Monkeying Around With Stone Toys

Long-tailed macaque monkeys at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Bali have a lot of time on their hands and they’re not wasting it. Apparently the animals, male and female, are using stone tools as masturbatory aids. 

The journal Ethology: International Journal of Behavioural Biology documents the fun-loving primates in an article titled “Do monkeys use sex toys? Evidence of stone tool-assisted masturbation in free-ranging long-tailed macaques.”

Video footage from 2016 to 2019 reveals hundreds of instances of sanctuary monkeys tapping and rubbing stones on their genitals. The males are in obvious states of arousal while the females’ interest in the activity is less apparent (but no less enthusiastic). The ladies are more selective about the stones they rub their genitals with, preferring those with sharp edges or a grainy texture.

“It's hard to give a very solid explanation, but it really seems that they do it because it feels good,” Camilla Cenni, the study’s co-author told VICE World News. “There is some sort of tactile stimulation from the contact of those stones with their genitals and it feels good. And there is no reason to stop.”

One explanation for the behavior notes that these monkeys are well fed, the recipients of fruits and vegetables delivered to them daily by the local temple’s staff. Food security gives the monkeys free time for other pursuits, and by God they are pursuing it. Rock on, monkeys.

Photo credit: @qikipedia via Twitter