(common, admit it - best title evah)
I just finished watching an episode of Nova about bonabos. In some of the footage of these monkeys, there appears to be something hangin out of thier butt, and it’s kinda gross (i’d guess it’s there distended colon, but cant find any reference that proves or disproves this
What is this?
I have seen that sort of thing often in footage of other monkeys and apes as well. Whatever it is, why does it happen? Not all apes and monkeys appear to be affected by this
You see it hanging out of many of the street dogs and cats in Thailand, too. And I’ve seen it from the monkeys upcountry. Seems to be some sort of inverse hemmorhoid. I’m just grateful I’ve not seen one on an elephant yet!
If they would have used Anti Monkey Butt Powder, they wouldn’t have that problem.
prolapsed rectum perhaps?
I think this is what I meant. One theory I’ve heard, at least for the dogs and cats, is too much rice. Thais feed dogs and cats rice. There’s a tradition of feeding stray dogs and cats, and you’ll often see old ladies with nothing better to do making the rounds daily, leaving food for these animals. I suspect this mainly serves to perpetuate the rabies problem we have here, feeding them instead of rounding them up, but there you go. I knew one Western lady who had a cat and was ridiculed by the Thais for not feeding it rice, the Thais thinking this is the natural food of every species. Could this sort of diet affect animals this way? Don’t know about the monkeys; I have seen monkeys eating rice left out for them, but farther out in the wild or even in Africa, they might not be on a rice diet.
If too much rice causes a prolapsed rectum, I’m cancelling my trip to Hong Kong. That’s one sight I don’t have any interest in seeing. 
Dear Og. That looks like a real product.
Bonobos aren’t monkeys–they’re apes.
And the “monkey butt” may not be a prolapsed rectum, but an estrous swelling.
(IANA primatologist, but I recently encountered the topic–and perhaps the same TV special–in a physical anthropology course. And that’s what the monkey butts were, according to my professor. Apparently it’s a case of sexual selection going inconveniently far.)
I can honestly say that my rectum has not prolapsed, so I advise you to keep your booking.
It is a real product, I have a bottle of it in my bathroom.
We have a winner.
The swelling is a perfectly normal display of a female chimp. It is no more an illness than the chest swellings in female humans.
Mmmmm. Chest swellings in female humans.
Carry on.
I think in the street dogs and cats here, it’s a prolapsed rectum. I remember one sad cur that looked like a walking cancer tumor. 