Crows Are Capable of Recursion, a Communication Skill Thought to Be Distinctively Human

Study Shows Crows Are Capable of Recursion, a Communication Skill Thought to Be Distinctively Human

Crows are one of the most misunderstood creatures in the animal kingdom. Crows are incredibly smart and creative, and this new report shows just how intelligent they are. Recursive sentences are a key part of language, and researchers have long wondered if animals can grasp this concept. Recursion is what allows us to form long […]

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Outgunned by militants, rangers fear for chimpanzees in southwest Mali

Outgunned by militants, rangers fear for chimpanzees in southwest Mali

Forestry officer Karim Kamisoko is not at his post. Instead of patrolling Bafing Faunal Reserve in southwestern Mali, he and his fellow rangers are 70 kilometers (43 miles) away, taking shelter from Islamist militants who have seized control of much of this part of southwestern Mali. Bafing Faunal Reserve covers 176,000 hectares (435,000 acres), its […]

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Climate Crisis and Deforestation Are Bringing Tree-Dwelling Primates Down to Earth

Climate Crisis and Deforestation Are Bringing Tree-Dwelling Primates Down to Earth

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance postdoctoral associate Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., was observing southern bamboo lemurs in Madagascar when he noticed something odd. Usually, these lemurs spend their entire lives in the trees. But in places where their forest habitat had been thinned by human activity, the primates would risk descending to the ground to search […]

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