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And it supposedly works. A study about howler monkeys has found that monkeys who scream the loudest also tend to have smaller testes and a shortage of sperm compared to their peers.

Howler monkeys are one of the few nest-building monkeys, and one of the loudest animals. They live in groups of 6-12 individuals, wich consist of a few males and many more females. Biological anthropologist Jacob Dunn and his team from Cambridge University wanted to see how the size of the monkey testicles influences social arrangements, and how they correlate with their screams. Someone should do this study with humans as well.

The team calculated how loud monkeys scream depending on the size of their testicles.

“The results of our acoustic analyses show that howler monkeys produce roars at a similar frequency as tigers, which is far lower than we would have predicted from their body size, yet exactly what would be predicted from measuring their giant vocal folds’ which are three times bigger than in a human. It may be that investment in developing a large vocal organ and roaring is so costly that there is simply not enough energy left to invest in testes. Alternatively, using a large vocal organ for roaring may be so effective at deterring rival males that there is no need to invest in large testes.”

Surprisingly, it actually works. Males with small testes and loud screams are more likely to gather a large female following.

Dr. Dunn’s team should definitely try to replicate this study with human subjects. I know many examples of men who are living proof that these findings also apply to humans.

The elusive Brazilian shooing monkey caught on camera interacting with a rat.

Descendants of monkeys used in a 1930s Tarzan movie are spreading a strain of herpes B.

A sizable population of wild monkeys is sweeping across the state after being introduced during the 1939 filming of “Tarzan Finds a Son.” There are now an estimated 1,000 rhesus monkeys roaming the Sunshine State — all descended from three males and three females released together in the late 1930s. A Colonel Tooley released them on an island which he called “Monkey Island” as a promotion for the movie thinking that they could not swim. He was wrong. 80 years later, some of the primates have been seen as far away as Jacksonville and Sarasota, more than 100 miles from Silver River State Park in Central Florida, where they began their adventure.

As if having annoying monkeys around isn`t enough, it turns out that they are also carriers of a potentially dangerous virus. A study published last month by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in their journal found that some of the animals excrete a virus that can be dangerous to people. The rhesus macaques in Silver Spring Park are known to carry herpes B. It seems some of the monkeys have the virus in their saliva and other bodily fluids, raising the risk to humans.

Now I do not want to be negative here, but isn`t that how Rene Russo almost died and the whole world population was almost wiped out, but Dustin Hoffman saved us all at the last moment? Or was that a movie?