According To A Study, Thieving Monkeys In Bali Target Only Valuable Items To Trade For Food
Researchers have discovered that enterprising monkeys have advanced knowledge of which goods tourists consider most valuable and which, when exchanged for food, are likely to net them the best returns.
Many animal species have been found to be more intelligent than previously thought of, especially the primates. Furthering that argument, a research recently revealed that long-tailed macaques who live around the Uluwatu temple in Indonesia, purposefully steal tourists' most precious things in order to trade them for better food.
Researchers have discovered that enterprising monkeys have advanced knowledge of which goods tourists consider most valuable and which, when exchanged for food, are likely to net them the best returns.
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The University of Lethbridge team in Canada spent 273 days at the Bali temple and reported more than 2,000 interactions between monkeys and tourists.
By observing their preference for three incentives provided by temple workers to tourists who want their property returned, they identified the relative values of food rewards for the monkeys: raw eggs, bags of fruit and crackers. They find that there are different preferences between the incentives for individual monkeys.
Reportedly, from their video recordings they found that the monkeys have a sophisticated understanding of the worth of the things they steal, and when stealing items such as cell phones, wallets, and cameras, they will always hold out for one or more preferred rewards.
Also Read: With Fewer Tourists Post Pandemic, Tribe Of Hungry Monkeys Seen Scrambling For Bread In Thailand
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According to Independent, previous laboratory studies showed that monkeys attach importance to non-food objects such as plastic containers and can learn from experience that such tokens can be traded for food; this research looked at the Hindu temple's free-roaming monkeys.
In a paper published in the Royal Society's journal Philosophical Transactions, Dr Jean-Baptiste Leca, an associate professor in the psychology department of the University of Lethbridge, said his team also discovered that the monkeys seemed to learn the value of tourist objects as they grew up, as they noticed that younger macaques made no distinction between the value of items.
Also Read: These Infant Monkeys Being Fed From Milk Bottles Look Just Like Human Babies!
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Further, according to a Guardian report, there are fears that monkeys have become more aggressive in many regions since the pandemic has left them with nothing to eat. Officials started sterilising monkeys in Thailand last year in Lopburi, a city famous for its macaque population. The absence of visitors during the pandemic left the animals starving, and it became increasingly difficult to live with them.
