The Myth: 100th Monkey takes its name from the contemporary myth
"The Hundredth Monkey". The story was based on scientific
observations of monkey colonies in Japan. Off the shore of
Japan, scientists had been studying monkey colonies on many
separate islands for over 30 years. In order to keep track of
the monkeys, they would leave sweet potatoes on the beach for
them to eat. The monkeys would come out of the trees to get the
sweet potatoes and would be in plain sight to be observed. One
day an eighteen-month-old female named Imo started to wash her
potato in the sea before eating it. We can only imagine that it
tasted better without the grit and sand; maybe it was even
slightly salty. Imo showed her playmates and her mother how to
do it, and her friends showed their mothers. Soon the observers
saw that all the monkeys on that particular island were washing
their potatoes. Although this was significant, what was even
more fascinating to note was that when this shift happened, the
behavior of the monkeys on al