Faces in the Forest: The Endangered Muriqui Moneys of Brazil is an educational book written by Karen B. Strier in 1992. Published by Harvard University Press on May 5, 1999. Karen is currently a professor and a researcher of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Her work predominantly focuses on primate ecology and the understanding of primate behavior. Not only does she wish to truly understand the reasoning behind primate behavior, she also wants to prevent their extinction, specifically the muriqui monkeys of Brazil. Various awards and honors have been presented to Professor Strier for her fieldwork, including the Hilldale Award, Kellet MidCareer Award, Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and an election into the …show more content…
She describes her introduction to Karen and continues to depict professor Strier’s workmanship, ethic, diligence, and the contributions she made to students in Brazil and to all of those who had been given the opportunity of reading this book.
The acknowledgements follow the foreword. In this section, Karen thanks everyone involved in her path to the muriqui one way or another and discusses how she was introduced to her research. Her graduate advisor, Irven DeVore was responsible for the inspiration that led to the glory of a book I get to review.
Preceding chapter 1 is the introduction, which is roughly 4.5 pages long. It contains a very detailed scenario of a frighten experiences Karen had with a male muriqui during her field research. A male monkey came rushing toward her then all of sudden stopped and made some sort of call. Three female muriquis from a different group appeared and came to Karen’s aid. This incident is what transformed professor Strier’s predominantly scientific question based research into a passion. Seeing those three female muriqui monkeys in captivity is what led to the motivation behind this book and all of her conservation efforts.
The first chapter is 9 pages long with two pages dedicated to images of muriqui in trees. One of the two is a photography while the other is a poorly drawn picture that made me giggle. Pages 1-5 comprises of informational content that functions as structural foundation. It gives the background
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
Despite a lack of scientific academic education, Jane Goodall’s work on the chimpanzees made revolutionary breakthrough in the field of understanding chimpanzee behavior. It was all made possible by her firm belief on her unconventional methods which academics in the field eyed with cynicism and felt was pointless. Such pessimistic outlook on her efforts from established academics did not blight her morale; instead she carried on with her methods of analyzing the chimpanzee population with full enthusiasm and self belief.
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.
This book was about the life of apes in their natural habitat that is being destroyed. Stanford highly pushed the idea of extinction and what people are doing to the apes. Stanford explains the threats to the ape's survival and tells us ideas that could help stop or slow down the decline of the ape population. He tells us about the complex cultural, social, economic and
The animal I have chosen to study is the Japanese macaque, more commonly known as the Japanese snow monkey. Sir David Attenborough recently described the macaque as “one of the most successful and versatile of all primates”, commending its capacity to be “versatile, resilient, enterprising, tough and capable of surviving in extreme conditions”. This essay will continue by examining the Japanese macaque in a number of ways. Firstly, I will describe the physical characteristics of the animal, paying particular attention to the way in which their appearance has adapted to enable them to dominate in their habitat. Secondly, I will discuss the environment in which the macaques live in and the unique capabilities they maximise to develop a
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.
The book Endangered is about the journey of survival and the connection between a young American girl (Sophie) and a bonobo monkey (Otto) in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sophie’s mother lives in the Congo and runs a bonobo sanctuary. While on her way to the sanctuary to visit her mother for the summer, Sophie sees a man on the side of the road with a bonobo. She notices how malnourished and how bad the bonobo looks and against the rules of her mother, Sophie purchases the bonobo. When she reaches the sanctuary her mother is upset because even though she had good intentions of saving the bonobos life, bargaining with the man Sophie inadvertently promoted the illegal sale of the endangered bonobos. While at the sanctuary Sophie struggles to improve Otto’s health and a
While I thought that Peterson’s descriptions sufficed to help the readers see how apes were treated – dead or alive, the pictures were more shocking. Originally, I skipped over the pictures, but they served to help bring Peterson’s words to life. Prior
This paper aims to study the traits of non-human primates. By observing two types of primates including Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and Western Gorillas (Gorilla Gorillas), I try to find out their characteristics, pattern of their behavior, and differences between these two primate species. Especially, characteristics and behavior such as social interaction, food acquisition and intelligence will be discussed and compared in this paper. In order to enhance the persuasiveness of my observation, I recorded and examined at least 25 distinct characteristics of both Common Squirrel Monkeys and Western Gorillas. It is also helpful for me to compare these two primates. Apart from exploring the primates’ traits and differentiation between them, this paper will discuss the effects of captivity. How being in captivity and on display in a zoo would influence their behaviors and emotions? The observation was a great success and I have successfully derived with a hypothesis base on our observing data. The ultimate goal of this paper is arousing humans’ awareness of the importance of studying 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.
Kavanagh, M. & Morris, D. (1983). Complete guide to monkeys, apes and other primates. London: Viking Press.
I decided to look at the sexual behavior of bonobos because they are known for their frequent sexual behavior. Though they are not one of the types of great apes mentioned in the book, a bonobo is nonetheless a great ape that belongs in the same genus as the common chimpanzee. Furuichi et al. observed bonobos in their naturalistic habitat in Wamba, Democratic Republic
This policy memo addresses the development and expansion of the cattle ranching industry in Brazil, which has contributed to the mass deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon in the last 40 years. It exposes the regional and global consequences to deforestation and provides strategies for the Brazilian government to sustainably manage cattle ranching industries while protecting the future of the Amazon. The rainforest ecosystem is an immense reserve of natural recourses that is far more valuable than the beef produced on Brazilian cattle ranches. Not only does the rainforest create habitat for up to 65% of the world’s biodiversity, but when harvested sustainably, it provides humans with an abundance of spices, foods, oils, medicines
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.
Factory workers are being produced today, although the age of factories has long passed. Students are dehumanized from their first graded assignment, their first report card, the first time they step into school until they graduate. At that point, they are completely stripped of critical thinking and creativity and see learning only as memorization for a test. There seems to be no meaning beyond the face value of what teachers say and possibly less. All that is needed is to memorize word for word what the teacher says. They don’t perceive “what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance of “capital” in the affirmation “the capital of Pará is Belem,” that is, what Belem means for Pará and what Pará means for Brazil” (240). Freire introduces the banking system as the cause of dehumanization, but it is not the system in general that causes it. It is the use of grading. They are used to measure the value and intelligence of students, so this is all students focus on. They only do what they need to receive the highest marks. However, this means the students don’t have time to truly understand their material or realize that they don’t have to spend that much time with the material. After all, the purpose of the banking system is to just fill students with information.