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Detox

Some rainforest leaves are poisonous. To deal with this, animals like the piping guan and black spider monkeys eat mud from a clay lick - this reduces the toxicity of the leaves they eat and provides vital minerals. But the clay lick is a scary place for the monkeys, who don't like being down on the ground where they could be ambushed by a jaguar. One keeps watch while the others eat sticky clay. Movement scares the monkeys back into the trees, but it is only a brocket deer. The deer too has come to eat clay, because it has to feed on poisonous leaves when fruit is scarce. It wades through the sticky mud. A scar is visible on its back, from a big cat attack.

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1 minute

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