They have a fascinating lithic culture

Because these macaques are forced to b'e more vigilant and seeing less of a food supply, they are spending less time and energy learning tool-using patterns from their elders."Traditions need safety and stability to properly develop, otherwise, the coasts just b'e a danger area that macaques must learn to avoid, rather than a stable learning ground for developing tool-use," Gumert said.The NTU researchers discovered that 88 percent of the more than 190 macaques on the island use stone tools on a daily basis.

"They have a fascinating lithic culture," Gumert said. These Burmese macaques are the only monkeys in Asia that use stone tools. Only two other primate species, out of several hundred in the world use stone tools – the chimpanzees in Africa and capuchin monkeys in South America."Knowing about primate stone tool use has important implications to'pare with early hominine tool use, as well as the origins of cultural behavior," he added. "Studying traditions allow us to investigate the cultural capacity of animals."The NTU researchers said they hope to develop a long-term research program on the tool-using macaques in conjunction with Thailand's Chulalongkorn University.

Gumert said he also plans to set up permanent research sites around these animals for research and educational purposes."We should also explore into Myanmar, because we think the behavior may be more'mon there," he said. Macaque stone tool-use was first reported back in the 1880's in the journal, Nature, by Alfred Carpenter, an English seaman. We need to get into Myanmar and see how the macaques have changed since a century ago."These monkeys are extraordinary and a natural treasure to the Southeast Asian region," he added. "I believe stone-using macaques will b'e a symbol of coastal preservation here, a symbol for protecting Thailand and Myanmar's wonderful coastal ecosystems, and all that depends on them."