A group of monkeys in India has developed a range of ingenious techniques to acquire food peacefully from devout tourists.
Revered as holy at the Dakshineswar temple complex near Kolkata, Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) quietly grab visitors鈥� legs, tug on their clothes, hold their hands or simply stand up in front of them, often around vendors鈥� food stands. The wild primates usually continue such begging tactics until they get their particular treat of choice: sweet buns, says at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.
鈥淭hey have absolutely no inhibition towards humans, which is unusual,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no sound, no aggression, no drama, no conflict. They鈥檙e just gently asking for food, and the people willingly give it to them 鈥� because they think, if you feed the langurs, your sins will go away.鈥�
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Dasgupta and her colleagues observed 31 langurs, mostly adult females, in Dakshineswar on multiple occasions. They noted 1293 begging events, 81 per cent of which resulted in the monkeys getting food.
The animals were most likely to get food if they grabbed people鈥檚 legs or, to a slightly lesser extent, if they tugged on people鈥檚 saris, scarves, shirts, trousers and other clothing. Such successes might be due, in part, to the fact that people had a hard time getting away from the monkeys otherwise, says Dasgupta.
Simply standing next to another begging langur also yielded high rates of food offerings, she says.
Even so, the langurs were rarely satisfied with carrots, cauliflower and other healthy foods. The monkeys mostly ignored these offerings and kept begging until they got their , packaged sweet buns and roasted peanuts. 鈥淭his is not something they are supposed to be eating in the first place, in their natural habitats,鈥� says Dasgupta.
It isn鈥檛 really surprising that the monkeys figured out how to beg, especially since the practice reaps such great rewards, says at John Hopkins University in Maryland. The behaviour is a classic case of what scientists call operant conditioning, learning that certain actions lead to certain benefits, such as food.
鈥淚t seems to be something that the monkeys happened upon somehow, and which worked,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen it started resulting in something they wanted, they had this goal of, 鈥業 want food鈥�, and they repeated it.鈥�
The langurs never stole food from the vendors鈥� carts, but rather opted for peaceful begging of the clients.
They might have learned that stealing doesn鈥檛 work after getting chased away by vendors, says at the University of St Andrews, UK. 鈥淪o, when they find out what does work 鈥� begging 鈥� they do it multiple times,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ventually, it becomes ritualised.鈥�
Animal Cognition
