In nature, the Barbary macaque has a nearly vegetarian diet based on fruits, tender leaves, roots and an insect here and there. But on the Rock of Gibraltar, they also eat chocolate cookies, ice cream cones, M&M’s and potato chips. The result? A study published in Nature shows that the monkeys are eating dirt to purge the sugars, fats, and dairy products from this junk food tourists give them.

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Cats, along with dogs, are the animals that spend the most time with humans. They share spaces, routines, and even illnesses. They are exposed to almost all the same environmental stressors that induce tumors in people. However, unlike what happens with dogs, cancer research in felines is very limited. Now, a huge study published in Science, using hundreds of tumor samples, has obtained the most complete oncogenome of the domestic cat. Among its findings, two are closely related: cats and humans suffer from almost the same types of cancer, and this opens the door for the possibility that advances in the fight against cancer in one species could be applied to the other.

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