Friendly Monkeys Have More Cuddle Buddies

A kind word or gesture from a friend can give you the warm fuzzies. But a warm, fuzzy friend can give a macaque a better chance of surviving the winter. After following dozens of macaques through snowy woods for months, scientists found that friendlier monkeys earned themselves more cuddle buddies on cold nights. Earlier studies in macaques, baboons and even wild horses have shown that animals who are more social may live longer and have more offspring. In other words, "friends with benefits" is no joke in the animal world. Liz Campbell of the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom and her colleagues wondered if they could find a mechanism that makes friendship so beneficial. They started looking in the mountains of Morocco. From January to April 2015, the researchers followed two groups of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) through the woods. These monkeys are used to cold conditions; there ...