A weblog about stuff and junk by Jake Sutton
Monkeys “imitate with a purpose�, matching their behaviour to others’ as a form of social learning, researchers report.
Such mimicry has previously been seen only in great apes – including humans and chimps – but now Italian researchers have recorded wonderful footage of the phenomenon in newborn rhesus macaques.
Oh sure, they “imitate with a purpose” alright: To take us down a notch and move on up the evolutionary scale, I’d say!
Stupid learning monkeys…
‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin killed by stingray
“He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,� said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat at the time.
How freakish is that?! It’s a shame. I’ve always thought - despite his antics - that Steve Irwin was a fantasticly effective educator.
India Tries to Chase Monkeys From Trains
The langur handler is being paid a retainer of India rupees 6,900 ($160) a month, and ”he will be called whenever there is a monkey problem,” Anuj Dayal, the spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp., was quoted as saying.
On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.
Simianista commandos are crawling through pipes onto trains to terrorize the human race… And we find this on a site called “Happy News”?
I beg to differ!
So, suppose you’re trying to get back in touch with a high school ex with whom you had remained friends but had lost contact since she got married and moved to Australia. You hit Google, right? Right.
If you’re lucky, you find something like this year-old article from her local Aussie paper: Wilson hams it up at Mitzy’s puppy school
Even animal behavioural trainer Mitzy Voiles thought there was more chance of pigs flying than attending one of her classes.
Man, Australia is awesome!
That said, I found a couple of email addresses for Mittsy (I don’t remember if she ever actually used the ‘z’ spelling…). Bless the intarhiweb and all its glories.
Squirrel Monkey troop escapes London Zoo
“The squirrel monkeys have managed to gain access to some of the taller trees in their enclosure and from there, have leapt into the higher branches of a tree in Regents Park,” a London Zoo spokeswoman said.
They go on to say that the squirrel monkeys pose no threat, but then they mention this bit:
She said they were a very intelligent set of monkeys and staff had previously had to train them to stop stealing visitor’s mobile phones.
Thievery and jailbreaking?! These critters are obviously immune to rehabilitation.
Update: As expected, Betty, the last of the bunch to still be roaming around, finally came back on her own.
A Japanese monkey aptly named Oops bolted from the Roanoke city zoo, sparking a park-wide shutdown as staff searched the surrounding forest where they could hear her in the trees.
The 20-pound Japanese macaque and her family were being moved from their holding cells to the exhibit for routine feeding and cleaning when she got away Sunday morning, said David Jobe, education curator at Mill Mountain Zoo. She was still on the run Monday morning.
“We hope that because they’re active in the daytime, she slept last night and woke up this morning hungry,” Jobe said. “We hope to take advantage of a hungry monkey.”
If I had a dollar for everytime I’ve heard that…
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