Primatology.net

For you osteology buffs out there, I want to let you know about the Digital Morphology database, if you don’t already know about it. I actually didn’t know about it myself, until I read about an extinct platyrrhine, Tremacebus harringtoni, from Afarensis’ ‘know your primate‘ periodical. The Digital Morphology (DigiMorph) database currently has about 400 species listed. If you are wondering what the database specializes in, I think the name should give you a clue as well as my shout-out to all y’all osteologists… but here’s a more formal introduction from their website,

“Digital Morphology library is a dynamic archive of information on digital morphology and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography of biological specimens. Browse through the site and see spectacular imagery and animations and details on the morphology of many representatives of the Earth’s biota.”

This database is brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin, and is an excellent execution of organization and quality, structured content. I personally love this resource. I see it as a supplement to many fields.

I also personally appreciate it because I like to see biological data be shared freely. Databases like Genbank have paved the way for natural scientists and medical professionals to share genomic data and sequences. But their data is relatively more easy to share. Agreeing upon a uniform structure to share sequence data is straight-forward – a sequence is a sequence is a sequence. It’s really kinda hard to mess up sharing raw-text data.

But, databases that specialize in phenotypes or physical characteristics of living things have proved to be more challenging. Agreeing upon uniform data fields has become one of the major challenges because there is sooo much variation. If you think about, the only fields we could effectively really categorize some living things are the major distinctions between the three major domains. Secondly, is the logistical aspects of it. Many ways we could gather phenotypic data is locked away in many museums and institutions. Some have restricted access, and to overcome the bureaucratic loopholes to get access to a skeleton is almost as hard as agreeing upon a way to structure the database. Another logistical challenge is how to document the phenotype. Photographs may seem logical, but they aren’t. First come image resolution and photographic skills. These variables can ultimately affect quality control.

And that’s where the DigiMorph’s X-ray tomography comes in. Data is totally digital and uniform. It is not related to how the photographer stages the specimen nor the quality of the camera used.

So, I’m pretty sure you are wondering, after all this blabbering and cheerleading I have done, of what importance is this to you as someone interested in primatology?

Well, if you study functional anatomy, how an animal’s body form relates to its function in life, this database is for you… especially if you do not have access to a laboratory with comparative samples! For example, you can analyze the sexual dimorphisms between a male and female tufted capuchin skulls on your own computer. I’ve plucked two lateral views of each skull for you to give it a run. Ask yourselves what differences do you see between the male and female skull? If you can make these observation I think you can see how this database is pretty nifty — cuts out the hours spent with a caliper and sketching bones out in a lab that may not have what you need!

Anyways, I hope you also find DigiMorph useful. If you want to browse their primate collection, their mammals category seems to be the deepest taxonomic level to get to the monkeys, apes, tarsiers, etc.

One of our more popular posts of all time has been the photos of the tiger and orangutan friendships I shared with you several months back.

To rekindle that interest, I’ve come accross a Reuters news piece on a similar friendship… but this time it is between squirrel monkeys and giant South American rodents called capybaras. And it is all taking place in a Japanese Zoo, Tobu Zoo.

An interesting cultural sidenote, I was reading about capybaras last night and how in countries like Venezula and Brazil, the capybara is to Easter as turkeys are to the United States’ Thanksgiving. That’s because Catholics consider capybaras a fish, mind you, because they live in water and thus are not considered meat for Lent. Crazy, I know.

But I digress, the photo to our right is of one such compainionship between the two species. The news blip on this gets way too technical, hypothesizing whether this is a unique frienship or it can happen in the wild and injectures of meekness, etc. While both species inhabit South America,

“their paths do not cross — capybaras live on river banks while the monkeys live in forests.”

Read the rest of this entry »

In a effort to help save orangutans, Malaysian authorities are proposing a fund of 200 million ringgit (approx. 59 million US dollars) to rebuild the Ulu Segama-Malua forest in eastern Sabah state on Borneo island. The proposal covers work on 4,000 hectares of logged forests and 1,000 hectares of degraded forests (approx. total 12,355 acres).

It’s an exciting step in conservation efforts given the recent claims that orangutans could become extinct in the next 50 years without intervention.

The proposed plan is anticipated to be ready by late 2007.

A new study has changed the lives of seven mandrills for the better at England’s Chester Zoo. With the help of zoo staff, Durham University researchers found that placing shrubs between the glass enclosure and the visitor’s area reduced stress levels (as seen through aberrant behaviors) and increased natural behaviors.

Examples provided:

• approaching the glass
  • 54% decrease

• climbing and eating
  • 13% increase

• playing and grooming each other
  • 16% increase

Dr. Jan de Ruiter, Department of Anthropology, Durham University:

“We initially found some levels of stress among the mandrills. Their behaviour showed signs of anxiety and social tension. Visitors can further aggravate this stress as some people interpret the mandrills’ behaviour as amusing and start mimicking them.”

“As soon as the shrubs were positioned, we noticed an immediate improvement in the welfare of the mandrills, who displayed significantly less anti social behaviour. The botanical display also adds to the visitor experience as they gain a more natural impression of the type of environment in which the mandrills would be living in the wild in Africa.”

Makes sense doesn’t it?

As for visitors further aggravating the stress… as I’m sure many of us can, I can certainly vouch for that. Spending months observing behavior in the Monkey House at the Bronx Zoo, opened my eyes to the insensitivity of some individuals who feel it is acceptable to bang on the glass enclosure, yell at the animals, and egg them on in an infinite number of ways. While shrubbery won’t stop some people from being themselves, it sounds like it’s successfully keeping the distance and making life a little calmer for the mandrills. Excellent news.

Dr. Sonya Hill, Research Officer at Chester Zoo:

“This study shows that by measuring the behaviour of animals in their habitats, whether they be in the wild or in a zoo, we can understand their needs and preferences better. In this way, researchers can ‘ask’ the animals what they want. Zoos can then provide enclosures that aim to meet these needs and maintain good animal welfare. It is important to remember that life in the wild is not stress-free either, with factors such as predation, competition for food, and disease or injury, and as we learn more about each species we can understand what behavioural strategies they use to cope with their environment.”

The effort of the researchers has been recognized by UFAW (Universities Federation for Animal Welfare) and honored with the Wild Animal Welfare Award. The money awarded will be used for further animal welfare research at Chester Zoo.

Thanks to afarensis, I woke up this morning to find news that the very same chimps that use spears to hunt, have been observed to use caves during hot days, to avoid the heat. These chimpanzees live in a region of Senegal where it is mostly an,

“arid savanna habitat dominated by open grassland and sparse woodland. Chimpanzees in these areas exhibit a range of behaviors not found elsewhere.

Pruetz noted that cave use is just one of several strategies the chimpanzees use to cope with their difficult environment, where both shade and water are critical resources.”

Jim Moore, an anthropologist, from UC Davis takes this observation and asks,

“a whole set of questions, given that this behavior isn’t seen in other regions of Africa… ‘Are they right at the edge of what chimpanzees can handle in terms of temperature … or is it a cultural thing?’”

The National Geographic news article goes to quote a couple anthropologist/primatologists who state that this behavior hasn’t been observed in another ape species, but before we say this is a novel-pseudo hominid caveman behavior, let’s first remember many other species of animals, such as predatory cats retreat to caves and shade to avoid the heat. So when I read that, William McGrew of Cambridge University in England says,

“This is one of those cases in which the apes genuinely surprise us, exceeding our expectations and imaginations.”

I begin to question how much comparative analysis he has done, if any? Sometimes I worry that when people put out press releases like this, they over analyze a simple behavior, failing to see that most other species do retreat to caves and shaded cover to avoid the heat.

Don’t get me wrong, the combination of the spear usage and cave dwelling in this population of chimpanzees is borderline human behavior, but I believe spear using is more definitively a novel behavior, than retreating to caves to avoid the heat.

Exactly two weeks ago, I was standing in the Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico reading the latest Discover magazine interview with Jane Goodall. I was thoroughly captivated but it didn’t warrant me to spend the outrageously inflated airport prices for the magazine. I’m glad to share that Discover has put up the interview up on their site.

The interview answers a lot of basic questions about Jane Goodall’s research and life history with the chimpanzee’s of Gombe, with a lot of attention towards violence and behavior, as well as conservation efforts. There are some questions that make me wanna shake my head in embarrassment that a journalist would ask that. But I appreciate the following quote, because as you may have noticed, I’m currently involved in correcting a lot of reductionist misconceptions about non-human primates and their relates to humans:

“What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language. Chimps have something like the beginning of morality, but once you have language—once you can discuss something and talk about it in the abstract and take lessons from the past and plan for the future—that is what makes the difference.”

For those aspiring female primatologists out there, Jane also gives an insight into her life as a female scientist.

And here is a photo of Jane with Flint as a baby:

In an announcement today at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Philadelphia, Jim Westgate (Lamar University and University of Texas-Austin), Dana Cope (College of Charleston), and Chris Beard (Carnegie Museum of Natural History) shared their discovery of a new primate genus and three new primate species found in the Lake Casa Blanca International State Park in Laredo. The teeth used to identify the new species and genus (molar, pre-molar, and incisor) were found in 42 million-year-old swamp deposits of the Eocene age Laredo Formation. More information, including formal names, will be released in a future publication.

Coming from a graduate program where I had the opportunity to study humans as well as non-human animals, I sometimes became frustrated with the liberties that were (seemingly) allowed in research with humans, but not non-human animals. Namely the use of physiological markers (facial expressions in infants and young children) in identifying emotions. Emotion regulation studies have their fair share of critics just as behavioral research does, but as I sat through presentations with facial expressions being labeled as/associated with certain emotions, I couldn’t help but think about how unacceptable this would be if the subjects were non-human primates (that would have difficulty verbally expressing their feelings… just like infants and young tots).

As someone who believes facial expressions reveal important information (whether you’re human or not), you can imagine my excitement to see research involving a connection of facial expressions in human and non-human primates. An article from Yerkes National Primate Research Center newsroom, “Chimpanzee Facial Expressions Are Helping Researchers Understand Human Communication,” describes non-human primate facial expressions as complex and potentially helpful in understanding the evolution of human emotional communication.

Dr. Lisa Parr, Director of Yerkes National Primate Research Center Cognitive Testing Facility and Chimpanzee Core:

“This discovery is an important step to help researchers recognize facial movements and understand why they are important. While some expressions, such as a playful look, can be identified using a single feature, other expressions, such as when a chimp bares his teeth, require looking at numerous characteristics within the face, including the eyes and lips.”

“Sometimes it’s easy to read what people are feeling, but at other times, we have to look at multiple places on their faces. Ultimately, we want to better understand what people are feeling and expressing emotionally because it helps us empathize with one another.”

Parr created the Chimpanzee Facial Action Coding System in order to better examine the complex nature of facial expressions. Chimps were asked to examine and match 3D pictures of facial expressions. Sheila Sterk, Senior Animal Behavior Management Specialist elaborated on the process:

“After the chimpanzees matched similar images, we separated individual features of the original animated expression, such as a raised brow, by frame and pieced the frames back together to create a variation of the original expression. The chimpanzees then were asked to match the new expression to the original one. This is how we determined when the chimpanzees were using a single feature or if they needed more than one feature to match the similar expressions.”

(courtesy of Science Direct; photo credit to Yerkes National Primate Research Center)

Parr was scheduled to present the data of her research last weekend at the Mind of the Chimpanzee conference. I’m excited to read more about this research. If anyone sees any articles pop up, please spread the word.

On Friday, March 30th, the London Zoo will present a new enclosure to the public, Gorilla Kingdom (check out the website – there’s a fun little gorilla video clip in the header).

Effie, from Leipzig Zoo, joins Bobby and Zaire in an effort to recreate a natural gorilla harem.

The £5.3m project includes indoor and outdoor play areas where the gorillas will live with colubus monkeys.

(photo courtesy of BBC News)

(photo courtesy of BBC News)

Towards the end of last year we posted on the anticipated release of 200 orangutans from the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Center in Central Kalimantan to the protected Baktikop forest. Their departure provided more room for 48 new residents from Thailand (which recently became 50 new residents).

Willie Smits (Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Center) reports:

“Two of the orangutans have given birth, both to male babies”

It has been discovered, since their arrival at the Center, that many are dealing with tuberculosis and hepatitis. Fortunately,

“The mothers and the bab[ies] are healthy.”