Thursday 16 July 2009

Latin American monkeys know how to talk but nobody is listening


Some weeks ago I read an interesting article in BBC Science: studies revealed Tamarin monkeys (Saguinus oedipus) are able to spot when a word is "wrong".

Basically, what scientists did was to teach them two-syllable terms and then studied their reaction to words that did not follow the pattern.

What they don't say is that this monkey is an endangered species. They used to live in Venezuela and could be found from Costa Rica to Brazil. Not anymore. Most were hunted and a lot were taken to laboratories like the ones the BBC is talking about.

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