Primatology.net

As you may have noticed, the last book review posted on Primatology.net the other day, was not authored by me. In fact, it was authored by Ruben Blijdorp, a primatologist from Holland. He contacted me the other week expressing interest in helping out with this site. He has studied under Jan van Hooff and Liesbeth Sterck at Utrecht University and has conducted field work with the orangutans at Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia. He’s going to be pursuing his PhD soon and is really passionate about primates.

Ruben is going to act as an editor, contributing posts and upping the scientific context when needed. Since we’ve had many rogue commentors, he’s also going to help me keep the discussion threads on track and commentors well behaved. Usually, I post these sorts of introductions before the new members blogs, but I was flying all yesterday and just only got a chance to sit down and write this. Furthermore, I am very busy lately and often neglect this blog from time to time, so I’m really excited to have his help and look forward to reading what he has to add. I want to send off a warm welcome Ruben to Primatology.net, and hope you all do too!

In 1838 Charles Darwin jotted in a notebook, “He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.” Baboon Metaphysics is Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth’s fascinating response to Darwin’s challenge.

Cheney and Seyfarth set up camp in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they could intimately observe baboons and their social world. But Baboon Metaphysics is concerned with much more than just baboons’ social organisation- Cheney and Seyfarth aim to fully comprehend the intelligence that underlies it. Using innovative field work, the authors learn that for baboons, just as for humans, family and friends hold the key to mitigating the ill effects of grief, stress, and anxiety.

I wanted to ask all Primatology.net readers that live in or around the San Francisco Bay Area, or will be visiting to please consider attending a fun-filled evening of art, music and delicious food in support of the Gorilla Foundation. It will be held on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at the 111 Minna Street Gallery in San Francisco. Silent auction items include signed prints made by Koko, hotel stays, wine, restaurant gift certificates, museum and performing arts tickets, an exclusive Raiders package and a two hour-ride in the KGO jet helicopter around the Bay Area.

Proceeds will benefit the Gorilla Foundation, my previous employer, whose mission is to bring interspecies communication to the public. They also have programs to help save gorillas from extinction and inspire our children to create a sustainable future for all great apes.

Here are the details:

When:
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
6:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Where:
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street (cross street: 2nd Street)
San Francisco, CA

Advanced tickets are $15, and $20 at the door, please visit Koko.org/event for more details. I’d be attending if I were in town, but unfortunately I’ll be flying out that morning and unable to make it. But I ask that you attend, food will be provided by Pasta Pomodoro, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Joseph Schmidt Confections and music will also be played. Sounds like a great fundraiser and I’m bummed I can’t make it.

VBS.TV producers were so concerned with the mass gorilla slayings that happened a year ago in Virunga, that they went to Bwindi, in southern Uganda, and made a three part documentary on mountain gorillas. It is titled, “Gorillas in the Midst.”

VBS.TV's Gorillas In The Midst

They’ve put up their show for everyone to watch online. If you don’t know much about the problems with conservation efforts in Uganda, I recommend you watch because they also touch on the political conflicts and controversial issues that looms over the conservation efforts.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are 1 base pair differences in the genetic code when compared to same sequence from another individual. Many population geneticists who study human genetics compare and contrast SNPs between different populations to understand ancestry and genaology. A new database of non-human primate SNPs, MonkeySNP, has been recently released, and was announced in the journal Bioinformatics.

I don’t regularly announce such news, but I consider this a pretty significant tool for any researchers who are studying primate diversity. As you may know many primate species are severely endangered and any successful conservation effort requires an understanding of the genetic diversity of the surviving population. This database will help currate this genetic diversity.

But the database is rather limited right now. Only 827 SNPs are listed, and are only macaque SNPs. I’m hopeful that as the genes and genomes of more primates species and individuals are sequenced this database will grow. In the mean time, I suggest you bookmark this site and keep an eye on it.

S. Khouangsathiene, C. Pearson, S. Street, B. Ferguson, C. Dubay (2008). MonkeySNP: a web portal for non-human primate single nucleotide polymorphisms Bioinformatics, 24 (22), 2645-2646 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btn493