第3132期:Spider monkeys sharing fruit knowledge

Researchers from universities in Edinburgh and Mexico spent seven years studying the behaviour of black-handed spider monkeys in the Yucatan Peninsula. They observed that the large groups the primates live in split into smaller subgroups when searching for food. Different combinations of monkeys would split off each time, meaning the same subgroup might never forage together twice.

来自爱丁堡和墨西哥多所大学的研究人员花了七年时间研究尤卡坦半岛上黑掌蜘蛛猴的行为。他们观察到，这类灵长目动物群居的大群体会在寻找食物时分成一个个小分队。每次分出来的小分队成员都不同，这意味着几乎不会出现原班人马第二次一起觅食的情况。

Dr Matthew Silk from the University of Edinburgh says these groups are a clever way of sharing knowledge about the locations of the best fruit trees. Some parts of the forest were known by many monkeys, like a town's favourite restaurant, while others were known by just one or two, like a hidden gem.

爱丁堡大学的马修·西尔克博士称，这种分组方式很聪明，可以有效地分享最好吃的果树位置。森林里的某些地方就像城里最受欢迎的餐厅，很多猴子都知道；而有些地方则像一个鲜为人知的 “宝藏小店”，只有一两只猴子了解。