Experiment on the Island: Monkeys Unfamiliar with Tigers, What Reaction Would They Have to the Roar of a Tiger?
The tiger is the king of the forest, regardless of whether it is ungulates, reptiles, birds, rodents, fish, or primates, as long as the tiger catches it, it will become the tiger's prey. Monkeys are not the tiger's main prey, but the tiger will also prey on monkeys if there is an opportunity. In the forests of India, monkeys cooperate with animals like deer; once they discover the presence of a tiger, they emit alarm calls to warn other animals to evade.
Figure: A Bengal tiger climbs a tree to hunt monkeys
In Karnataka, India, monkeys frequently steal coconuts, causing significant losses to farmers. So, this farmer printed a giant color photo of a tiger and hung it in the coconut grove, which had a very good effect: from then on, monkeys seldom visited the coconut grove.
Monkeys are afraid of tigers, which shows one thing. What reaction would monkeys have if they had never seen a tiger and heard the tiger's roar?
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, conducted an experiment to address this issue. The experiment was held on a small island in the Mentawi Archipelago of Indonesia. The island is inhabited by monkeys, wild pigs, birds, and other animals, but there are no tigers, leopards, or other large cat species. That is,The monkeys on this island have not seen a tiger for generations
To avoid human influence affecting the experiment, researchers hid themselves well and quietly arrived at the places where monkeys were present, using playback devices to play tiger roars, as well as wild pig sounds, bird calls, and human voices as control groups to observe the monkeys' reactions to these sounds
Figure: Tiger roar
The result was:After hearing the calls of wild pigs and birds, the monkeys hardly reacted; after hearing the sound of the tiger, the monkeys cautiously looked around and left their original location within about 5 seconds; after hearing the human voice, the monkeys would run away within 1 second
What problem does this experiment reflect?
Monkeys are alert primate animals, and according to their life experience, they clearly know which animals may pose a threat. They don't react to the calls of wild pigs and birds because they know these animals will not prey on monkeys. The monkeys had never seen a tiger and didn't know what a tiger's roar sounded like, so after hearing the tiger's roar for the first time, out of caution, they would still leave within about 5 seconds. However, after hearing the human voice, they would quickly run away within 1 second, which shows that humans may pose a threat to them
Figure: Tiger killing monkeys
According to the researchers' surveyThe residents of the island indeed have a habit of hunting monkeysThis is not surprising because monkeys quickly ran away after hearing humans, because they clearly knew that humans would bring great threats. The fact that monkeys eventually chose to leave after hearing the tiger's roar also shows thatThe tiger's roar has a certain deterrent effect on other animals, even if some animals have never seen a tigereven if some animals have never seen a tiger,they also feel uneasy when they hear its roar
