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April 25, 2005
Monkey No See
More monkey behavior, from The Tipping Point this time:
…anthropologists who study vervets find that these kinds of monkeys are really bad at picking up the significance of things like an antelope carcass hanging in a tree (which is a sure sign that a leopard is in the vicinity) or the presense of python tracks. Vervets have been known to waltz into a thicket, ignoring a fresh trail of python tracks, and then act stunned when they actually come across the snake itself. This doesn’t mean that vervets are stupid: they are very sophisticated when it comes to questions that have to do with other vervets… a vervet, in other words, is very good at processing certain kinds of vervetish information, but not so good at processing other kinds of information.
Hm. That explains… well, a lot. I’m oddly comforted.
Posted by Elizabeth at April 25, 2005 10:18 PM