Primatology.net

There’s news coming from the BBC that is reporting that the Weatherall committee, in the United Kingdom, will be supporting use of non-human and non-great ape primates for studies that can reduce human suffering and loss of life. This is another example of a poignant piece on ethics and morals in primatology, that I have a hard time tackling. The article also reports that,

“Fewer than 1% of animal tests are conducted on primates and the committee has spent 18 months examining if these are sound and relevant to humans… BBC Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh said research on primates caused particular controversy because they were more sentient than other laboratory animals and so suffered more.

The committee, led by Oxford geneticist Professor Sir David Weatherall, heard evidence from 35 people, including representatives from academic organisations, animal welfare groups, the government and patients. It also received 62 written submissions. The inquiry was set up the Royal Society, Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Just over 4,500 experiments were carried out on primates last year, mostly to test new drugs.

The scientific community has long argued that there is no other safe way to test many new drugs or carry out certain types of brain research.

However, opponents insist primates are poor models for human disease, and say such research has failed to produce treatments for leading killers including heart disease and malaria.”

I’m on the fence with this one, because I am currently experiencing a first hand account of a person who is currently benefiting from research that was once conducted on animals, like primates. And there’s nothing more I want now than to help this person get better. So if it means many monkeys have to die, would that be morally justified? It’s hard for me to answer that one way or the other, right now.

I also wonder about the progress being made with other model organisms, such as transgenic mice who have human immune systems as well as promising project like the virtual cell project. I wonder how much we need to rely on primates a model organism in research, if these other options become more viable?

In a recent Current Biology article, “Male Chimpanzees Prefer Mating with Old Females,” Muller, Thompson, and Wrangham report on the sexual attraction of males to females in the Kanyawara chimpanzee community in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The authors indicate that female chimpanzee mothers become more sexually attractive with age. A concept that is contrary to human norms.

“Cross-cultural studies indicate that women’s sexual attractiveness generally peaks before motherhood and declines with age. Cues of female youth are thought to be attractive because humans maintain long-term pair bonds, making reproductive value (i.e. future reproductive potential) particularly important to males. Menopause is believed to exaggerate this preference for youth by limiting women’s future fertility. This theory predicts that in species lacking long-term pair bonds and menopause, males should not exhibit a preference for young mates. We tested this prediction by studying male preferences in our closest living relative, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). We show that despite their promiscuous mating system, chimpanzee males, like humans, prefer some females over others. However, in contrast to humans, chimpanzee males prefer older, not younger, females. These data robustly discriminate patterns of male mate choice between humans and chimpanzees. Given that the human lineage evolved from a chimpanzee-like ancestor, they indicate that male preference for youth is a derived human feature, likely adapted from a tendency to form unusually long term mating bonds.”

The authors note that the functional explanation for this attractiveness is not necessarily clear and long-term data is currently undergoing analysis to better explain some possibilities: older females tend to be high ranking which translates into increased fitness (and chimps do not go through menopause), more experience as a mother could lead to increased infant survival, and the genes of those who live longer are desirable.

In the meantime, the authors conclude that natural selection has shaped the values for female mates quite differently for chimps and humans.

“Chimpanzee males may not find the wrinkled skin, ragged ears, irregular bald patches, and elongated nipple of their aged females as alluring as human men find the full lips and smooth complexions of young women, but they are clearly not reacting negatively to such cues.”

Maryke Gray, of the blog The Virung Gorillas, has captured a remarkable moment and put it up for all of us to enjoy. The moment is of a mother Mountain Gorilla and her new born, which is an extremely rare shot to get. Maryke describes the moments prior, during, and after the birth,

“We were monitoring the gorillas early in the morning when a female caught our attention. We suddenly realised that we were going to witness a gorilla giving birth. This is incredibly unusual and has only been noted two or three times in the past. The mother, gave no observable indication that birth was imminent, and delivered her infant quickly and easily. Like other mammals, the birth commenced with the water sac which was broken after a couple of minutes by the mother picking at it. The baby came very quickly (a matter of minutes from start to finish), the mother picked up the infant and started to lick her child to clean it. The other members of the family were unaware of what had taken place and they continued their normal activities, as the female had moved away from the group into the bamboo to give birth alone. After giving birth, the female moved back to join the group with her infant, at which point the other gorillas became aware that a birth had taken place. At this point there was fighting between all the females over the placenta, as all the females wanted a share. The silverback had to intervene to calm the situation down and to protect the new baby and mother. After the situation had quietened down the females were very curious and all of them came close to the new mother to observe the new baby.

This infant represents an important contribution to the Virunga mountain gorilla population which is critically endangered, numbering only approximately 380 individuals. There survival over the past decade, at the heart of a long and brutal civil war, is little less than a miracle.”

Normally, I am a bit weary about animal activist groups, because once at my university there was a fire that was rumored to be set by the Animal Liberation Front in protest of primate research. Their little bit of activism ended up killing several chimpanzees, which was devastating, even though there are some debates whether it a chimp should continue to live in horrific conditions.

However the news that comes from a legal battle that was fought by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), shows me this organization acts in a much more civilzed manner. By working the legal system, they try to fight for against the abuse of animals. Which is far better than igniting places in protest.

They specifically win points in my book because their campaign, called No Reel Apes, intends to “end the use of primates in entertainment,” according to a BBC News release, as well as the ALDF’s own news, on their latest accomplishment. If you don’t know about the use of primates in television and film, there are reports that these animals are tormented and tortured in order to comply with getting the perfect shot.

While I love seeing those video clips of chimpanzees on set acting like humans, I know the filming of the clip was not smooth for the chimps themselves. According to some reports, Sid Yost, the trainer of two chimpanzees, he abused his chimps to comply in productions such as That 70s Show and upcoming sequel to Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty. The names of the chimps are Sable, a female, and Cody, a male. They lived at Mr. Yost’s ranch in San Bernardino for five years with Angel, an older female. There’s an image of Sid and two chimps kissing in a primate threesome, to your right.

Recently the ALDF helped liberate these animals. Angel is going to Florida. I wonder if she, Sable, and Cody will going to Carol Noon’s Center for Captive Chimpanzee Care? That’s good news for me because these animals will now not be subjugated to the torment of filming on set… regardless of the account of abuse or what not.

In July of this year, I shared with you an overview of a publication that outlined how social organisms, like gorillas are so very susceptible to getting and dying from Ebola. In my post I criticized the authors for not fully attributing issues like deforrestation and poaching, that were also facilitating the decimation of the population and ultimately bringing Ebola closer to other gorilla populations.

Unfortunately, I have some related and very disheartening news to share with you. The first estimates of how many gorillas haved died has been circulating the press, if you haven’t noticed. The numbers are phenomenal. This virus has taken the lives of more than 5,000 gorillas in the Republic of Congo and Gabon. The original source of this number comes from a recent Science publication, “Ebola Outbreak Killed 5000 Gorillas” Here’s the abstract,

“Over the past decade, the Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) has repeatedly emerged in Gabon and Congo. Each human outbreak has been accompanied by reports of gorilla and chimpanzee carcasses in neighboring forests, but both the extent of ape mortality and the causal role of ZEBOV have been hotly debated. Here, we present data suggesting that in 2002 and 2003 ZEBOV killed about 5000 gorillas in our study area. The lag between neighboring gorilla groups in mortality onset was close to the ZEBOV disease cycle length, evidence that group-to-group transmission has amplified gorilla die-offs.”

This is a staggering number and it does not help conservation efforts at all. Things look very grim for gorillas, which are my favorite non-human primate species. I say that because the experts are saying Ebola is moving at a rate of around 31 miles (50 kilometers) per year in western and central Africa. And since most of the area’s remaining gorillas live within about 124 miles (200 kilometers) of the current outbreak, that’s around four more years for left for what little we have left of the gorilla population.

Other bloggers have posted about this, such as John Hawks and GrrlScientist, and I suggest you do too. Spread the word, maybe something can happen because of this. Gorillas, as well as chimps (who 85% of the population also died too because of Ebola) are affected by Ebola and I believe they should have a chance against it. If we can make isolated reserves and prevent contact from people, then these animals would be better off.

From Pharyngula, I got this image of a orphaned baby gorilla holding a human hand at Lefini Faunal Reserve. It is actually from 1998. Dates aside, this photo effectively captures the emotions of “bush-meat orphans,” young gorillas whose mothers are illegally killed by poachers for meat, without showing face.

In case you wanted to put this awesome image as your desktop here’s a link for the highest resolution image, 1024×768.

Some sombering news of a mysterious epidemic that has decimated a population of chimpanzees in one of Africa’s most important research sites for the primates has come out yesterday.

The research site, Bossou Environmental Research Institute (IREB), is in southeast Guinea. The Bossou chimps are one of the oldest permanent colonies identified by researchers in the wild… these are the chimps are known for using stone hammers to crack open palm oil nuts. Here’s what the head of the chimpanzee investigation, Pepe Soropogui has to say about this epidemic,

“no more than 12 West African chimpanzees remain from a population of around 30 in 2002.”

Marie Claude Gauthier of the Jane Goodall Institute for wildlife research and conservation added,

“There are theories that some chimpanzees have contracted a sort of bronchitis or pneumonia probably transmitted by man, but we are not sure because chimpanzees have funeral rites and take away the bodies after death.”

Read more about it here, “Mysterious epidemic may be killing Guinean chimps.”

Suffice to say, I have neglected this blog for the last several months. My excuses, in case you were wondering, were working on the weekends, taking 24 quarter units (around twice the normal class load), and trying to keep my other blogs running.

But I’m back, and I have invited others to co-blog here to make it a group effort. I have bookmarked lots of pages during my hiatus, and will try and get those posted as soon as finals are over!

In the mean time, to our right is a shirt that advocates we vote monkey, and this campaign gets my full support.