- Spider monkeys employ a sophisticated social system to share 'insider knowledge' about the best food sources in the forest.
- They constantly change their social subgroups, enabling individuals to exchange vital information regarding the location of fruit trees.
- This behaviour, observed over seven years in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, allows the group to maximise its collective coverage of feeding spots.
- The research, a collaboration between Heriot-Watt University, the University of Edinburgh, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, used abstract mathematical theory to analyse the monkeys' interactions.
- The findings, published in npj Complexity, highlight a form of collective intelligence that aids the endangered Geoffroy's spider monkey in efficient foraging.
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