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Monkeys
Animal husbandry is becoming more and more active in exploring and
marketing charcoal products for a range of different ailments, but some
animals just can’t wait for the wheels of progress to catch up with
them.
Furry jungle inhabitants
have more to contend with than just parasites and microbes. Some of the
most nutritious plants that they eat also contain more or less toxic
substances called secondary compounds. These compounds act as a defense
mechanism against hungry herbivores. Red colobus monkeys on Zanzibar Island,
Tanzania prefer leaves of the exotic Indian almond and mango trees.
These trees yield leaves high in protein as well as secondary compounds
called phenols, which interfere with the monkeys' digestion.
What could these animals
eat to counteract the poisonous nature of the leaves, while retaining
their nutritional benefits? For six years, anthropologist Thomas
Struhsaker, of Duke University, studied the fascinating feeding
behavior of the Tanzanian red colobus. Besides having a preference for
almond and mango leaves they also eat charcoal from charred stumps,
logs, and branches, as well as from around man-made kilns.
“They really go after the charcoal. Bigger monkeys try to take charcoal away from smaller ones. And they come down from the trees to grab pieces much bigger than they can possibly eat, carrying it off with two hands.”
University of Wyoming
chemist, David Cooney, showed that the charcoal had a high adsorptive
capacity for phenols. But while the toxic phenols adhered to the
charcoals, the proteins did not. Interestingly, birth rates and
population densities of the red colobus are significantly higher where
charcoal is found in conjunction with almond and mango trees, than
where there is no charcoal.
View this fascinating VIDEO LINK
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