Predator Avoidance And A Small Bodied Primates

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

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.

They are very fast and can be able to run within short distances using the most minimal time. It takes less than 10 seconds to run within a distance of approximately 100 meters. While the animals move around they try to monitor the environment as quadrupedally and monitoring of the environment can be able to take as much as up to ten minutes in any case they have doubts of where they are, this alerts them of any predators. Consortship is a situation where the two animals would stay close to each other and monitor the movement and environment of each other. This is done as long as the animals are out in an environment that is not seen as being friendly. The patas can be seen to be less vocal and they move around in silence, they make certain noise only once when they have seen a predator. The noise or the sound takes just a few seconds as long as the danger is taken away

I have really enjoyed learning in this class and glad I took it because I found it to be very interesting. From learning all these different types of primates, from non-human to human primates, to even developing a better understanding of the evolution of primates and primate behavior. For my final paper, I will be going over and portraying the behavior of non-human primate and human primate. I will be comparing the primates behavior seen over the movies and literatures that we were assigned, to the understandings of evolution. Being able to learn and compare the behavior of non-human primate and the behavior of human primate, it can help further one understandings of how we are similar in physical and biological structures. According to the Wikipedia, “The primate lineage is thought to go back at least 65 million years ago”. (Wikipedia) With this one could say that the evolution of primates have been evolving for quite a while now, and even if we do not look like a non human primate we are similar than we think. The reading materials and the movies we had to watch for this class displayed the behaviors of non-human primate and human primate, some how differed. There are many question about evolution, and to how we were created? are there other reasons deeper than evolution? How much can we learn about evolution by just comparing the different behavior of the primates?

The weather of my first visit was 48/41᷾⁰ F, cloudy and there was a lot of wind and humidity. I came around 11:40 am and left at 1:21 pm. My second visit the weather was 37/36⁰ F, it drizzle, was mostly cloudy and there was a lot of humidity but not a lot windy. All of my observations include a 20 minutes observation of each primate as it cohabitated with other primates and with other members of its own species. My findings will support the research of Western Lowland Gorilla and Cotton-Top Tamarin through firsthand

Primates have some features that support them for the arboreal life. First, primates have developed grasping extremities with the divergent hallux and nails instead of claws. These features help them grasping branches better. Second, primates have enhanced vision with the optic convergence, which helps them look straightforward. They also have postorbital bar to protect the eyes. Third, primates reduced the olfaction that is not useful for arboreal life. Fourth, comparing to the other mammals, primates have large brain consider to the body size. The large brain helps them to process the complicating reactions, and thinking. Haplorrhines primates have some unique derived traits: the loss of tapetum lucidum, which enhances the vision in the darkness; and haplorhini, which is dry external nose. The anthropoid primates have developed some derived traits. They have postorbital bar with closure, and this makes a complete bony ring surrounds the eyes. They also have fused mandibular symphysis. The Platyrrhines have the dental formula 2.1.3.3/2.1.3.3. The Catarrhines have dental formula 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3. The Cercopithecoids have the bilophodont molars to enhance the chewing ability. The hominoids are the most developed primates, which have some derived unique traits. They have larger brain, loss of tail, longer arms than legs, broad thorax with more muscles, and highly mobile shoulder.

Lemuroids are prosimians dating back to as early as 65 million years ago (Larsen). They were the primates present during the Paleocene epoch of the Cenozoic era (Larsen). Having many attributes that pertain to the early primates they help give an insight to the evolution of dentition within early primates (Doyle). This helps understand the fore coming other grades of primates dentition; for example, tarsiers, monkeys, apes and hominids.

The second grade of primates evolved about 53 million years ago, in Eocene epoch. There are five tarsier species that all live in the islands of Southeast Asia, where they inhabit from tropical forest to backyard gardens (Jurmain, et al, 2011). They are considered to be closely related to lemurs and lorises (prosimian family) for the several traits that they share with Grade I primates while having some anthropoid features as well. However, tarsiers have distinctive characteristics that isolate them from other primates. They are categorized as the smallest creatures among the primate species and they are well known for their enormous eyes which is as large as its brain. They are normally nocturnal insectivores but sometimes carnivorous. They catch insects by jumping at them and as they jump from tree to tree, they even hunt for birds while in motion.

During my research of Orangutans and Mandrills I observed them in captivity at the San Diego Zoo. My observations included a 20 minute observation of each primate as it cohabitated with other Primates and with other members of its own species. My findings will support the research of Orangutans and Mandrills through firsthand observations.

Lastly, the life cycle and reproduction of the tarsier. The eastern tarsier has a unique reproduction cycle that any other, they have a specific breeding period between April and May, then October and November. On the other hand,”Tarsiers tend to breed all year round with females giving birth to a single baby after a gestation period that lasts for about six months”(a-z animals). Surprisingly, when the baby tarsiers are born, they already have a full coat of fur, and can open their eyes open completely. When they are a day old, they are already able to climb. For about two weeks, the mother of the infant will feed her newborn, then they will start to eat an adult diet. Although they are able to climb, the babies still cling onto their mothers,

Tardigrades or Tardigrada are commonly known as “Water Bears” (Miller 2011), or moss piglets (Bordenstein 2014). They were first discovered in 1773 by J.A.E. Goeze (Bordenstein 2014), and later named by Lazzaro Spallanzani (Bordenstein 2014). Ecology studies the distribution and abundance of animals. Why do things live and why they live there (Notes). The objective of this paper is to discuss the ecology of Tardigrades.

It is noticeable smooth which could reflect abrasions as the individual entered or exited burrows. This fossilized tortoise appears to be a female with a small intact gular projection and a shallow concave plastron. Marked concavity of the plastron, thickened anal scutes, and elongate gular projections denote male classification (Douglass and Layne, 1978). Enlarged gular projections are a sex characteristic and used in male-male combat during mating season. Growth rings on the scutes of the CCNHM-1710 plastron were not visible however, due to the carapace length of CCNHM-1710, it can be suggested that it reached sub adulthood giving it a better chance of survival and would be dark in color (Rostal, McCoy, & Mushinsky,

The acoustic, morphological, functional, and behavioral variation in the mechanical display behavior among the manakins strongly supports the conclusion that sound production has evolved five or six times independently within the family with only a single loss, or reversal (Prum 1998). When comparing separately constructed behavioral and morphological phylogenies, congruency between the the two phylogenies demonstrate the informative nature of behavioral characters in manakins. However, Prum concluded that the phylogenetic distribution of the mechanical display behavior in manakins yields numerous equally parsimonious reconstructions of the family’s evolutionary history (Prum 1998). Prum discusses when hypotheses of convergence or homology are equally parsimonious, the only criterion for differentiating each phylogeny is by analyzing the strength of the initial hypothesis of that convergence or homology. In order to describe the current phylogenetic distribution of mechanical sound production among the clade Pipridae, the initial hypothesis, which states that this homologous behavior evolved and diversified from a single original common ancestor of the manakin, requires that a there had been a single origin with six independent losses (Prum 1998). However, the diversity in acoustic

Tarsiers are small species of arboreal primates that usually inhabit well-vegetated forests. They are mostly found on islands in southeast Asia exclusively in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the southern Philippines. Tarsiers can be identified into three groups that are based upon their geographic location: the Western Tarsier, Eastern Tarsier, and the Philippine Tarsier. Western Tarsiers are generally found in lowland forests or low mountain forest on the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Bangka, Belitung, Kalimantan, and surrounding islands. Eastern Tarsiers are generally found in differed levels of rests on Sulawesi and surrounding islands. The Philippine Tarsier are generally found in lowland forests and are distributed across various islands in the southern Philippines including Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao.