MONKEYS might not deal in stocks and shares, but they do trade commodities, and now it seems that monkey exchange rates are influenced by supply and demand.
Grooming acts as a common currency among non-human primates, says at the University of Strasbourg, France. It is exchanged for food or greater tolerance from dominant members of the group.
To see the exchange in action, Noë’s team created an artificial market in groups of wild vervet monkeys by introducing a plastic box filled with food that only one subordinate female was trained to open.
An hour after the female…
