What does the white-face saki monkey like to listen to?

The white-faced saki monkeys belonging to a zoo in Finland prefer the sound of traffic noises over jungle noises, a new study has found.

Researchers in Karkeasaar Zoo, Helsinki, have built a tunnel with sensors in the areas where monkeys stay at the zoo.

These tunnels and their sensors give the monkeys an option to pick their own sounds to listen to whilst they go about their normal day.

The sounds range from traffic noises, nature and falling rain - even dance music! So why would they pick traffic noises?

Why would a Monkey listen to traffic noises?

Out of all the playlists the monkeys can choose from, the traffic noises were kept most frequently and not changed. The monkeys even slept throughout the noises and groomed each other, but not to any other playlist.

A researcher for Aalto University, Dr IIlyena Hirskyj-Douglas said "we thought they would enjoy more calming sounds, such as zen music, but they actually triggered the traffic sounds more".

A reason for this could be that sounds of the road actually mimic the way some of the monkeys communicate in the wild.

Kirsi Pynnonen, the zoo's research coordinator, said the animals "use high pitched hissing, squeaking and croaking to stay in contact", so these sounds could be very similar to those in traffic noises.

Why make the tunnels?

The tunnels have been built for research purposes, to try and improve animals' wellbeing in captivity.

This will be the first time that animals in captivity are able to make decisions that would impact their lifestyle and surroundings.

The study hopes one day these monkeys and animals everywhere in captivity can control their own lighting and temperature settings.