Stunning video shows how macaques work together to get food from a complex rope device, which they couldn’t operate alone
- Osaka University scientists tested the aggressive monkeys’ cooperative ability
- Macaques learned how to operate a complex rope puzzle in pairs
- Not all macaques were as cooperative as others, though
- Macaques from a jungle island completed the test 60 percent of the time
- Another group from the city of Maniwa cooperated only one percent of the time
Macaques are sometimes thought of as aggressive animals, but new research from Osaka University shows the diminutive monkeys have a friendlier side.
Researchers from the university’s Graduate School of Human Sciences devised an experiment to test how willing macaques would be to work together in order to get food.
The test involved a large rectangular metal rack with two small bowls filled with food and two ropes attached to either end of the rack.
Scroll down for video
Scientists from Osaka University devised an experiment where macaques would have to pull two ropes at the same time to bring a rack with food toward them
The monkeys were separated from the rack by a chainlink fence and had to figure out how to pull both ropes at the same time to get the food, according to a report from The Asahi Shimbun.
If only one of the monkeys pulled the rope, the rack would turn sideways and the food would remain inaccessible.
Researchers conducted the test 1,500 times on two different types of macaque.
Wit the first group, from Awajishima island, researchers found the monkeys were able to successfully cooperate on pulling the ropes at the same time in sixty percent of the tests.
They found the success rate for the monkeys was slightly higher when the test pairs were blood relations.
They also observed that the Awajishima macaques learned they couldn’t complete the test alone and would wait for a second monkey to enter the test area before attempting to pull the rope.
Another group of macaques from a different region in Japan, near the city of Maniwa, were much more aggressive and territorial with the ropes.
The Maniwa macaques successfully cooperated to pull both ropes at the same time in only one percent of 200 tests.
The mixed findings seemed to both confirm and refute some of the stereotypes about macaques.
The findings suggest that the monkeys have the basic capacity for cooperating on complex tests, but some groups may develop more aggressive tendencies in different environments.
Researchers found that macaques from the Awajishima island cooperated seuccessful 60 percent of the time, while macaques from near the city of Maniwa cooperated just one percent of the time
‘In a highly tolerant society, members do not attack each other even when in close quarters, allowing for social negotiation,’ researcher Yu Kaigaishi said.
‘The cooperative behavior (of the monkeys) confirmed in the latest study reflects this.’
‘The findings will also prove helpful in analyzing the evolution of human societies where people cooperate in various ways.’
