Week 8 - Primate Behaviour

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Simon Fraser University *

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101

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Anthropology

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Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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Week 8 - Primate Behaviour After reading Chapter 7 in the textbook and reading the article "Gut Thinking" by Peter Radetsky, and keeping in mind what you have learned about chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, discuss the following questions. https://learn-ca-central-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.ca-central- 1.amazonaws.com/5eac5bdd7f7c4/3067464?response-cache-control=private%2C %20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A %3DUTF-8%27%27Gut%2520Thinking%2520by%2520Peter %2520Radetsky.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz- Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20201029T180000Z&X-Amz- SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz- Credential=AKIAZH6WM4PLXDUOTQ63%2F20201029%2Fca-central- 1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz- Signature=6cde8c4163ed15cf3116a791a2325b1edb6a66aa03dc470e23741292ad76 1d2d 1. In your own words explain the behavioural ecology approach and give two examples of factors that can influence primate behaviour. Behavioral ecology is the interconnectedness between behaviour and environment and how that reflects upon the evolutionary aspects of a species in accordance with natural selection. There can be several abiotic or biotic factors in specific environments that can influence primate behaviour. One of which would be the activity patterns of the primate, either being nocturnal or diurnal. Many primates are diurnal and forage for their foods during the day however other types such as the galagos and lorises for instance are nocturnal and either forage for their foods alone, or in small groups while being wary of predators at nighttime. Another factor that can affect primate behaviour can be the disruption of human activities to their environments. This can be seen through clear cutting or human hunting where they end up affecting populations of primates by reducing their numbers, isolating groups, and reducing resource distribution and availability. 2. Using behavioural ecology explain some of the anatomical and behavioural differences between chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. How are these differences similar to the differences between spider monkeys and howler monkeys?

For Mountain gorillas, since they require less energy to scavenge for food, they tend to eat lower quality leaves, pith from bamboo stems, bark, and other types of vegetation. While chimps or small-bodied primates would focus on more high-energy type of foods. The types of diets that primates choose directly connects to the anatomy of their brain sizes. For the gorillas since they primarily eat leaves, they are more likely to have smaller brains. Spider monkeys, that have a primarily fruit diet, have larger brains to their howler monkey counterparts. Chimpanzees have a plant diet mainly in the form of ripe fruit, therefore exhibiting larger brain sizes (for their body size). We can see that these fruit eating, or high energy diets not only develops the brain, but it also increases its mental capacity to do a larger range of tasks than those consuming low energy items.

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