A new paper published in Current Biology suggests a novel twist on an old saying: Instead of "monkey see, monkey do," the paper proposes "chimp see, chimp pee." Well, not in so many words. But the study, which involved 20 captive chimpanzees at the Kumamoto Sanctuary at Kyoto University, does suggest that when one chimp urinates, others urinate too.
“In humans, urinating together can be seen as a social phenomenon,” said Ena Onishi, a study author and a doctoral student at Kyoto University, in a press release. “This behavior, which is called tsureshon in Japanese, is represented in art across centuries and cultures and continues to appear in modern social contexts. Our research suggests that this phenomenon may have deep evolutionary roots.”
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