[Animals] Capuchin monkeys crush stones into powder to lick and smear on bodies to combat parasites, scientists believe

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As spa treatments go, crushed rock licked and smeared over your body might not sound particularly appealing. But this technique is used by bearded capuchin monkeys as a health treatment to prevent parasites, scientists believe. A study of the primates published on Monday found those living in a remote national park in northeastern Brazil pulverised stones and mixed the powder with saliva before rubbing it over their bodies. If we have moral corruption in the highest office, what hope is there for the rest of us? “We have a few theories to explain it, such as the use of quartz to combat parasites by eating the dust, or ectoparasites such as lice by rubbing themselves with it,” said Brazilian primatologist, Tiago Falótico. “We have yet to test these hypotheses.” Researchers said the animals made use of rocks for a range of activities including digging, seed pounding, nut cracking, and stone-on-stone percussion. Stone tools are used for digging, seed pounding, and stone-on-stone percussion. The monkeys can serve as a model to help understand how humans evolved to use tools Stone tools are used for digging, seed pounding, and stone-on-stone percussion. The monkeys can serve as a model to help understand how humans evolved to use tools (Tiago Falótico/EACH-USP) The purpose of the latter, Mr Falótico said, was to “crush quartzite cobbles so that they can lick the powder and smear it on their bodies”. He said the behaviour was not believed to be commonplace in capuchin monkeys but was frequently observed in the po[CENSORED]tion his team had studied. your@email.com Please enter your email addressPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email address I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice In total, the researchers found 29 different tools including 16 used solely for pounding, 12 for digging, and one for stone-to-stone percussion. ✕ Researchers said the monkeys served as a model to help understand how humans evolved to use tools. The study, published in Journal of Archeological Science: Reports, was led by Mr Falótico, from the University of São Paulo, archeologists at Spain's Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution and University College London, and an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. World news in pictures Show all 50 Palestinians take part in the first Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City A firefighter inspects the site of a car bomb attack in Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq This picture shows the 100 days countdown till the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games displayed on the illuminated Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo on April 14, 2021 This photo taken and received courtesy of an anonymous source shows Buddhist monks gesturing while taking part in a demonstration with protesters against the military coup in Mandalay during the Myanmar New Year festival of Thingyan Their study, the first to characterise the tools used by bearded capuchin monkeys living in the wild, focused on those primates living in the Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil’s Piauí State. Prince Philip funeral: Nation ‘missing out’ on bigger service, say Windsor mourners They found that monkeys sometimes used the same tool in more than one activity, but that this was unusual. The monkeys may also use different tools for the same activity. For example, they were observed using a stone to enlarge a rock crevice and then use a twig to probe the hole for food. “It depends on the environment. In Serra da Capivara, there are lots of rocks and stones, so they can easily switch between tools,” Mr Falótico said. “In places with less stone available, they may use the same tool for different purposes. We have sightings of monkeys using a stone to dig and then pound a tuber they've found by digging.” The capuchin monkeys of Serra da Capivara were observed using twigs, sticks and other kinds of wood as tools. “In this case, the tools may be used off the ground, and they modify the shape and size by removing leaves and branches, for example. They may understand the physical properties of these tools,” he said. Males were observed handling objects more than females, but the researchers found that males and females were equally good at mani[CENSORED]tion once they had acquired the skill.