Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter. Sign Up. Support science journalism. Knowledge awaits. We do not typically think of the medium fish turning around and eating the big fish every once in a while.
Scientists have observed their fair share of snakes preying on New World monkeys. For the most part, snakes that pose a threat are either constrictors or venomous. Capuchins have even, remarkably, been seen whacking 6 a snake with a branch. And scientists have also observed monkeys eating snakes This presents an intriguing set of questions. How does a monkey decide whether a snake is food or foe?
Can they distinguish between dangerous snakes and their mimics? Predation can be tricky to study. But observing predator-prey interactions is important to how we understand animals and their behaviors, because —though they may be rare— predation events are an important 10 selective pressure. But with a bit of ingenuity, scientists can also move predation, and their ability to observe it, from the realm of rare-and-dangerous to repeatable-and-safe.
To create a non-threatening facsimile of a predation event, researchers use various tools, such as playing the vocalizations of predators to prey animals, or showing them plastic versions of predators. This way, researchers can observe —many more times than they would if they had to rely on chance encounters alone and, critically, without putting prey in danger — how an animal reacts to a threat.
Observational and experimental studies have shown that monkeys distinguish between aerial 11 like a bird of prey and terrestrial 12 like an ocelot or a snake predators.
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