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Scientists find monkeys who know how to fish
APnewsmyway ^ | Jun 10, 7:27 AM (ET) | MICHAEL CASEY

Posted on 06/10/2008 7:14:30 AM PDT by null and void

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food - whether it be grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist.

Now, researchers say they have discovered groups of the silver-haired monkeys in Indonesia that fish.

Groups of long-tailed macaques were observed four times over the past eight years scooping up small fish with their hands and eating them along rivers in East Kalimantan and North Sumatra provinces, according to researchers from The Nature Conservancy and the Great Ape Trust.

A long-tailed macaque monkey looks for fish in a river in Lesan, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, in...

The species had been known to eat fruit and forage for crabs and insects, but never before fish from rivers.

"It's exciting that after such a long time you see new behavior," said Erik Meijaard, one of the authors of a study on fishing macaques that appeared in last month's International Journal of Primatology. "It's an indication of how little we know about the species."

Meijaard, a senior science adviser at The Nature Conservancy, said it was unclear what prompted the long-tailed macaques to go fishing. But he said it showed a side of the monkeys that is well-known to researchers - an ability to adapt to the changing environment and shifting food sources.

"They are a survivor species, which has the knowledge to cope with difficult conditions," Meijaard said Tuesday. "This behavior potentially symbolizes that ecological flexibility."

The other authors of the paper, which describes the fishing as "rare and isolated" behavior, are The Nature Conservancy volunteers Anne-Marie E. Stewart, Chris H. Gordon and Philippa Schroor, and Serge Wich of the Great Ape Trust.

Some other primates have exhibited fishing behavior, Meijaard wrote, including Japanese macaques, chacma baboons, olive baboons, chimpanzees and orangutans.

Agustin Fuentes, a University of Notre Dame anthropology professor who studies long-tailed macaques, or macaca fascicularis, on the Indonesian island of Bali and in Singapore, said he was "heartened" to see the finding published because such details can offer insight into the "complexity of these animals."

"It was not surprising to me because they are very adaptive," he said. "If you provide them with an opportunity to get something tasty, they will do their best to get it."

Fuentes, who is not connected with the published study, said he has seen similar behavior in Bali, where he has observed long-tailed macaques in flooded paddy fields foraging for frogs and crabs. He said it affirms his belief that their ability to thrive in urban and rural environments from Indonesia to northern Thailand could offer lessons for endangered species.

"We look at so many primate species not doing well. But at the same time, these macaques are doing very well," he said. "We should learn what they do successfully in relation to other species."

Still, Fuentes and Meijaard said further research was needed to understand the full significance of the behavior. Among the lingering questions are what prompted the monkeys to go fishing and how common it is among the species.

Long-tailed macaques were twice observed catching fish by The Nature Conservancy researchers in 2007, and Wich spotted them doing it two times in 1998 while studying orangutans.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; monkeychat; multiregionalism; teachamantofish
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To: null and void

Gee, bears have been doing it for a few years now. Same with eagles, herons, foxes, otters, martins, etc etc etc...


21 posted on 06/10/2008 7:33:26 AM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: pissant; girlangler

...and even wimin...


22 posted on 06/10/2008 7:34:56 AM PDT by null and void (Bureaucracies are stupid. They grow larger by the square of the population and stupider by its cube.)
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To: null and void

Big deal. Cats have always done this. They have their own hooks too.
And it’s always puzzled me that cats typically dislike water, yet they love fish and excel at catching them. How did they even develop a taste for fish in the first place?
Now, your ape that uses a stick to “fish” for ants or termites...that’s more like fishing!


23 posted on 06/10/2008 7:40:00 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (Teach your child to be an American. Take him out of public school.)
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To: NordP

“Gathering...is not fishing.”

Precisely. Bears catch and eat fish. Lots of birds do it.


24 posted on 06/10/2008 7:40:33 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: null and void

Do they have a license?


25 posted on 06/10/2008 7:41:33 AM PDT by Daveinyork
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To: null and void

I bet there are some fish (and crocodilians) that would hunt for a tasty monkey who was trying to catch a fish.


26 posted on 06/10/2008 7:42:58 AM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: Hacklehead
“Unless they are using bait, it’s not fishing.”

I saw a nature program several years ago about a heron in England that did learn how to use bait to fish.

It was in a park where kids would feed bread to the ducks.
I guess the heron noticed that bluegills would gather to also grab some bread scraps.

The heron learned to fly in and grab a piece of bread and fly to the other end of the pond. It would then put pieces of bread in the water and grab the fish when they came up for it.

It wasn't baiting a hook or using a rod but it was using bait to get fish.

27 posted on 06/10/2008 7:43:12 AM PDT by Beagle8U (FreeRepublic -- One stop shopping ....... Its the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: null and void; Grammy

LOL.

Well, we talk about it a lot anyway.

Hopefully Grammy and I will get to test that theory at some point soon.


28 posted on 06/10/2008 7:43:35 AM PDT by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: Daveinyork
How do you say "Can I git me a huntin' fishin' license he-uh?" in monkey?
29 posted on 06/10/2008 7:44:14 AM PDT by null and void (Bureaucracies are stupid. They grow larger by the square of their size and stupider by its cube.)
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To: freelancer

Our American welfare recipients sit on street corners and drink beer all day, and they have intentionally not been “taught how to fish”.


30 posted on 06/10/2008 7:44:47 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: Piquaboy

Don’t know, but he sure can’t bowl...


31 posted on 06/10/2008 7:45:00 AM PDT by jrestrepo
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To: null and void

Give a monkey a fish...he’ll eat for a day. Teach a monkey to fish... and he’ll still throw his feces at you. But he might get his own show on ESPN.


32 posted on 06/10/2008 7:45:14 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (Peace Is Not The Question.)
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To: Daveinyork; Jack Black; All
Yep, perhaps we're witnessing a "hidden agenda" here???

Are the "Darwinists" nudging us again???

33 posted on 06/10/2008 7:45:14 AM PDT by NordP ((Rev Wright ) - Hey, Obama... Looks like YOUR "turrr-key" has come hoooome to ROOOOST!)
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To: MrB

Not true. They get the beer money by using votes as bait...


34 posted on 06/10/2008 7:46:55 AM PDT by null and void (Bureaucracies are stupid. They grow larger by the square of their size and stupider by its cube.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

Nicerer...


35 posted on 06/10/2008 7:47:34 AM PDT by null and void (Bureaucracies are stupid. They grow larger by the square of their size and stupider by its cube.)
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To: andy58-in-nh

LOL!!!!


36 posted on 06/10/2008 7:47:51 AM PDT by NordP ((Rev Wright ) - Hey, Obama... Looks like YOUR "turrr-key" has come hoooome to ROOOOST!)
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To: Daveinyork

“Do they have a license?”.....

It wouldn’t matter, the monkeys would just throw poop at the game warden....


37 posted on 06/10/2008 7:59:32 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: freelancer
Give a macaque a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a macaque to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

No, teach a macaque to fish and he will spend huge amounts of money on sparkly-painted boats, equipment, sonar, trailer, SUV, gas for aforementioned SUV, long fishing trips, special clothes, taxidermy, DVDs, you name it. The beer is the least of it. ;-)

38 posted on 06/10/2008 8:00:05 AM PDT by ottbmare
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To: null and void

“A monkey could do that.”—Hung from Top Chef


39 posted on 06/10/2008 8:05:02 AM PDT by denydenydeny (Expel the priest and you don't inaugurate the age of reason, you get the witch doctor--Paul Johnson)
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To: null and void
They must have watched the bears fish, they have for centuries.

Maybe they are different because they fly fish?

40 posted on 06/10/2008 8:05:53 AM PDT by BillT (God said it, that settles it whether I believe it or not! (Bible rules))
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