Prior research suggested that chimps
found monkey brains to be especially
desirable; the scientists cited a chimpanzee
study from 1973 that noted, "The brain
is the only ***** for which marked
preference is regularly shown, and the
eating of brain tissue is always a slow,
meticulous procedure with a definite

undertone of enjoyment."

For the new study, the team recorded
29 incidents of monkey-eating by eight
chimpanzees, and found that if the monkey
was a juvenile, the chimps first
went for the head 91 percent of the time.
For adult monkeys, the chimps also were
interested in the brains,
but they cracked the skulls first
only 44 percent of the time.

Whenever a chimp caught a young monkey,
they all typically used a similar method to ****
and eat them, biting down on the head and
pulling hard, "apparently trying to remove
the body from the skull," according to the study.

"Twice, we observed the possessor ******* on the head,
presumably extracting the brain," the scientists wrote.