Monkeys are famed for enjoying a banana or two, but did you know they actually eat them in the opposite way to us?
Here, we explain how monkeys often approach bananas, and perhaps why this is actually what we should all be doing.
How do monkeys eat bananas – and why we should do the same
Monkeys eat bananas by starting at what we consider the bottom – and perhaps we should too.
What we call the bottom of the banana is actually the top. We usually start eating from the stem end – the tough handle that connected the banana to the bunch.
When primates tuck into a banana, they start at the bottom end, nibbling the end off and then peeling away as usual to access the soft fruit. They can often use the stem end as a handle for leverage.
When the banana is ripe, the top (or what we think of as the bottom) is actually much easier to pull apart. Pinch the top where the seam is, and peel away as usual.
We should add that monkeys will often eat bananas with the peel, sometimes just biting straight into them.
Do monkeys actually eat bananas in the wild?
Despite the stereotype, monkeys don’t usually come across bananas in the wild. Plus, the bananas humans feed to monkeys in captivity are much sweeter than the fruit that grows in the wild and some zoos have even weaned monkeys off these sweeter, cultivated bananas.
Instead, monkeys will usually eat a mix of fruits, seeds, leaves, insects and other small invertebrates in the wild.
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Top image credit: Getty Images