Monkey see, monkey do, depending on age, experience and efficiency

Capuchin monkeys learn best-payoff ways to open fruit from othersWild capuchin monkeys readily learn skills from each other — but that social learning is driven home by the payoff of learning a useful new skill. It’s the first demonstration of “payoff bias” learning in a wild animal, and could inform whether and how animals can adapt to rapidly changing conditions, for example due to climate change or reintroduction of species from captive breeding.“When animals learn, they can learn very (…) Capuchin monkeys learn best-payoff ways to open fruit from others Wild…

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Ancient DNA reveals role of Near East and Egypt in cat domestication

DNA found at archaeological sites reveals that the origins of our domestic cat are in the Near East and ancient Egypt. Cats were domesticated by the first farmers some 10,000 years ago. They later spread across Europe and other parts of the world via trade hub Egypt. The DNA analysis also revealed that most of these ancient cats had stripes: spotted cats were uncommon until the Middle Ages.Five subspecies of the wildcat Felis silvestris are known today. All skeletons look exactly alike (…) DNA found at archaeological sites reveals that the…

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