WEBVTT - Are Chimps Cleaner Than Us?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel bomb here. Your parents probably spent years yelling

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<v Speaker 1>at you to clean your room and make your bed,

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<v Speaker 1>and sure, a neatly made bed looks tidy, but science

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<v Speaker 1>says that hardly matters. It seems no matter how tight

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<v Speaker 1>your bed corners are, how many quarters you can bounce

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<v Speaker 1>off that blanket, your bed still isn't as clean as

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<v Speaker 1>a chimpanzee's. Yep, Apparently chips are clean. We humans are

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<v Speaker 1>the pigs, which are also quite clean. But that's a

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<v Speaker 1>whole other episode. Researchers at North Carolina State University compared

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<v Speaker 1>human beds to the tree top nests that chimpanzees make

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<v Speaker 1>for themselves nightly. The scientists weren't looking for smooth sheets, though,

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<v Speaker 1>they were comparing microbes and insects and spiders. The lead

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<v Speaker 1>author on the paper, PhD student Megan thoe Ms, notes

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<v Speaker 1>that human beds usually contain some of the same microorganisms

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<v Speaker 1>that are found in the rest of the house. She

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<v Speaker 1>means germs, but she's being nice about it, she said

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<v Speaker 1>in a press statement. For example, about thirty five percent

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<v Speaker 1>of bacteria in human beds stem from our own bodies,

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<v Speaker 1>including fecal, oral, and skin bacteria, which actually, when you

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<v Speaker 1>put it that way, we're not share as technically nice.

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<v Speaker 1>Chimpanzees are closely related to humans in evolutionary terms, so

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<v Speaker 1>though I was in her team wanted to see if

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<v Speaker 1>the chimps beds were filled with similar bacteria and bugs

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<v Speaker 1>as humans beds. The answer turned out to be no.

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<v Speaker 1>The team swabbed forty one abandoned chimp beds located in

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<v Speaker 1>trees in Tanzania to look for microbes. They also vacuumed

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen of those nests to pick up any tiny critters

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<v Speaker 1>like parasitic insects and spiders. What they found was a

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<v Speaker 1>far more diverse group of microbes in the chimp nests,

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<v Speaker 1>which makes sense because the nests are outdoors and the

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<v Speaker 1>microbes reflect what you'd expect to find in the forest

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<v Speaker 1>where chimpanzees live. But researchers did not find nearly as

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<v Speaker 1>much fecal, oral, or skin bacteria as they did in

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<v Speaker 1>the human beds, only about three point five percent, which

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<v Speaker 1>was a surprise. The chimp nests also had no insects

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<v Speaker 1>or spiders, though the team expected to see some parasitic

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<v Speaker 1>species in the nests, but no, so Emma said. There

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<v Speaker 1>were only four ectoparasites found across all the nests we

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<v Speaker 1>looked at, and that's four individual specimens, not four different species. Granted,

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<v Speaker 1>chimps do build new nests every night, and they are

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<v Speaker 1>careful defecators, but fecal matter does build up in chimp

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<v Speaker 1>for so the researchers expected to find more of it

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<v Speaker 1>than they did, even in freshly built nests. So Emma said,

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<v Speaker 1>this work really highlights the role that man made structures

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<v Speaker 1>play in shaping the ecosystems of our immediate environment. In

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<v Speaker 1>some ways, our attempts to create a clean environment for

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<v Speaker 1>ourselves may actually make our surroundings less ideal. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>was written by Kristen hall Geisler and produced by Tyler Klang.

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<v Speaker 1>If you enjoy our show and also wearing T shirts,

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<v Speaker 1>check out our online shop at t public dot com

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<v Speaker 1>slash brain Stuff. We've also got a bunch of back

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<v Speaker 1>to school stuff like laptop cases there too, and of course,

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<v Speaker 1>for lots more on this and other squeaky clean topics,

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<v Speaker 1>check out our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.