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[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7940052.stm

Monkeys 'teach infants to floss'

Making sure your offspring know how to clean their teeth appears to be
as important to monkeys as to humans.

Female monkeys in Thailand have been observed showing their young how
to floss their teeth - using human hair.

Researchers from Japan said they watched seven long-tailed macaques
cleaning the spaces between their teeth in the same manner as humans.

They spent double the amount of time flossing when they were being
watched by their infants, the team said.

This suggests the mothers were deliberately teaching their young how
to floss, Professor Nobuo Masataka of Kyoto University's Primate
Research Institute said.

"I was surprised because teaching techniques on using tools properly
to a third party are said to be an activity carried out only by
humans," he told the AFP news agency.

He said the study, carried out in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, is still
in the hypothesis stage.

"We would like to shift our focus to the baby monkeys to check whether
the mothers' actions are effectively helping them learn how to clean
their teeth," he added.