Apr 1, 2011

Not just an ugly face


Nothing could please me more than a reason to post about proboscis monkeys. But I could never have imagined such a good reason: this headline at Discovery News:

Monkey Barfs and Rechews Food

A Japanese scientist studying a troop of these monkeys on Borneo has discovered that they regurgitate their food and basically chew their cud. They don't have the multi-chambered stomach designed for this like cows do, but they don't care. They do it anyway.

Don't believe it? You need to see for yourself? OK, it isn't pretty, but that's what you come here for, I guess:



Great angle on the nose in that, too, right?

I hope you appreciate the lengths that science goes to to bring you this sort of news. The researcher, Ikki Matsuda, told LiveScience what it took:

There are, of course, a lot of mosquitoes and leeches in the forest. The rainy season was the worst — the river water came up to our waists even inside the forest. It was really scary because at that time, crocodiles also came into the inland forest, and many creatures like centipedes and spiders came up to me on the water.

Yeah, I think I'll stick with the blogging.

Gratefully,
Wombat (No Relation)

Proboscis monkey in all his glory by Flickr user chem7 .

2 comments:

Alan said...

In Malay the Proboscis monkey is called Orang Belanda - The Dutchman monkey. Truly the victims of colonialism have their revenge in many strange ways...

wombat said...

Ooo, nice. That'll show 'em!