Washington, Jan 5 (IANS) The macaque, a common Asian monkey, can act as sentinel for human beings by alerting about health hazards from lead exposure, says a new study.
In parts of Asia, macaques and people drink from identical water sources, breathe the same air, share food sources and play on the same ground.

“They are also similar in their response to toxic exposures,” said Gregory Engel, physician and research scientist at the National Primate Research Centre (NPRC), who led the study.

“Macaques are similar to humans anatomically, physiologically and behaviourally,” said

senior study author Lisa Jones-Engel, scientist at the NPRC, University of Washington.

Researchers took hair samples from three groups of free-ranging macaques frequenting the famous Swoyambhu temple overlooking Kathmandu, Nepal.

When macaques live in environments polluted by motor vehicles, garbage and industrial waste, they can come into contact with toxic substances such as lead, just as their human neighbours might.

Researchers hypothesised that young macaques, in particular, could be good sentinels for human exposure to lead, said Jones-Engel.

“Young macaques share a propensity for curiosity and have a penchant for picking up

objects and inserting them into their mouths, just as young children do,” Jones-Engel

noted.

Animal sentinels of poisonous conditions for people have been used for a long time. From

the 19th century and well into the 20th century, coal miners sent canaries into mining shafts to check if the air was safe to breathe, according to an NPRC release.

Lead toxicity remains a significant public health problem globally. It can damage the nervous, circulatory and reproductive systems, as well as the kidneys and liver or blunt intelligence among children, say other studies.

These findings were published online this week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.