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…
The news report is based on the open access PLoS Biology paper “Neonatal Imitation in Rhesus Macaques” at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040302
John Latter / Jorolat
Evolution Research
http://evomech.blogspot.com/
Huh. Cool!