Tool-Making Lemurs on Recreational Drugs

[Washoe]

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a giant millipede to keep around as a general pet/conversation piece/cuddly companion. I went to wiki to gather some general background information prior to committing to a purchase and discovered that most species employ an irritating excretion as one of their primary defense mechanisms. All very fascinating of course, but this sentence from the wiki article caught my immediate attention:

Lemurs have been observed intentionally irritating millipedes in order to rub the chemicals on themselves to repel insect pests, and possibly to produce a psychoactive effect.

Now, I fully realize along with everybody else that wiki is not always a fountainhead of reliable information, but this one is dinging the needle on my BS meter. I mean, it’s plausible at best, but more than likely it’s just simply not true, right?

[groman]

@Washoe

Now, I fully realize along with everybody else that wiki is not always a fountainhead of reliable information, but this one is dinging the needle on my BS meter. I mean, it’s plausible at best, but more than likely it’s just simply not true, right?

There’s a lot of stuff on Wiki that should set off your BS meter, but why this? Seems reasonable.

Edit: Here’s a peer reviewed respectible article that Lemurs indeed rub millipedes on themselves in a determined and systematic manner. I don’t have an account there so I can’t read the full text to determine if psychoactive effects were mentioned.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Google is your friend. “lemurs millipedes”.

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowPDF&ProduktNr=223842&Ausgabe=225022&ArtikelNr=21691

Use of Millipedes by Black Lemurs to Anoint Their Bodies
Christopher R. Birkinshaw

Missouri Botanical Garden, Madagascar Research and Conservation Program, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Folia Primatologica 1999;70:170-171 (DOI: 10.1159/000021691)

During a study of seed dispersal by the black lemur (Eulemur macaco Linnaeus 1766) in Lokobe Forest, Nosy Be, Madagascar (lat. 13°23’-25’ S, long. 48°18’-20’ E), black lemur groups were observed for a total of 811 daylight hours spread over 19 months. On two occasions (27 and 29 December 1996) a mature female was seen anointing her body with a millipede (Charactopygus sp.; Spirostreptidae). On both occasions she found, apparently by chance, the millipede creeping along an exposed branch as she moved between food sources. She took it in one hand, sat on the branch with her legs forward, her ventral surface exposed and her tail curling upwards between her legs, bit it and rubbed its wounded, saliva-covered body vigorously over her ventral surface and tail. After biting it, she grimaced, half closed her eyes and salivated profusely. These actions were repeated several times before the millipede was dropped. The whole incident lasted between 3 and 4 min and at its conclusion the lemur continued her previous activity, travelling towards her next food source.

BBC film clip here.

[The_Universe_Lashes_Out]

@Duck Duck Goose

BBC film clip here.

LMAO. That lemur is WASTED.