Communication Underpins All Primate Social Behavior

Natural Selection is one of the most interesting aspects that developed by the process and is given to the environmental primates. The evolutionary process is for the survival of the fittest,it has proteins that travel from the DNA. The changes focus on life of the primates and are responsible for the phenotype that makes each one of us different than the rest. Since humans are primates, humans and apes have been said to share a lot of similarities. In chapter six, it talked about traits from non human primates to characteristics. More efficient, greater dependence of flexible learned behavior. Other than humans,primates consist of lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes. Primate social behavior is understanding the concepts distinguished

In the study of the female chimpanzee Lana, the authors tested the Stroop-like effect with an animal to gather evidence from a nonverbal organism to provide additional information about the role of compatibility between response latency and performance accuracy.

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

Primate intelligence correlates to primate cognition which is the study of the intellectual and behavioral skills of primates (Low). In the book Human Evolution and Culture, chapter five "Human Evolution Biological and Culture" states that primates share a lot of common features with mammals but what makes them uniquely different than many other mammals is that primates have a wide range of physical and social traits (86). The social relationships of primates are unique because just like humans, they relationship begin with the mother and other adults that the younger dependable primates. "The dependency of infant primates offers an evolutionary benefit that allows infant primates more time to examine and master the intricate behaviors necessary to survival while enjoying the care and protection of mature adults."(87) Primates have the privilege of having a large brain the size similar to body size to learn the culture and the way of life they live. Larger brains give primates the advantage to obtain an enormous amount of learning and integrate data. Primates have a special gift in areas of their brain that's dedicated to speech and language. (94) Primates have the special ability to communicate with each other as well as with humans and are the "only habitual toolmaking animal" (96). Although primates are more cognitively advanced than many other animals/mammals, researchers and critics still debate on how to define, compare and study intelligence and the growth of

Primates share many human-like factors, and over time, studies are able to now show that non-human primates have become even more like humans in terms of culture and lifestyle. Primates are intelligent, which allows parents of mammals to teach their young, and the young learn much like humans do. From detailed studies of ape behavior, it is concluded that apes, like humans, use tools and patterns to adapt from what they learn in social groups, rather than it being biological. Primates have been found to laugh, support each other, learn how to medicate themselves and others when in need, have family traditions, show off, grieve, and the list goes on. Learning such things, whether it be human or ape, varies from culture to culture, through social

Primates are not just shared between humans, it is in fact shared with other species in the world. One example is the early stages of when humans were discovered showed that we were once apes back in the day and then we started to change throughout evolution. We do share the same non-verbal gestures with apes so we recognize the similarities between the two. This is why primate reproduction is so important. Apes are the number one sign of primatology has made our understanding more and more a like to us humans. Primate reproduction is important because the more we reproduce humans and other species the more cultures will change among the world. Primates have become more like humans regarding our different cultures that we continue to share

The rarity of human uniqueness no longer exists in the thoughts of scientists believing that human ability skills lie within the construction and use of tools. As declared by Goodall in which chimpanzees used straight sticks after removing the leaves and branches to collect termites or ants for consumption. (Goodall, 1986) Other species both primate and non-primate demonstrate successful abilities., which include a sense of self as well as the theory of mind, by which other species recognize that other individuals contain different information than themselves. Different species also have the ability to communicate symbolically to one another through the sounds of vocalization. (Sapolsky R. M., 2006)

It is obvious that it would be advantageous for a primate species living in large social groups to develop elevated social cognitive abilities.

Many would say chimpanzees are our long lost relatives. They have many traits that may mirror human beings and they are able to show signs of communication. Whether it be playing pranks on their handlers or simply telling them they are hungry, chimpanzees are highly intellectual creatures that are misunderstood. In “Next of Kin,” a book written by psychologist Roger Fouts, notices and appreciates this intellectual behavior shown from our hairy relatives. For centuries chimpanzees have been practicing the art of communication using gestures, different dialects in hand movement, facial expressions and forms of body language very similar to that of a human. Through his studies in theories of communication, Fout’s expressed that he learned a significant amount more from the chimpanzees than from an American Sign Language program. His store is told in this novel expressing great insight and affection.

Over time through scientific discoveries and research we find ourselves closely relatable to animals, specifically primates. We notice similarities through anthropomorphism and anthropodenial which can be seen through scientific observations from animals. These two terms make us realize that we are closer to primates than we think in life from experiences. This essay will examine anthropomorphism and anthropodenial in order to understand the relationship of primates and humans alike.

I am currently studying the discipline of Psychology and I am interested in the animal psychology field. I found many sources that study the relationship between human and animal. However, the most intriguing research is the one that they study about primate since they are the closest living relative to human. The Bonobo and Chimpanzee are some of the examples of the primate, about 99% of our DNA are identical. The researcher from the University of St Andrews and the University of Kyoto suggested that “By studying both of our closest living relatives, we may be better able to understand the evolution of human language” (Graham, Furuichi, & Byrne, 2016, p. 172).

One form of nonhuman primate communication that occurs in the wild is through noises (Zuberbuhler 6). Most primates have species specific sounds for certain situations (Zuberbuhler 6). For example, vervet monkeys have different alarm calls for different types of predators (Zuberbuhler 10). The listeners of these calls respond to each call differently, protecting themselves from specific predators (Zuberbuhler 10). This means that they are not just reacting to another monkey being scared, but they know what scared it based on the call the monkey makes. Specific calls therefore can be said to symbolize specific meanings (Zuberbuhler 10). However, it is not known whether or not this is intentional or if the monkeys are aware of this. While this would not necessarily be considered a language, it is one of their natural forms of communication. The human listeners and nonhuman listeners both interpret arbitrary noises to mean something specific (Zuberbuhler 11). However, a difference between human language and these primate calls is that humans learn their language socially (Zuberbuhler 11). There is no evidence to say that nonhuman primate calls or sounds are learned socially instead of instinctual (Zuberbuhler 11). In fact, there is some evidence to support the opposite. “Monkeys reared in social isolation produce basically all their species-typical call types from soon after birth”(Arbib 1054). This means that these species specific calls are not taught, but they know them

Results showed an unusually high accuracy for emotional expression discrimination, with an 80% success rate (Calcutt et al., 2017). Such a high rate shows that facial expression discrimination is an important survival tool for these monkeys. Agnostic/negative expressions were easier for monkeys to tell apart than affiliative/friendly ones (Calcutt et al., 2017). From this we can infer that detection of unfriendly expressions has been especially important evolutionarily for tufted capuchin monkeys. Overall, the monkeys best at detecting facial expressions have been, and will continue to be, the most equipped and ideal for passing their genes on to future generations.