Macaque babies ape adults' facial feats

Scientists for the first time have established that for a brief period after birth, baby monkeys imitate facial movements made by people and adult monkeys. This copycat capacity, until now observed only in human and chimpanzee infants, seems to have evolved in all these primates as a way to jump-start newborns' face-to-face communication with adults, say evolutionary biologist Pier F. Ferrari of the University of Parma in Italy and his colleagues.



Between 3 and 7 days after birth, macaque babies smacked their lips and stuck out their tongues just as an experimenter did. Adult macaques make these facial gestures during friendly or cooperative interactions, such as mutual grooming.

Of 16 macaque babies tested when 3 days old, 13 copied tongue protrusions, lip smacking, or both. By day 7, imitation of the experimenter had largely disappeared except for continued mimicry of lip smacking by 4 animals. By day 14, all imitation had stopped.

You can see a video here. Link goes directly to avi file.

Isn't science great.