Monkeys also seek clean water

2000/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

Anh Galat-Luong and Gérard Galat have made an unusual discovery of Eastern Senegal: holes in the sand of chimpanzees and baboons in the lands adjacent to the dry beds at the bottom of the holes. The study was carried out between 1995 and 1999 and every year, when the time of drought arrived, new holes appeared in the sands. Thanks to holes, monkeys could get clean water (bacteriological analyses have shown that the water was clean) instead of drinking rotten water in visible wells.

This is the first time this behavior has been observed in monkeys.