Monkeys wearing perfume?

Move over Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana and other purveyors of glamor perfumes. The next rage in masculine fragrance might be Eau de spider monkey.

Researchers reported seeing two wild, male members of this primate group repeatedly dabbing themselves with something that seemed hard to describe as anything other than home-made cologne.

The crushed-leaf scents "may play a role in the context of social communication, possibly for signaling of social status or to increase sexual attractiveness," the scientists wrote in the Nov. 14 issue of the research journal Primates.

The researchers, Matthias Laska and his colleagues of the University of Munich Medical School described watching a group of free-ranging Mexican black-handed spider monkeys over a 250-hour period.

In that time, they recorded "20 episodes of self-anointing, that is, the application of scent-bearing material onto the body," they wrote.

"The animals used the leaves of three species of plants," including wild celery, for the surprising rituals, the scientists reported. The animals would mix the crushed leaves with saliva before rubbing it on themselves, they continued. "The leaves of all three plant species spread an intensive and aromatic odor when crushed."

The monkeys swiped the fragrant paste only on their armits and breastbone areas, Laska and his colleagues noted, and the occurrences of this were independent of time of day, season, temperature or humidity.

All these considerations together, they added, clash with the notion that the substance might function as an insect repellent or a sort of skin self-medication.

The black-handed spider monkey, Ateles geoffroyi, is one of four species of spider monkeys, small, very acrobatic primates with long, slender limbs that live between southern Brazil and central Mexico. They travel in small bands by making huge leaps among the treetops, sprawling out like spiders and grasping branches with their tails, which they use as a "fifth hand."

Their diet includes fruits and nuts. The black-handed monkeys "bark" when threatened, and often hurl branches, jump up and down, and shake branches upon the approach of humans.

The plant species used were the Alamos pea tree, Brongniartia alamosana; the trumpet tree Cecropia obtusifolia; and wild celery, Apium graveolens. Posted by: JoslynV    Source