Howler Monkeys

Although I did not catch the gibbon in the act, they are distinguished by their unique sound. Gibbons use their vocals to communicate with each other. Lar gibbons communicate in solos and duets, which are typically loud and long calls. In order to keep intruders out and defend their territory, normal duets are sung. Male white-headed gibbons sing together at range edges to keep intruders out and increase their territorial defense (Beaman,

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.

Isbell and Wright’s articles both focus on monkey species and their native environments, Africa for Isbell’s (1994) vervet Old World monkey and South America, Peru area, for Wright’s (1994) owl and titis monkeys. The articles main focus is the relationship between these monkeys and their natural predators. Focusing on how the predator aspect of their lives is determined by their environment and adaptations they make to ensure survival. Isbell’s Vervets Year of Doom focuses more on the adaptations that was forced upon the vervets’ because of their changing environment, the death of fever trees. While Wright’s Night Watch on the Amazon focusses more on how the primates way of life affects their relationship with predators and the likelihood of attacks. Both articles have similar aspects however the species way of life, specifically their environment and sleep schedule, are quite different as well as the authors way of observing and studying the primates within their habitats.

Color vision is an evolutionary trait that provides primates with significant reproductive and survival value (Gomes, Pessoa, Suganuma, Tomaz, & Pessoa, 2002). However, the quantity and quality of color vision varies within and between species in the primate lineage. Primates are divided into four groups Apes, New World, Old World, and Prosimians. The New World primates are located in the rainforests of South America and surrounding areas, while the other groups of primates are distributed across Africa and Asia (Regan et al., 2005). The vast range of geographical locations inhabited by primates provide images of food requirements that vary dramatically based on environmental conditions.

Orangutans (Figure 3) are our first cousins since they share 97 percent of our genetic material. Contrary to other apes, orangutans are semi solitary which is unique in its social organization (3). Adult males which are the most solitary, and they associate with only their current, former, and potential consorts. For the semi-solitary orangutans, the only playmate is its mother. Even female adults are more social than male ones, rarely they groom, touch, hold hands, chase, or fight. On rare occasions, female adults may groom; however, it lasts only few seconds. Sometimes, female adults meet and travel with one another to express the close relationship. The long call by a male orangutan expresses an alert to others about his presence. Usually, other orangutans only react if the call is close by or aggressive towards them. Male orangutan can use vocalization to express that he is angry and frustrated, and that call signals a threat to another male (3). Female orangutans also produce vocalization when they get upset by the presence of another male.

For many animals, the ability to move is essential for survival. Animals move for a variety of reasons such as: to find food, a mate, a habitat to live in, or to escape predators. It is important for animals to develop new abilities and traits to accomplish these necessities of living. Natural selection has shaped the locomotion methods and mechanisms used by moving organisms for millions of years. Generally, non-human primates are studied to garner an understanding of evolution caused by natural selection because of the many distinctive adaptations that have occurred within their taxonomic order. To understand the origin of locomotion that exist amongst primates, the two categories of primates must be analyzed to recognize morphological trait differences. Then, three major determinants can be evaluated to describe the variety of locomotor patterns primates display: the ecological niches in which the primate originates, the current inhabited niches, and the major key aspects of survival such as

Experiments and research on non-human primates has helped advance the fields of biology and medicine. The experiments and research done on primates often plays a major role in testing the safety of new drugs, research on understand how the brain works, and research on how to prevent infections disease in humans. Thanks to research done with animals, medical advances are continuously made. In some way, all humans benefit from animal research. Non-human primates are a group of mammals that consists of monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, lemurs and others. Monkeys are then divided into two smaller groups known as Old World monkeys and New World monkeys. New World monkeys are native of Africa and Asia. Old World monkeys originate from Central and South

The primary message this page wants to address is that humans are very similar to other primates because humans are primates as well. Many of the similarities can be seen in appearances and genetic code though their behavior is a lot more similar than some would think. The page also wants to convey that it will address some of the ways that human and other primates are similar and different.

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

“Non-human primates, due to their level of intelligence when compared to other animals, and also due to their evolutionary closeness to man are maintained in several types of captive facilities like laboratories, zoological parks, animal circuses and conservation breeding centres” (Mallapur 2005). Non-human primates are the closes species to human-kind compared to others. The intelligence they contain and their relatively comparable behaviors they have with human-kind make them a fascinating study. They are kept for observation and research; but many of the enclosure sceneries evoke abnormal behavior patterns among non-human primates. Maintaining a satisfied non-human primate in captivity can be challenging.

In semi-free ranging studies, scientists see how primates act in the wilderness

We investigated whether terrestrial behavior in titi monkeys is affected by study duration, group habituation, fruit availability, presence/absence of humans and predators, and forest height. Titi monkeys used the ground to perform many standard activities, such as resting, moving, feeding, and geophagy, as well as to disperse between forest

I would utilize the natural habitat of Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica where the previous study had been done by Hiramatsu et al. At a variety of levels I would suspend even amounts of fruit baskets. Each basket would contain a different fruit and be replenished daily. One would have a favorite fruit of many local primate species, there would be a basket specifically filled with a fruit favorited by each individual primate species, and there would be a basket full of natural but non-native fruits. I would include both ripe and unripe fruit. Over a four month period, two in the wet season and two in the dry season, I would document which species came to which basket, how many foraged in each basket each day, and their behaviors during foraging. For behaviors I would look at sight, smell, competition: hoarding, guarding, stealing, etc. for each fruit basket. I would also document how many fruits each species was willing to eat. Knowing which species are specialist is important conservation data even though it would not apply directly to my study. When analyzing my data I would only look at adults and use the most effective biostatistics analysis available to me at the time of the

A long piercing howl shatters the quiet night of a northern forest. The howl grows into a chorus of yelps and barks, and the valley echoes to the chilling sound. The leader of the pack starts the noise, while other pack members, as well as other wolf packs, join in (O’Toole 22). Among wolves, communication is a very highly developed skill. For instance, the howl of the pack leader has many different meanings.

As Chia LR Tan, a senior scientist at the San Diego Zoo stated “Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) are limited to temperate montane forests at 1400–3400 m above sea level (4,600-11,150 feet) in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Hubei provinces”. Golden Stub Nosed monkeys only live in the areas of China located in the yellow on the map on the right. These monkeys are only found in the temperate montane forest in the middle of china and nowhere else on earth. These mountains are full of trees and The temperate coniferous rain forests sustain the highest levels of biomass in any terrestrial ecosystem and are notable for trees of massive proportions, including coast redwood, Douglas fir and Sitka spruce