Baboons filmed flossing their teeth in a British zoo

If you’re not a regular flosser, be prepared to be shamed by a bunch of monkeys.

Because a group of baboons living at the Paignton Zoo in Devon, England have been filmed using hair and broom bristles to floss their teeth.

Vision of baboons practicing good dental hygiene has been flying around the internet this week, after Charlotte Morgan, an animal behaviour researcher, published an explainer on just what the heck was going on.

Vision from the zoo was featured by the BBC this week, showing a baboon flossing with a strand of hair as if it had just had a massive steak.

It looked just like a person – without the bathroom mirror, of course.

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The research comes after zoo volunteer Liz Chisholm photographed baboons using broom heads for dental hygiene back in 2015.

“One of the older baboons was inspecting her broom head,” Chisholm said.

“Then I saw her pull out a bristle, examine it, pull it taut between both hands and very deliberately start to floss her teeth.

“She did it several times, both top and bottom set.

“I only saw the one baboon behaving like this, but she had several pupils, as she was being watched by other baboons.”

And it seems the trick caught on.

Three years later, the group of baboons are keen flossers.

“I have observed cases where baboons will pluck hair off other baboons to floss,” Morgan said.

“It’s very difficult to suggest, without more complex experimental set ups, exactly how the baboons are learning to floss.

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“Trial and error learning at an individual level is probably occurring in some group members, but there may be a social learning element as well.

“Animals that rate highly on the personality trait ‘imitation’ are more likely to floss, so it’s possible that these individuals are more likely to observe and learn from other baboons that have demonstrated dental flossing.”

At this stage, we don’t have information on whether the baboons are flossing because they know it’s a good way to care for their teeth or if they just enjoy the sensation.

However, it’s an important reminder for all of us: you only floss the teeth you want to keep.