Essay On Primates

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely Monday afternoon observing two different primates at the Santa Ana Zoo. I got to the zoo around two in the afternoon, and to my surprise, the zoo was decently crowded. The Santa Ana Zoo is smaller in comparison to other zoos like the Los Angeles Zoo, but still had a decent amount of animals there. Covering a small 20 acres of land, I came across two primates that fit perfectly for the purposes of this course project. I chose to observe an endangered ape, the white-handed gibbon, and an endangered new world monkey, the golden-headed lion tamarin.

Gorillas are the largest group of primates and although they are known as being bipedal, similar to humans and other primates, they often use knuckle walking to move around. On observation, they have seems to have a more robust front appearance than their hind legs and behind. Their cranium is taller than other primates and lower mandible more protruding than their snout. They also have human-like ears that are parallel to their eyes and are small in size. They have

Thus, I was able to observe some similarities among these species. The way the female chimp used tools, and her fingers to grab food, how she used to be on her feet, freeing her hands, groom her child, educate her offspring, sleep with him while snuggling, use a lot of face emotions to convey a message to an individual; she smiled at her baby, laughed when playing, and tickling him, remind me of human. She also has a flat pink face, hands’ palm, and feet sole as humans do. Furthermore, the gorilla was also really human when he protected his eyes from the intense sunrays, following the movement of the sun, and sat in the shade, mated with a female, scratched his head, and bottom, and put his finger in his nose. I think that these humans’ pattern appeared for similar reasons as in the Primates. For instance, when the gorilla scratches his bottom, it is because the area is itchy, and he wants to remove what is indisposing him. In addition, the mother chimp educates her kid to transmit knowledge throughout generation, which is the same for humans, who go to school.

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.

Despite having different jaw shapes, their tooth types share the same function, from grinding and tearing to chewing and crushing (Larsen, 2008). Primates have also gone through multiple evolutionary changes in their dentition, reflecting on the types of foods they have eaten. Premolars and molars of primates, which were often used for grinding or crushing their food, have significantly changed and influenced the functions of their teeth (Larsen, 2008). Incisors and canines were often used to pierce and rip through food, such as leaves. This helps indicate different types of food preferences and feeding specialization in primates since they have heterodont dentition, meaning that they have more than one type of tooth (Swindler, 2002). Although the diets within the population of primates have changed significantly, teeth development has not differed (Steinberg, 2003). The differences between non-human primates are quite subtle and their characteristics are relatable to humans when it comes to primate

The study of primates has been a common field of study for a long time. The studies are carried out for different reasons but the common reason is trying to understand human beings better. Studies have revealed that the behavior of primates is similar to that of human beings on different aspects. Human beings and primates have a history of being related based on the evolution stories. The earliest human beings are believed to have been apes and evolved from there.

Through this assignment, we will see how primates express their behaviors and understand the meaning behind them. For my observation, it will be based on the orangutans, which is classified in the genus Pongo. The San Diego zoo itself is set up with a lot of ropes, balls, hammocks, rocks and more for the animal to interact with in the grassy area. There are many levels of ground elevations that allowed the primate to have maximum space to explore around and live in. After seeing how the specie interacts and behaves, I can relate it to human behaviors and how we gain our roots from them. One of the small orangutans I observed was very active and kept climbing on different levels of the ropes and interacted with many other of the inhabitants.

Primate diversity can be strongly seen amongst the Bonobos and Chimpanzees; however, each primate species shares similar social traits that are common among the human species. In the various short videos on Bonobos and Chimps indicated that Chimps are violent creatures where males must assert social dominance by abusing their female counterpart. If a group of chimps were to encounter another group of chimps then there would be war amongst the two group. On the other hand, bonobos are the complete opposites of the chimp cousins. Bonobos are female dominant primate species and disputes are handled with intercourse. Intercourse for the bonobos species is also used to solidify relationships amongst both males and females. When two different groups of bonobos meet one another there are friendly interaction and the two groups would

Another part if social behavior that is similar is the rate at which humans and other primates mature. For both it takes many years to develop and to be able to take care of one’s self. Other primates generally mature in half the amount of time it takes humans to grow up. Humans also have very complex ways of maturing and many more intricate social interactions than other primates.

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.

They do not restrict themselves to trees and are usually on the ground during the day time but return to the trees at night. Old World Monkeys live in different social groups depending on the type. Some species like the Savanna baboons are in large social groups with both sexes involved while the Colobine live in small groups with one or two adult

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

In this article, “What does variation in primate behavior mean?” the author, Karen Strier describes the general concept of intraspecific behavioral variation, in concerns towards the ability of primates of all species to change and adapt to benefit and increase their future survival rate. Her analysis details how “behavioral flexibility” within the primate world has been studied and understood for a long period of time, but now along with the addition of intraspecific behavioral variation, there is a realization of the potential threat to primate survival under new conditions including environmental influences.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Los Angeles zoo on a beautiful, sunny Thursday (October 19th). Although I arrived off schedule which left a minimal amount of time to observe primates, I managed my time well. After being told that the larger animals get put away earlier, I figured my first stop would be at an ape enclosure. The ape I chose to see that day was the gorilla. The time that I began my observation was at approximately 3:05. At that time only one ape was quite visible and he was sitting at the front making eye contact with me making it seem as if he is HABITUATED. Next, post gorilla watching, I had the chance to take a gander at the ring railed lemurs at 3:40. These prosimians all had their own personalities which interested me deeply. Lastly, and certainly not least on my journey through the LA zoo, I had the chance of looking at the mandrills which were once classified as baboons. Considering that two baby mandrills were present and only a month old, this was my favorite exhibit to see because of their high energy and randomness of actions.

Dian helped us connect even more to the foreign primates by focusing on the different habits of mother, baby, and adolescent gorillas. Giving each gorilla a name, Fossey helped us almost humanize the animals through her vivid descriptions of their personality and behavior. She showed us that gorilla mothers protect, care for, and discipline their infants. Gorilla babies develop much the same ways humans do; acquiring skills as they age. Adolescents can be just as curious as they are mischievous. Fossey's work helps replace the image of the gorilla as a ferocious animal into one that is kind, gentle, and more human-like that we had never known.