Study Shows Monkeys Like Watching TV 103
According to a Japanese study, monkeys are not immune to the siren call of the idiot box. It seems rhesus monkeys enjoy watching videos of circus animals. From the article: "The study found that when the monkey was witnessing the acrobatic performances of circus animals on a television screen, the frontal lobe area of its brain became vigorously active. The activity in such an area was significant in reflecting the monkey's pleasure, as the human equivalent is a neurological area associated with triggering delight in a baby when it sees the smile of its mother."
off my lawn, etc (Score:3, Informative)
That's "siren song," you illiterate clod.
Re:And right now (Score:4, Informative)
That's not surprisingly in the least since Chimps have been shown to like action movies and even porn. Chimps can become physically agitated when watching action movies or even scary movies. They seemingly even understand suspense, which seems to validate a higher level of intelligence. Like humans, chimps react to stimuli such as anger, violence, kindness, and sexuality. In each case, they have shown a propensity for enjoying the content of what is they watch; just as humans do.
Re:Coming up on the Monkey Television Network (Score:3, Informative)
There was a short lived TV show on TBS featuring chimps running a TV network. It was appropriately named The Chimp Channel [wikipedia.org] and was actually pretty good if you like that kind of thing.
Re:And right now (Score:2, Informative)
The gorilla at Longleat Safari Park has a big plasma/LCD screen with satellite and has to be actively discouraged from using it too much - he has the controller to use, too, I seem to recall.
Can't remember what we were told was his favourite show, though