you scratch my back...

From ScienceDaily: Small Male Chimps Use Politics, Rather Than Aggression, To Lead The Pack

Pretty interesting. Scientists observed a smaller chimp leader "obsessively groom[ing] both male and female chimpanzees to maintain his top position." They also observed a very large and aggressive leader as being a "stingy groomer."

isaac newbee

From ScienceDaily: Honey Bees Can Tell The Difference Between Different Numbers At A Glance

Wow. Honey bees can kind of count. "My colleague Professor Srinivasan has demonstrated that bees can count up to four landmarks on their way from their hive to a food source. This new research shows they can tell the difference between different numbers – even when we change the pattern, shape or the colour of the dots!" says Dr. Zhang with The Vision Center.

but is it golden??

From ScienceDaily: Personal Touch in Farming: Giving A Cow A Name Boosts Milk Production

Harvest Moon was right. Cows that have names and get some one-on-one attention have a higher milk yield. Now if only I could get the golden milk...

just like momma macaque

From ScienceDaily: Primate Culture Is Just a Stone's Throw Away From Human Evolution, Study Finds

I like it when animals are smarter than we think they are. Elephants self-recognizing, birds remembering if they've been spied stashing food, monkeys and apes using tools. And I think at least some animals feel. Maybe their emotions aren't as deep or varied as humans, but my cat gets jealous and feels content, and my dog gets lonely and becomes pleased.

According to this articles, scientists have been observing Japanese macaques for three decades. These monkeys... well, the article calls it "stone-handling," but considering it specifically describes them as "rubbing and clacking stones together, pounding them onto hard surfaces, picking them up, and cuddling, carrying, pushing, rolling and throwing them," I would just call it playing. And interestingly enough, researchers at the Primate Research Institute have found that mother macaques who play with stones more have children that spend more time with them, presumably because "the mothers' frequent stone-handling caught the infants' attention, and as a result, the infants acquired the behavior more quickly than other infants."

How cute. Baby monkeys want to be just like their parents.

Though I've read that a child's fascination for what adults and especially its parents are doing is coded in. Maybe that's why toy versions of adult equipment, like play stoves, are so popular. Pretty interesting stuff.