Anthropology.net blogger German Dziebel sent me this link about the dim future of orangutans in Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia. Afarensis has also covered this news. The results of a new survey of orangutan populations have been published in the journal Oryx. I don’t have access to the early advance view of the paper, but [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Orangutan’
April 29, 2008
Orangutan from Borneo photographed using a spear tool to fish
Tool use among orangutans was first documented by Carel van Schaik. In 1994, Carel observed orangutans developing tools to help themselves eat, while conducting field work in Gunung Leuser National Park, in the northwest Sumatra.
Specifically the orangutans [...]
November 17, 2007
Nakalipithecus nakayamai, a Miocene Ape from Kenya
The collective understanding of Miocene African primate evolution, especially ape evolution, is generally unfounded. Why? Because the fossil record is spotty, there are only a handful of primates from the Miocene. The Miocene lasted from 23.8 to 5.3 million years ago, and a lot of interesting things happened in the ape lineage during that time. [...]
November 13, 2007
A New African Miocene Ape: Nakalipithecus nakayamai
In August, 2007 Gen Suwa and crew reported on a new Ethiopian Miocene Ape, Chororapithecus abyssinicus. And today, Kenyan and Japanese paleoanthropologists have published their study of a fragment of a mandible and 11 teeth, dating back to between 9.8 and 9.88 million years, which was found 2005.
The fossils were unearthed in volcanic mud flow [...]
September 7, 2007
Human & Non-Human Ape Social Cognition Compared: Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills
The web seemed to have exploded with news covering this hot-off-the-press open access Science paper, “Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills of Social Cognition: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis.” Before I jump into the paper, here are some news sources wrote about this paper:
Higher Social Skills Are Distinctly Human, Toddler And Ape Study Reveals - ScienceDaily
Children outsmart [...]
June 10, 2007
Spread the word, “Choose the right biofuel or the Orang-utan gets it!”
Being ‘green’ or ecologically conscious is making big waves in current popular culture, especially in the United States. Many initiatives, such as clean fuels and renewable energy, seem like excellent alternatives to our energy sources we predominantly use right now. This is generally a good thing.
But not all of these initiatives are ecological so great [...]
May 31, 2007
Quickie on Orangutan Bipedalism
Primatology.net has a sister site, if you don’t know already, and that’s Anthropology.net. This evening I put up a post there that may interest any one keen to primate locomotion and/or human evolution. The post is specifically on orangutan locomotion, specifically on how some researchers have observed a set of Sumatran Orangutans exhibit bipedal tendencies.
If [...]
May 28, 2007
Palm Oil Industry and the displacement of Orangutans
Before I jump into this article, I want to thank to Dave, one of our faithful visitors and commenters, who took the time to send us this Reuters news article on the current state of orangutan conservation. You should know already that orangutans are severely endangered, their populations are on the verge of genetic collapse, [...]
May 8, 2007
Rebuilding forests in an effort to save orangutans in Borneo
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 [...]
April 20, 2007
Keeping track of Primate Conservation
A new public database has been released that overviews the status of endangered and almost extinct animals. I feel like it is a critical and timely resource, especially in regards to primate conservation efforts.
The project is called EDGE, and currently lemurs are at the top of the most critically endangered primates on that list, and [...]
