Discovered 'ruminant' monkeys are like cows

Live Science (USA) reported on March 29 that for the first time scientists discovered the ruminant behavior of a monkey like ungulates, such as buffaloes, cows, goats and sheep. It is a long-nosed monkey, whose scientific name Nasalis larvatus, lives on Borneo island in Southeast Asia.

The long nose of the Nasalis larvatus male monkey can reach 10cm - (Photo: Ikki Matsuda / Live Science)

Scientist Ikki Matsuda, the lead author of the study, works at the Primate Research Institute at the University of Kyoto (Japan), used cameras and binoculars to record and observe the behavior of a herd of monkeys. Long noses with about 200 heads often live on branches, along a tributary of the Kinabatangan River, Borneo island in Malaysia.

Mr. Matsuda and his colleagues collected data on their behavior at the early morning and late afternoon from January 1-2000 to March 2001. Scientists say the primates are called long-nosed monkeys because the monkeys have big noses, which are used to attract mates.

Long-nosed monkeys eat fruits and leaves, then it vomits food and chews like buffaloes and cows - (Photo: Ikki Matsuda / Live Science)

' The process of studying long-nosed monkeys is not easy at all! '- Mr. Matsuda shared on Live Science. He said the team met a lot of plates and mosquitoes in the forest. The rainy season is said to be the worst, because the river water rises to the waist as they stand on the forest floor. ' Time like this is really scary, because sometimes crocodiles, centipedes and spiders appear in and on the water ' - Mr. Matsuda added.

Scientists say there are at least 23 long-nosed monkeys recorded, who vomit to their mouths and chew. During this chewing process, they found their stomach (stomach) sagging, followed by sticking out their tongues to keep the food vomited in their mouths; and finally, they puffed up their cheeks, chewed and swallowed the food for the second time.

Watch videos of long nose monkey eating and chewing - Source: Live Science and New Scientist

Mr. Matsuda has been constantly observing an adult long-nosed monkey in 169 days and watching it chew food for 11 days. He said that it does this during the eating process to digest and absorb the nutrients of food in the stomach.

The information in the New Scientist magazine reports that long-nosed monkeys often live on large branches and eat fruits and leaves poor in nutrients, so they need more food to vomit and chew. again.