Animals Know Importance Of Social Distancing In Stopping Disease, Says Study
This was revealed in a study published in journal Animal Behaviour that looked at monkeys in the wild.
COVID-19 has put a ton of emphasis on social distancing. A few weeks ago we saw monkeys maintaining social distancing while humans failed miserably.
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However, now scientists have revealed that they¡¯ve found evidence in animals about the importance of maintaining social distancing to prevent spreading of germs among their community.
This was revealed in a study published in journal Animal Behaviour that looked at monkeys in the wild to better understand the role genetics, diet, social groupings and social network from the microbes found inside an animal¡¯s gut.
Eva Wikberg, assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the US explains, "Social microbial transmission among monkeys can help inform us about how diseases spread. This has parallels to our current situation in which we are trying to understand how social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and future disease outbreaks may influence disease transmission."
The gut microbiome basically refers to the microorganisms that are living in the digestive tract starting from the stomach all the way to the colon.
Scientists have been focusing a lot on the gut microbiome as they believe that an unhealthy gut microbiome can lead to obesity, problems with immune functions weak resistance towards parasites along with behavioural changes.
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Researchers looked at the faecal matter of 45 female colobus monkeys that were a part of eight different social groups in a forest near the villages of Boabeng and Fiema in Ghana. They noticed some striking differences.
They also found that individuals from different groups that were closely connected to other monkeys had similar gut microbiomes.
This basically indicated that microbes can get transmitted occasionally when meeting members of other social groups -- just like when a human comes closer than a metre with another human at a store, said researchers.
Scientists suggest that such transmission of microbes helps the monkeys to digest the leaves that are in their diet.
However, they also stated that more research is needed to find that such transmissions are beneficial, which could be the reason why different social groups have friendly encounters between different groups.
Wikberg concluded stating, "Studies of wild animals can teach us a lot about the importance of using interventions, such as social distancing, to ensure a safer community during this pandemic.
