Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Monkey Business

Monkey Business
Scientists who were observing vervet and mangabeys monkeys came to an interesting discovery: monkeys, as humans, like to cuddle other monkey’s babies, just as we like to cuddle other people’s babies. But unlike human, monkeys have to pay a price if they want to cuddle somebody else’s baby. Of course, they have to pay to baby’s mother, and the currency is grooming. If a monkey is of a higher rank, grooming of the mother lasts shorter; if the monkey is of the lower rank, grooming has to last longer. Also, if only one or a very few mothers have babies, the other monkeys who want to cuddle their babies have to groom the mothers for the longer period of time. On the other hand, if there are lots of babies, those monkeys who do not have their own, do not have to groom the mothers for too long in order to cuddle their babies. The real market indeed

1 comment:

  1. Interesting article. Please do not forget to add the link, the title of the article, the author and the date it was written.

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