Chimpanzee nests are cleaner than human beds, scientists say

Chimpanzee beds in the jungle are cleaner than the beds humans make in their homes, a new study released on Tuesday has said.

According to researchers from North Carolina State University, chimpanzees keep cleaner beds because unlike humans, they make their own beds daily.

The researchers had before hypothesized that a greater number of bacteria would be in chimp nests compared to human bed sheets, but the study revealed something else.

After swabbing 41 chimpanzee nests in Tanzania, the researchers surprisingly found almost none of the microbes found in human beds, including faecal microbes.

This is even though chimps go to the toilet over the side of their nests, the study said.

“Our data would suggest that they’re really quite good at grooming each other and cleaning off ectoparasites,” Megan Thoemmes, lead author of the paper, said.

“About 35 percent of bacteria in human beds stem from our own bodies, including faecal, oral and skin bacteria,” Thoemmes told news site NC State news.

The study added that humans have created sleep environments to reduce their exposure to soil and other environmental microbes but have instead increased the bacteria which come from their own bodies.

“In some ways, our attempts to create a clean environment for ourselves may actually make our surroundings less ideal,” Thoemmes said.

The average person changes their sheets once every 24 days, with pillowcases taking a much longer period to be washed, according to a separate study by Mattress Advisor.