Researchers have not studied vomiting that is not associated with pathological behavior in nonhuman primates. Scientists generally assume that vomiting provides protection by ejecting toxins from the body, but the explanation is not fully supported by the literature. We report on 163 instances of vomiting from 2 groups of free-ranging bonnet macaques in southern India. The macaques routinely reingested their vomit. The reingestion was unlike that in abnormal behavior of both humans and nonhuman primates. We suggest that the tendency to hoard food in their cheek pouches explains why they reingested the vomit.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grant No. INT-9901439from the National Science Foundation to M. Cooper supported the research. We thank Mewa Singh, M. A. Anand, M. S. Chaitra, H. N. Kumara, A. K. Sharma, and H. S. Sushma for their assistance in the field. A. Galloway, E. Addessi, and 4 anonymous reviewers provided valuable feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript, including the suggestion that vomiting may serve a toxic ejection function that produces false alarms with harmless food. We thank the Tamil Nadu Forest Department for permission to conduct research in the Anaimalai Hills and the management of Waterfall Tea Estates for logistical support. The research project complied with Indian Law and was approved by the University of Georgia Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
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Johnson, E.C., Hill, E. & Cooper, M.A. Vomiting in Wild Bonnet Macaques. Int J Primatol 28, 245–256 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-006-9085-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-006-9085-5