Clever spider monkeys share secrets for where to find tastiest food

Have you ever asked a friend where they got their tasty-looking snack from?

Well, a team of researchers have discovered that spider monkeys share secret insider knowledge with each other on where to find the best fruit trees.

The scientists studied the behaviour of a group of Geoffroy spider monkeys in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, as they split into smaller social groups to look for food, then split again into different combinations - the same group might never hang out together twice!

However, the scientists say their decisions aren't random, but "a clever system for sharing insider knowledge about where the best fruit trees are located across their forest home," said Dr Matthew Silk, an ecologist from the University of Edinburgh.

"By constantly changing their subgroups, monkeys who know different parts of the forest can share information about where fruit is available," he added.

Researchers from Heriot-Watt University, the University of Edinburgh and the National Autonomous University of Mexico worked together to study the endangered animal's behaviour.

"We tracked individual monkeys' movements and mapped out their core ranges, or the areas each monkey knows well," said Dr Silk.

"Some parts of the forest are known by multiple monkeys, like a town's most popular restaurant, while others are known by only one or two monkeys, like a hidden gem.

"There's enough overlap for monkeys to meet and exchange tips, but enough separation that each monkey scouts different parts of the forest.

"This maximises the whole group's collective coverage of the best feeding spots."

Ross Walker, a PhD student at Heriot-Watt discovered that there was a good middle-ground between the monkeys sticking together, and spreading too far apart.

"It's not helpful if every monkey knows exactly the same thing, and it's not helpful if no-one ever meets.

"It's best when individuals explore different areas, but still reconnect often enough to pool what they've learned," he said.

Professor Gabriel Ramos-Fernandez, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, agreed that by working in this way "the group as a whole can know the forest better than a single individual could on its own."