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 strategy ensuring longevity of the breed. Finally, I will consider the various competitors to survival that exist in the macaque’s environment.
According to Gron (2007) the fur of the macaque is brown in colour but varies in shade from a light grey or yellow brown to completely brown. They are most commonly recognised for their pinkish red face. The macaques are predominantly quadrupedal, meaning they use all four limbs to travel across land. The males spend the majority of their time on the ground while the female takes shelter in the trees. Conservation International (2014) describes a degree of sexual dimorphism between males and females, the male measures between 537-607mm weighing between 11.0-18.0kg. The female is shorter measuring between 472-601mm and also lighter weighing 8.3-18.0kg. An image of a macaque is included in appendix 1.
The abbreviation of the Japanese macaque to Japanese snow monkey is indicative of the geographical location of the animal. The macaque lives in the subtropical...
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Hanya, G. 2004. Diet of a Japanese macaque troop in the coniferous forest of Yakushima. International Journal of Primatology, 25 (1), pp. 55--71.
Hays, J. 2014. SNOW MONKEYS (JAPANESE MACAQUE) | Facts and Details. [online] Available at: http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat26/sub164/item887.html#chapter-3 [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014].
International, C. 2014. Japanese Macaque (Snow Monkey) - Conservation International. [online] Available at: http://www.conservation.org/learn/biodiversity/species/profiles/more_primates/tree/Pages/japanese_macaque.aspx [Accessed: 12 Feb 2014].
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I observed chimpanzees in the Kimberly-Clark Chimpanzee Forest exhibit at the Dallas zoo. These African apes, like humans, are hominoids and fall into the larger category of catarrhines. Their scientific classification is Pan troglodytes. There were about ten chimpanzees in that habitat. Most of them were grown adults, except two children. They were robust and had black fur. The average weight of the chimps was listed on a display to be about 115 pounds.
There are contrasts in tool kits used by different groups of chimpanzees, which seem to be a result of the environment in which they live as well as information that is shared by the group. For example, in 1973 it was reported that chimpanzees in Gombe did not use hammer stones, but those of Cape Palmas did. We will explore the tool use of Chimpanzees from the wild, including Gombe, Tai National Forest, and the Congo Basin---and contrast those with Chimpanzees in captivity in locations of Zoo’s both in the United States and abroad.
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
I chose to study the behaviors of the Spider monkey and the Sifaka. I chose them for a few reasons, one being that Spider monkeys are incredibly adorable and two Sifaka’s remind me of a childhood television show, Zoboomafoo. These two primate groups also struck my attention in class, so this project was a perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper. The behaviors I chose to observe were social interactions and locomotion. The biggest differences I noticed between the two primates were that the Spider monkeys have the prehensile tails and without exerting extra energy is able to engage in a few common locomotion patterns such as quadrupedal, suspensory and bipedalisim. Where as Sifaka’s lack a tail, and remain upright at all times, and the only way they don’t waste energy moving around is to jump through the trees. They both hangout in troops, eat similar things and mainly live up high in the trees-- but Spider monkeys care for their own young for up to a year while the Sifaka’s usually engage in non-maternal infant care.
Quiatt, D., & Reynolds, V. (1993). Primate behaviour: information, social knowledge, and the evolution of culture. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
Continuous human degradation of the Cross River gorilla is the primary cause of their dwindling numbers. An amazing species that once prospered in the jungle has been abused to near extinction. Because human interference is the cause of the gorillas decreasing numbers, it is humanities obligation to suspend the practices that lead to their demise. In doing so, we must also explore the options we have to repopulate a species with an intellect second only to humans. Aside from the obvious cruelty of this issue, repopulating the Cross River gorilla is important because the gorillas endangerment is just a byproduct of the unsustainable, and barbaric human interference that is destroying an entire ecosystem. In addition to the extinction of the Cross River gorilla, we will also lose a vast unexplored environment. To end this species demise, we must fight to control the issues that
In 1958, their population was approximately 40,000. The pursuant gatherers of Mbuti people are separated into several subgroups. They lived within their individual region, where they have their own languages and engage in their hunting practices. Each Mbuti subgroup uses a language of a nearest person and they do not have a text method. Their sizes are usually small and average; they also have naturally brown skin and churlish hairs. Mbuti persons exist in bands of 15 to 60. They live in hot, sticky and plentiful precipitation forest which is sprinkled with lakes and rivers. It also has a wealthy variety of flowers and animals. The Mbuti have exte...
Celli, Maura L., Satoshi Hirata, and Masaki Tomonaga. "Socioecological Influences On Tool Use In Captive Chimpanzees." International Journal Of Primatology25.6 (2004): 1267-1281. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
In order to show off how powerful one chimpanzee is, the male can swing, pull down the trees, drag them, throw sticks and stones, and stomp on t...
The primate’s intelligence is extraordinary considering how they connect with their environment to survive in everyday life. The ability to learn to use tools to improve the primate’s life is an example of culture and how they survive. One of the tools used in primates is moss-sponging. Primates will gather moss and use it as a sponge to soak up water and drink from it. This behavior was displayed by an alpha male upon which spread rapidly through spatiotemporal association to another seven individuals (Lamon, 2017, p. 1). In the Sonso community, the Primates would take moss and place them in water and use them to drink from. “The goal of the study was to investigate the mechanisms of maintenance of moss-sponging in a wild chimpanzee community following initial emergence and rapid spread among a restricted number of individuals in 2011,” (Lamon, 2017, p. 2). The manufacturing of a leaf-sponge to drink from (“Clay-pit leaf-spongers”) (Lamon, 2017, p. 2), was added to the primates traditional technique of (“clay- pit moss-spongers”). During
These species are considered rare since their population of four thousand to six thousand in the wild is facing a decline. Their threats in nature is mainly from climate change, which forces the snow leopards out of their natural habitat. Subsequently, since snow leopards prey on livestock’s such as goats, sheep’s and horses, local farmers are hunting them to prevent their animals from being consumed. Humans value snow leopards positively, since they are endangered, they are a source of entertainment and generate revenue for zoo’s since many visitors seek to observe endangered
At the lowland Atlantic Forest of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, lives a charismatic and tree-dwelling monkey known as the Golden Lion Tamarin, Leontopithecus rosalia. The Golden Lion Tamarin is a particular species of Lion Tamarins and were given this name due to their brightly coloured orange or red fur covering their entire bodies (Tzoo). A beautiful golden hair frames its dark and hairless face (WAZA). Golden Lion Tamarins can be distinguished from other species of primates by having two molar teeth on either side of each jaw as opposed to three and by their modified claws, rather than nails, on all digits except their big toe (IUCN). With a body and head length of about 200 to 336 mm, a tail length of 315 to 400 mm, and weighing approximately 361 to 794 grams, the Golden Lion Tamarin is considered one of the
Project Tamarin is a unique conservation project which combines field research with educational and community programs, placed in Colombia. This mesh of smaller projects helps to make possible the conservation of the Cotton-top Tamarins along with the natural resources of Colombia in accordance to the economy of local Colombian communities. Project Tamarin focuses on the Cotton-top Tamarin, which is one of the most endangered primates in the world. This was first decreed in 1973, when the United State...
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Sikes, Roberts. and William L. Gannon. "Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research." Journal of Mammalogy 92.1 (Feb. 2011): 235-253. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.