PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Chimps plan ahead for a good breakfast

Chimps plan ahead for a good breakfast
2014-10-28
(Press-News.org) New research by the University of California, Davis, shows that chimpanzees plan ahead, and sometimes take dangerous risks, to get to the best breakfast buffet early.

The study co-authored by Leo Polansky, an associate researcher in the UC Davis anthropology department, reveals that chimpanzees will find a place to sleep en route to breakfast sites and risk travel in the dark when predators are active to obtain more desired, less abundant fruits such as figs. The study is being published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

"As humans we are familiar with the race against birds for our cherries, or against squirrels for our walnuts and pecans," Polansky said, "but this race is carried out amongst competitors of all kinds of species in locations all over the world."

The study provides evidence that chimpanzees flexibly plan their breakfast time, type and location after weighing multiple disparate pieces of information.

"Being able to reveal the role of environmental complexity in shaping cognitive-based behavior is especially exciting," Polansky said. "Long-term, detailed information from the field can reveal the value of high levels of cognition and behavioral flexibility for efficiently obtaining critical food resources in complex environments."

Researchers recorded when and where five adult female chimpanzees spent the night and acquired food for 275 days during three fruit-scarce periods. The research took place in the Taï National Park in Côte d'Ivoire, led by researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where Polansky was a postdoctoral researcher. His research interests are in both animal behavior and plant phenology.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Chimps plan ahead for a good breakfast

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat linked with lower risk of heart disease

2014-10-28
Boston, MA — People who swap 5% of the calories they consume from saturated fat sources such as red meat and butter with foods containing linoleic acid—the main polyunsaturated fat found in vegetable oil, nuts, and seeds—lowered their risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) events by 9% and their risk of death from CHD by 13%, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. Substitution of 5% of calories from carbohydrate with linoleic acid was associated with similar reductions in risk of heart disease. "There has been ...

Don't bet on stinginess to keep stress low

2014-10-28
Is generosity less stressful than being stingy? QUT research, published in scientific journal Public Library of Science (PLOS) ONE, examined the physiological reactions of participants in a financial bargaining game and found that not only those receiving relatively low offers experienced stress but also those that make low offers, when compared to people who made more generous offers. Participants were asked to play the Ultimatum Bargaining Game, in which players decide how to divide a sum of money given to them. Player one (the proposer) proposes how to divide ...

Spices and herbs: Improving public health through flavorful eating -- a call to action

2014-10-28
Spices and herbs can play a significant role in improving America's health by helping to reduce sodium, calorie and fat intake while making healthy eating more appealing, conclude the authors of a scientific supplement published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition Today. The publication, entitled Spices and Herbs: Improving Public Health Through Flavorful Eating, is based on the conference proceedings of a Science Summit convened by the McCormick Science Institute in partnership with the American Society for Nutrition in Washington, D.C., on May 20-21, ...

New results from VOICE associates tenofovir gel use with lower HSV-2 risk in women

2014-10-28
CAPE TOWN, October 28, 2014 – The risk of acquiring herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) was reduced by half among women in the VOICE trial who used a vaginal gel containing the antiretroviral (ARV) drug tenofovir regularly, according to researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN) who conducted the study. The findings provide additional evidence that tenofovir gel, a product developed to protect against HIV, could potentially help in preventing one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections affecting sexually ...

What's in a name? Everything -- if you're a fruit fly

Whats in a name? Everything -- if youre a fruit fly
2014-10-28
A global research effort has finally resolved a major biosecurity issue: four of the world's most destructive agricultural pests are actually one and the same. For twenty years some of the world's most damaging pest fruit flies have been almost impossible to distinguish from each other. The ability to identify pests is central to quarantine, trade, pest management and basic research. In 2009 a coordinated research effort got underway to definitively answer this question by resolving the differences, if any, between five of the most destructive fruit flies: the Oriental ...

Variation in antibiotic bacteria in tropical forest soils may play a role in diversity

Variation in antibiotic bacteria in tropical forest soils may play a role in diversity
2014-10-28
Antibiotic-producing bacteria in soil are the source of many antibiotics used to combat diseases in humans and plants. But, surprisingly little is known about how these microbes impact tropical plant communities and ecosystems, where plant diversity, competition, and pathogen pressures are high. A study published October 28 in the journal Biotropica represents a step toward a better understanding of the role antibiotic-bacteria play in the ecology of tropical forests. University of Minnesota researchers, led by Kristen Becklund, found that antibiotic production by soil ...

World losing 2,000 hectares of farm soil daily to salt damage: UN University

2014-10-28
Every day for more than 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-arid areas across 75 countries have been degraded by salt, according to a study by UN University's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, published Oct. 28. Today an area the size of France is affected -- about 62 million hectares (20%) of the world's irrigated lands, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s. Salt-degradation occurs in arid and semi-arid regions where rainfall is too low to maintain regular percolation of rainwater through the ...

Screening with tomosynthesis and mammography is cost-effective

2014-10-28
OAK BROOK, Ill. – Adding tomosynthesis to biennial digital mammography screening for women with dense breasts is likely to improve breast cancer detection at a reasonable cost relative to biennial mammography screening alone, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Mammography remains the only screening test proven to decrease mortality from breast cancer. However, mammography is less accurate in women with dense breasts for whom cancers may be masked by overlapping breast tissue. Moreover, dense breasts compared to average density ...

Social host laws tied to less underage drinking

2014-10-28
PISCATAWAY, NJ – Teenagers who live in communities with strict "social host" laws are less likely to spend their weekends drinking at parties, according to a study in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Many U.S. states and local communities have passed social host laws, which hold adults responsible when underage drinkers imbibe on their property. The details of the laws vary, however, and research has been mixed as to whether they actually keep kids from drinking. In the new study, investigators focused on 50 communities in California, ...

Robotically assisted bypass surgery reduces complications after surgery and cuts recovery

2014-10-28
VANCOUVER ─ Robotically assisted coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is a rapidly evolving technology that shortens hospital stays and reduces the need for blood products, while decreasing recovery times, making the procedure safer and less risky, says a study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress. "Robotically assisted CABG is a safe and feasible alternative approach to standard bypass surgery in properly selected patients. It is a less traumatic and less invasive approach than regular CABG," says cardiac surgeon and researcher Dr. Richard ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Novel treatment combination improves progression-free survival in metastatic, estrogen-receptor-positive HER-2-negative breast cancer

ESMO 2025: Trial results show belzutifan shrinks rare neuroendocrine tumors and improves symptoms in patients

ESMO 2025: Dual targeted therapy shows promise in previously treated advanced kidney cancer patients

New generation of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) shows unprecedented promise in early-stage disease

Sylvester Cancer Tip Sheet for October 2025

Three science and technology leaders elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Jump Trading CSO Kevin Bowers elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Former Inscripta CEO Sri Kosaraju elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

Citadel’s Jordan Chetty elected to Hertz Foundation Board of Directors

McGill research flags Montreal snow dump, inactive landfills as major methane polluters

A lightweight and rapid bidirectional search algorithm

Eighty-five years of big tree history available in one place for the first time

MIT invents human brain model with six major cell types to enable personalized disease research, drug discovery

Health and economic air quality co-benefits of stringent climate policies

How immune cells deliver their deadly cargo

How the brain becomes a better listener: How focus enhances sound processing

Processed fats found in margarines unlikely to affect heart health

Scientists discover how leukemia cells evade treatment

Sandra Shi MD, MPH, named 2025 STAT Wunderkind

Treating liver disease with microscopic nanoparticles

Chemicals might be hitching a ride on nanoplastics to enter your skin

Pregnant patients with preexisting high cholesterol may have elevated CV risk

UC stroke experts discuss current and future use of AI tools in research and treatment

The Southern Ocean’s low-salinity water locked away CO2 for decades, but...

OHSU researchers develop functional eggs from human skin cells

Most users cannot identify AI bias, even in training data

Hurricane outages: Analysis details the where, and who, of increased future power cuts

Craters on surface of melanoma cells found to serve as sites for tumor killing

Research Spotlight: Mapping overlooked challenges in stroke recovery

Geographic and temporal patterns of screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer in the US

[Press-News.org] Chimps plan ahead for a good breakfast