“Researchers have given little consideration to vomiting in non-human primates.” Quite so. A new report called Vomiting in Wild Bonnet Macaques points that out, and tries to remedy the deficiency.
Elizabeth Johnson, Eric Hill and Matthew Cooper published their study in the International Journal of Primatology. Johnson is at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. Hill is at Arizona State University, and Cooper at Georgia State University.
They start with a fond look back at the work of earlier experts. The consensus view, they say, is that vomiting “is a theoretically complex behaviour that to date lacks a comprehensive explanation”.
Johnson, Hill and Cooper spent time with macaques, carefully noting when each individual animal vomited and whether it then reingested (for that is the technical term) whatever came up….
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.