Indonesian monkeys have the wisdom to demand a 'ransom' from humans
Acquisition of object-robbing and object / food-bartering behaviors: a culturally maintained token economy in free-ranging long-tailed macaques | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0677
Bali's thieving monkeys can spot high-value items to ransom | Science | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jan/14/balis-thieving-monkeys-seek-bigger-ransoms-for-high-value-swag-study
' Token exchange ' is a bartering that uses things (tokens) that are essentially worthless to living things, such as inedible things and nutritious things, and whether there is an economy for non-human primates. It is one of the codes of conduct that shows. Token exchange has already been confirmed in chimpanzees, and it was reported in 2001 that the chimpanzee Ai, which is bred by the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University, uses coins to purchase favorite foods at vending machines. In the movie below, you can see how you actually buy food at a vending machine using a 100-yen coin given an eye.
1999ClaudiaTokenPRI --YouTube
However, since these experiments are conducted by human interaction with a small number of samples raised in the research facility, it is questionable whether a population of monkeys living in nature has acquired token exchange. I did.
Cynomolgus monkeys inhabit the area around Uluwatu Temple in Bali. A research team led by Associate Professor Jean-Baptiste Luka of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Lethbridge, Canada, investigated the ecology of the cynomolgus monkey as it voluntarily and routinely exchanges goods with humans.
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According to the research team, local cynomolgus monkeys are blind to things like PET bottles and cheap souvenirs, and target items of high value to humans such as mobile phones, wallets, and glasses. The staff at Uluwatu Temple has announced to tourists that they should always store valuables in a zippered handbag and fix them to their bodies, but it seems that tourists who ignored this announcement are suffering damage.
You can see how the cynomolgus monkeys in Uluwatu Temple actually rob humans by watching the following movie.
Why are these monkeys stealing from tourists? | World's Sneakiest Animals --BBC --YouTube
So, as a result of the research team taking more than 273 days to photograph the interaction between tourists and cynomolgus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys are more likely to rob more valuable goods than just robbing money and demanding food. Turned out to demand food. We also found that the older the individual, the higher the success rate of stealing money and getting food, and the higher the rate of exchanging tokens at a higher rate. For example, young individuals steal low-value items such as hair clips and key chains, while older individuals target electronic devices and accessories.
From the results of this survey, the research team suggests that cynomolgus monkeys may understand 'how much value a looted item has for humans' and reflect it in the barter rate.
by soo-ching
The research team said, 'The case observed this time is a spontaneous, generational social learning and may be the first example of a culturally maintained token economy with naturally released animals. '. Associate Professor Luka said, 'The robbery and bartering of money is a manifestation of the monkey's cultural intelligence. The token exchanges shown by the cynomolgus monkeys at Uluwatu Temple are socially learned and have been socially learned for at least 30 years. It was maintained. '
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