BET YER GOIN' FISHIN' ALL OF THE TIME . . .

Yer baby's goin' fishin', too
You can bet your life
Your sweet wife's
Gonna catch more fish than you . . .

A barrel full of monkeys? Shootin' fish in a barrel? Macques in Indonesia have been found fishing.

Indonesia. Long-Tailed Macaques Spotted Catching Fish.

By Lauren Miura

One band of macaques has been fed for a long time by scientists so that they will remain in the same locale where they can be minutely observed. The scientists leave yams and rice in the husk for them. One young female (at that time, unmated) began "washing" her yams in the surf (the local was at the seaside), and taking handfuls of unhusked rice to tide pools, where she could rinse off the sand from the beach. She would throw the unhusked rice into a pool, and it would float, while the sand from the beach which had stuck to the rice would sink--effectively rinsing the sand from the rice before she ate it. It was noted that other young macaques who were, as she was, as yet unmated, would copy her behavior. Older, mated macaques did not imitate the behavior, and would pointedly ignore her, turning their backs so that they would not see this "non-traditional" behavior.

Naturally i was interested when i saw this story about the "fishing monkeys," with its speculation that this could be learned behavior.