98 % Chimpanzee Book Report

Monkeys and humans have been compared for years, we have all heard the expression “Monkey see, Monkey do”. Analyzing individual primates at the Santa Ana Zoo was quite an experience because when I use to hear monkeys I use to only picture one certain appearance and that was a brown monkey with a light brown face, and a long tail. Moneys are not just monkeys, humans aren’t just humans, and apes aren’t just apes they are all primates which is a mammal that has certain characteristics such as: flexible fingers and toes, opposable thumbs, flatter face than other mammals, have eyes that face forward and spaced close together, large and complex cerebrum, and they are also social

Goodall, J. (1971). In the Shadow of Man. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. The author’s goal in writing this book is to discuss her experiences and what she had learned from studying wild Chimpanzees. Goodall wrote this book in order to convey her knowledge of a species of animal she loves very much, so that others may become educated and join her in protecting them. She dreamed of going to Africa to see them, and was offered a job by Dr. Lewis Leakey. Goodall wanted nothing more than a chance to help. Her experiences in surrounding herself with them have completely changed the way scientists conduct field research. Whether she intended to or not, the data she has collected has debunked myths and uncovered truths about chimpanzees, while bringing more light to human behavior.

Whether in the wild or in captivity, chimpanzees will benefit from the behaviors of other chimpanzees in a social learning environment (Hirata, 2009). Chimpanzees in the wild are known for behaviors involving tool use such as nut cracking, ant dipping, termite fishing, pestle pounding and many other techniques (Tonooka, Tomonaga & Matsuzawa, 1997). The skills are seen to be transferred culturally between communities and across many generations. An example of tool use behavior was studied in West Africa, where chimpanzees are known to crack nuts using stone or wooden tools. In Bossou, chimpanzees crack the nut Elaeis Guineensis” which is an oil palm nut, whereas in the Nimba mountains 10 km away from Bossou, chimpanzees would crack a doula nut called Coula edulis. Matsuzawa and others experimented by giving the doula nut to the Bossou chimpanzees, who had never seen or eaten this type of nut before. Besides one adult female, most of the chimpanzees sniffed the nut, picked it up but did not eat it or try and crack the shell. Through observational learning of the adult female that cracked the nut right away, two chimpanzees learned to crack the new nut that was put in their environment. This proved the first evidence of cultural transmission between communities and generations, where the adult chimpanzee grew up in a community nearby that had the same tradition of doula

Throughout the term, reading the book, “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall has been quite intriguing for me, in that it has inspired me with new ideas and perceptions about how our own species has evolved over time. I have really enjoyed seeing the many similarities that hominids share with other primate species, especially chimpanzees. Goodall’s research only further proves that we are not only extremely biologically similar to chimpanzees in our DNA, but have many behavioral similarities as well. The film, “Monkey in the Mirror” also shows support for our likeness in intellectuality. These documented findings on chimpanzee and human resemblances provides the strong evidence needed to conclude the fact that humans do indeed share a common ancestor with great apes.

According to my observation, even though Chimpanzee, and Gorilla are similar, they differ in many other ways when we go deeper in physical, and behavioral traits. However, both species also share the majority part of their DNA with Humans. Based on some reliable researches, some scientists realized that humans did not come from apes but instead shared common ancestors. As a matter of fact, humans and Primates are different, but share most of their genome, explaining why we found some similar patterns of behavior among humans, and

The accuracy of scientific data collection in relation to social ideas sex, or race is an inevitably unreliable system.

According to National Geographic, scientists have sequenced the genome factor of the chimpanzee and found that humans are 98.5% similar to the ape species. The chimpanzee is our closest relative in the animal kingdom; however, some people are not aware of our resembling traits with chimpanzees. Jane Goodall’s, In the Shadow of Man, describes some similar traits humans and chimpanzees have such as their facial expressions and emotions, use of tools, and diet.

Robert Sapolsky is a neuroendocrinologist who wrote about his twenty years of work out in the national park of East Africa. Sapolsky’s turned his adventure into a novel, A Primate 's Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among Baboons, where he discusses the life of baboons and how they are similar to humans. I will analyze Sapolsky’s novel by explaining the complex social hierarchy he witnessed and discuss the ways in which the social hierarchy and rank system among baboons might compare to that of humans. I will then analyze how studying non-human primates in a natural setting is valuable, and will also explain how the scientific study of these non-human primates ultimately provides insight into not only our evolutionary past

Marshall-Pescini and Whiten (2008) discuss social learning with chimpanzees in East Africa, focusing on the task of nut-cracking. Nut-cracking is unique to wild chimpanzees who live in West Africa, so this study intended to measure whether or not chimpanzees who do not live in the wild in West Africa would demonstrate the same ability to learn nut-cracking. The study took place on Ngamba Island in Lake Victoria, Uganda at a

There are many things that seem to be complete opposites of each other, yet after looking in-depth our immediate conclusion appears to be wrong and the reality is they share many similarities. A popular example of this is the comparison between humans and chimpanzees. At an initial glance, humans seem so far superior to chimpanzees that the difference is at an astronomical level. The concepts, ideas, societies, relationships, technological advances that humans have brought are incomparable to what little chimpanzees have accomplished. Yet as scientists have studied and observed closely, they have noted that in reality we are made of nearly the exact same genetic structure as the chimp, varying in only a 1% difference. This miniscule 1%

But I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country. […] But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.

When researching primates to choose, Bonobo monkeys, caught my interest. Although, I’ve known of their existence for a few years, I never really researched into depth about the species. I chose this species for a few reasons; humankind’s closest living relatives, sharing more than 98% of our DNA, their intelligence, emotional expression, and sensitivity. While reading in chapter seven, I found out ways of categorizing a species as a primate.

If you take the skull of a chimp and the skull of a human, you can see the similar feature characteristics between the two, concluding that they come from a common ancestor. With higher technology evolving throughout the years, you can also take the data of DNA to see how closely living things are related. Two strands each of DNA was taken from humans and chimps to compare the two. When heated, the DNA strands split apart and one strand from each organism was put together. Resulting in this, it was discovered that they almost had a perfect sequence with 98% DNA identical. With having similar characteristics and 98% of the same DNA as chimps, it leaves the question of if humans and chimps also think and act the same. Sally B., a psychologist, tested just that. Her time with chimps revealed that they respond to new things and have the same type of play as humans. They are also able to learn the same type of skills as humans, as in learning to count. There was nothing they could not learn that Sally tried to teach them. All these similarities point to that fact that chimps and humans do have a common ancestor. The differences we do have though, are because the line of evolution with humans. Natural selection favored the evolution of organisms that could communicate, construct language, and manipulate

Schiebinger argues that Linnaeus' essentialist view of on mammary glands as definers of animal excellence influenced his process of classification. Her article explains the historical context of breasts in eighteenth-century England and how the growing importance of breast-feeding influenced the creation of the Mammalia. Furthermore, Schiebinger illustrates how this classification aided in regulating role of women in society to mothers, who need to remain in the private sector for the health and safety of children. Women became the symbol of nurturing care and affection making them unfit for the unregulated, rough public sector. This same understanding of women's roles led to the scientific discoveries about chimpanzees made by Jane Goodall. Haraway describes in this article how Dr.Goodall's status as a woman, and therefore less threatening and more nurturing, made her the perfect candidate to interact with chimpanzees. Haraway's argues that gender, science, and race, are a triple code, which inform our study of science and its

Though the problem with this is that it restricts the freedom of researchers which ultimately affects the integrity of the research and these actions will produce weak results. Although all researchers aren’t knowledgeable or have a fixed standard when it comes to animal ethics personally, the fact is that most researchers don’t intent to harm animals. Intent is just as important to consider when accusing researchers of ethical violations. It is acceptable to have certain guidelines such as Psychologists should make every effort to ensure that those responsible for transporting the nonhuman animals to the facility provide adequate food, water, ventilation, space, and impose no unnecessary stress on the animals (American Psychological Association [APA], 2012)..It’s not acceptable to impose more stringent sanctions such as..... use procedures that minimize the number of nonhuman animals in research (APA, 2012). Such propositions although it’s already been implemented in the APA’s Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals (APA, 2012), is going way and beyond the absolute requirements needed to fulfill moral obligations to animals. This guideline is yet another example of controlling researchers’ autonomy to do what is best to achieve scientific