watch out a couple instructional TV might be the quickest way to learn composition summit , witching tricks , and how to moonwalk . Now , researchers show that scallywag in the wild can learn skills by learn videos too . Monkey see , rascal do . Thefindingsare publish inBiology Lettersthis calendar week .
masses used to conceive that civilisation and behavioral traditions were unique to homo , but from primates to meerkats to cockatoos , the grounds for the societal transmission of information in non - human animals is mounting . Recent subject field have found that primates can learn solutions to problems from watching telecasting in the laboratory . The approach has never been seek in the wild .
To see if tempestuous rough-cut marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus ) can larn problem solving skills from others , a trio of researchers led byTina Gunhold from the University of Viennatested 12 fellowship groups — that ’s a total of 108 monkeys — in the Atlantic Forest of Aldeia in Pernambuco , Brazil , using video footage and a fruit - snap labor .
First , they check a mates of captive monkeys to either draw out open a draftsman ( project below , a ) or push up a hat ( group B ) to reach a fruity advantage . The researchers recorded these marmoset teachers and displayed the video on a laptop computer screen in an unintelligible plastic box seat on a political platform where tempestuous marmoset frequent . Six of the groups got to ascertain video demonstrations showing the unfamiliar marmosets pulling start the draftsman or crowd up the lid . As controls , the other half were shown static image of marmosets next to fruit . The team then watched what encounter when they placed the plastic box of treats on the platform in front of the television box seat .
monkey in the video - demo chemical group were more successful in finding the yield than the control , and they were also more likely to use the technique shown by the on - sieve monkeys after , acting as teacher for other family members . However , as soon as one scalawag mastered the task , it was impossible to secern whether the others were learning from the video or from their relative : " We think it ’s a combination of both,“Gunhold tells New Scientist . Of the one twelve marmoset who were able to launch the box seat , only one did it by figuring it out on his own .
Here ’s a short movie of monkeys ascertain scamp movies :
image : T. Gunhold et al . , Royal Society 2014
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