Some Zoo Monkeys Prefer Traffic Sounds to The Natural Noise of a Jungle

 They may be naturally suited to swinging in rainforests, but monkeys in a very Finnish zoo have demonstrated a "significant" preference for traffic sounds rather than the noises of the jungle, researchers have found.​

As a part of an experiment to determine how technology could improve the well-being of captive animals, researchers installed a tunnel fitted with sensors within the enclosure of the monkeys at Helsinki's Korkeasaari Zoo, giving the primates the prospect to decide on to pay attention to the sounds of rain, traffic, zen sounds or popular music genre.

"We thought they'd enjoy more calming sounds, like zen music, but actually they triggered the traffic sounds more," Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, a researcher at Finland's Aalto University, told AFP.

The soundtrack of vehicles rumbling past proved overwhelmingly the foremost popular choice for the animals, who sometimes slept or groomed themselves and every other inside the sound tunnel – something they failed to do for any of the opposite sounds, Hirskyj-Douglas said.​

The zoo's research coordinator, Kirsi Pynnonen, said she believes the road sounds of course mimic a number of the monkeys' natural means of communication.

"In the wild, these monkeys use high-pitched hissing, squeaking, and croaking to remain in grips," she said, noises which the animals may hear within the traffic noises.

Sound experiments are performed on animals in captivity hitherto, but the scientists say this was the primary try to try to give the creatures full control over what they need to pay attention to.​

In the future, it could enable zoos to produce animals with extra stimuli in their enclosures.

"Animals could, for example, control their lighting, heat or the temperature," or maybe play games, Hirskyj-Douglas said.​

"The technology is incredibly much open, and we're just setting out to bridge into this area."

Other zoos around Europe have shown interest in the research findings, Pynnonen said, and therefore the team will look next at installing screens inside the tunnel for the monkeys to look at if they choose.​

White-faced saki monkeys are mid-sized primates native to the northern countries of South America, where they're "relatively numerous" but threatened by the destruction of the rainforest, Pynnonen said.

"Despite what many folks think, they do not eat bananas in the least, but seeds, insects, and a few fruits," she added.​