SAD LOVE QUOTES: Mandrill adapts a twig to give himself a 'pedicure' in most complex behaviour yet seen in primate

Friday, July 22, 2011

Mandrill adapts a twig to give himself a 'pedicure' in most complex behaviour yet seen in primate

Last updated at 4:40 PM on 22nd July 2011

It's not the sort of behaviour most men would want to be shown around the world.

But this monkey had no qualms about scientists filming him giving himself a 'pedicure', suggesting the animals are smarter than previously thought.

A video taken by British researchers shows a huge male mandrill snapping a twig to apparently make it thinner.

He then uses the implement to scrape the dirt away from under his toenails.

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Complex behaviour: A male mandrill first snaps a twig to make it thinner and then uses the implement to scrape the dirt away from under his toenails

Chimpanzees have already been seen making their own 'fishing rods', but the pedicure is among the most complex behaviour yet seen on a mandrill.

Such activities had until recently only thought to be carried out by humans, said Dr Riccardo Pansini of Durham University, who led the research.

He installed a camera in the mandrill's enclosure while carrying out a project into monkey stress when it caught the pedicure taking place.

Dr Pasini told the BBC: 'Mandrills have been seen to clean their ears with modified tools in the wild.

'This was thought to help prevent ear infections and therefore might be an important behaviour in terms of hygiene.'

He added that being in captivity may have encouraged this behaviour.

'Animals have more time in captivity to carry out tasks that are not focused on looking for food or mating.

'So in zoos, you can occasionally pick up behaviours that are a little bit strange.'

Bright spark: Activities such as using a tool to clean under nails had until recently only thought to be carried out by humans

In the wild the pedicure would not mean very much, but it could have helped clean their ears whenever they were infected.

'So we're witnessing the same behaviour that's used in quite important tasks being adapted for a less important task,' Dr Pansini said.

Dr Amanda Seed, an expert in primate tool-use from the University of St Andrews, told BBC Nature that she was not sure the mandrill was sharpening the twig specifically to clean its toenails.

'For me, the behaviour is closer to what we already know from other species, using a stick for self-cleaning purposes, than the tool modification of say chimpanzees - which rake their stick tools through their teeth to produce a brush for gathering termites,' she said.

'But these definitions are always tricky. You could say that as soon as an animal pulls a branch from a tree, they're modifying that branch.'

The report was published in the journal Behavioural Processes.