Monkeys pay more attention to females than males

London, Mar 18 (ANI): Monkeys learn better from female teachers than male ones, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, based its findings on wild vervet monkeys in South Africa and found that the animals were better able to learn a task when it was demonstrated by a female, reports The BBC.

To reach the conclusion, biologist Erica van de Waal, from the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, and her team, studied six neighbouring groups of wild vervet monkeys in South Africa's Loskop Dam Nature Reserve.

"Females are core group members with higher social status than males, and more knowledge about food resources in the home range," said van de Waal.

The expert said the results revealed valuable insights into "the evolution of traditions and culture in species living in stable groups, including humans".

"To our knowledge, [this is] the first experimental field evidence for social learning in primates," she added.

"Experiments on social learning have been conducted mainly in captivity and it is time to know if the results are the same on wild animals." (ANI)