Gorilla Protection links us up to an excellent report done by Al Jazeera on the threats to mountain gorillas. It's a bit long, but it is really well done. Before you check out the video, another dead gorilla has been found.
Baby Macaque and White Pigeon make friends
With all the depressing news of gorillas being slaughtered and primates being brought closer to extinction, I wanted to share this photograph of an abandoned baby macaque, who was taken in by an animal hospital in Goangdong Province, China. He was very lonely until he made friends with a white pigeon. In many cultures, the... Continue Reading →
Male Chimps solicit fruit to Female Chimps for sex
A PLoS One study of chimpanzees at Bossou in Republic of Guinea, shows that the male chimpanzees raid farms and orchards for fruit that they steal and bring back to the females. In exchange, the males shared their fruity booty with the females in a food-for-sex trade. The photo to your right shows one of... Continue Reading →
Why do monkeys pee on their feet?
The American Journal of Primatology has published a paper by primatologist Kimran Miller and colleagues, who studied urine washing behavior among a population of capuchin monkeys. Prior to this study there have been some wild claims as to why so many monkeys pee on themselves. Some of them are: Peeing one oneself helps the monkey... Continue Reading →
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Ad: Gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”
Pattty, one of our regulars, emailed me with this hilarious advertisement involving a man dressed up as a gorilla and rocking out to Phil Collins. I'm pretty sure it will liven up your Monday blues.
Chimpanzees flip thru magazines to distract themselves
Right on the heels of yesterday's two primate psychology posts involving chimps comes news that captive chimpanzees have been observed to flip through National Geographic magazines that calm them down. I wouldn't have found this if it weren't for Neatorama's post. The observations have been written up and published in Biology Letters. Here's the paper,... Continue Reading →
URGENT! Inti Wara Yassi Wildlife Refuge in Bolivia needs our help!
I don't normally make out pleas to help out each and every conservation organization but my friend Allison, who worked for the following organization, told me about what's happening to it and this one is really serious. First some background, the conservation organization is speak of is the Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi, a wildlife refuge... Continue Reading →
Nonhuman Primates Expect Rational Behavior
From this news release, is this Science paper, "The Perception of Rational, Goal-Directed Action in Nonhuman Primates" where Justin Wood of Harvard's Psychology department and colleagues., figure out that primates expect one another to act rationally. How? Well Wood and crew setup two sets of experiments that tested the behavioral response of over 120 primates,... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Vanessa Woods Has a New Blog! Check It Out!
Vanessa Woods, whom we've mentioned on Primatology.net before, has started a new blog titled, "Bonobo Handshake," where she will document her current research trip to study endangered bonobos in Congo. She'll be writing from Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary. There are already a number of awesome blog posts where she documents the her field research. I've... Continue Reading →