Updates On 17th Aug 2015
ACRES 
Aug 17, 2015 
ACRES, NGOs 
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MACAQUES ARE MASTERS OF DENTAL FLOSSING!
Humans may be reluctant to floss their teeth, but macaques don’t seem to mind.
The August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Primatology features a report called Long-Tailed Macaques Use Human Hair as Dental Floss. Written by scientists at Kyoto University in Japan, Ubon Rajathanee University and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, it builds on a report from the year 2000 that “two individual Macaca fascicularis monkeys in Lopburi, Thailand used human hair as dental floss.”
The researchers observed similar behaviour with many monkeys, who plucked from sometimes-willing humans. They also learned that, if given human hairpieces, the monkeys in effect used them as floss dispensers, plucking out strands and spinning them into floss. These various monkey achievements are impressive, say the scientists: “Utilising women’s hair as dental floss is not a simple task; the monkeys need to sort the hair, make a string with it and hold it tightly with both hands to brush their teeth when they feel that pieces of food remain … It was interesting that some monkeys appeared to remove only a few pieces of hair as though they understood that there was an optimum number of hairs required for use as dental floss.”
These findings suggest education is a very ancient trait in the primate lineage. The last time humans shared an ancestor with macaques, according to genetic analysis, was roughly 25 million years ago!
There is undoubtedly so much more about the macaques than just the human-macaque tension that has been taking place. They are incredible animals with unique personalities, rich social lives and traditions that we do not yet fully understand.
#ACRES #SaveSgMonkeys
Source: https://www.facebook.com/ACRESasia/photos/a.223077136522.136..
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