How To Cover Your Tracks On The Internet

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We all need a little pampering1 from time to time and the animal world is no exception. Creatures from the same species, and frequently from a completely different one, engage in a variety of cleaning and grooming2 behaviours for a wide range of disparate reasons. So slip on a fluffy3 robe, lie back, relax and enjoy a mini spa day courtesy of these beautiful bathing beasts.

HAIR TREATMENT

Let’s start at the top shall we? It’s a familiar, practically iconic, image. A group of primates4, huddled5 together, grooming one another. Delicately picking at, and stroking, the fur of a companion and popping the occasional tasty morsel6 into their mouths. But what purpose does it serve? This allogrooming, or tending to the pelt7 of a member of the same species, is certainly social, used to indicate dominant8 social structure as well as to help fend9 off disease from germ-carrying parasites10 or ticks. But there are other, more surprising benefits. In macaques, this sort of attention has been shown to reduce heart rate and alleviate11 stress, while a study of vervet monkeys has shown that grooming helps to insulate their fur by fluffing it up like a duvet.

FACIAL

Sometimes a grooming or cleaning regime helps to reach the parts that other grooming can’t reach. Honey bees are fastidious cleaners. Through millions of years of evolution, they instinctually know that their hive has to be kept completely clean of microbes and any other germ-ridden threat from the outside world. Which is tricky12, as they tend to deal in the transportation of sticky substances such as pollen13 and propolis, or ‘bee glue’ which is used to construct their hives. To make sure they are free of such residue14, a specially15 designated worker bee will clean the mouth parts, antenna16 and any other bits of the insect that they can’t quite reach themselves.

TEETH CLEAN