We ain’t monkeyin’ around here.
Infanticide and cannibalism are two extreme behaviors seen in primates. Though extreme, the persistence of these behaviors in primates suggest that they are adapted for and had evolved to serve different purposes. Infanticide and cannibalism can be considered as both reproductive and survival strategies. Infanticide has always been associated with males killing off the progeny of former dominant males... Continue Reading →
Do you know that fossil primates once roam North America? I didn't know either so this discovery was a shock and a "d'oh" moment at the same time. Lingual view (side that touches the tongue) of Mescalerolemur horneri partial mandible. Scale bar equals 2 mm. Photo from Kirk & Williams (2011). Anywho ... A fossil... Continue Reading →
Last week, I blogged about the semantics of alarm calls in vervet monkeys. This post will focus solely on the ingenious experiment by Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney and Peter Marler (1980) to test whether vervet monkey alarm calls convey information or if these calls were just an uncontrollable auditory response to predators. Their question was simple; would vervet monkey alarm calls... Continue Reading →
Anti-predatory alarm calls are important for social animals to alert others of approaching predators. Without the presence of "language", some non-human primates are known to give out different predator-specific alarm calls to alert conspecific. These non-human primates include ring-tailed lemurs (Zuberbühler et al., 1999), white-faced capuchin monkeys (Fichtel et al., 2005), Diana monkeys (Zuberbühler, 1999), Campbell's monkeys... Continue Reading →
By Raymond Ho The genus Nomascus are one of the four genus that occurs in the Hylobatid family. Males have erect crown hair thus giving this genus its common name, crested gibbons. Crested gibbons are sexually dichromatic; males and females of the same species have different fur coloring and markings.The males tend to have black fur... Continue Reading →
By Raymond Ho Just in time to celebrate Monkey Day tomorrow, a new species of lemur is on the verge of being formally acknowledge in science. Primatologist Dr. Russ Mittermeien first spotted this species back in 1995 during one of his expedition to Daraina, Madagascar but said that he did not have any time to follow... Continue Reading →
Great news today here at Primatology.net. We made #1 in 20 Best Blogs for Primatology Students, a list compiled by Toponlinecolleges (yea, the name is quite spammy, I know). Although I've never heard of this site, they did a great job compiling the list. If anything, it's a good way to get a list of... Continue Reading →
By Raymond Ho While there are currently no images of living specimens of this new species available Fauna & Flora International has commissioned an artists impression of the new species in its habitat, based on field sightings and a carcass of the newly discovered species. Image from Martin Aveling/Fauna & Flora International. A team of... Continue Reading →
Slow loris by Frans Lanting. Photo from The Guardian. I must say, the idea of venomous primates never crossed my mind. While venomous species do exist in mammals, it is much more common in insects, reptiles and fishes. In primates, slow lorises (genus Nycticebus) are though to be venomous in Thai folklore (Wilde, 1972) but are they... Continue Reading →
An insightful paper published by Ross et al. (2010), compares zoo-living ape behavior inside their holding and exhibit areas in Lincoln Park Zoo, an accredited member of Association for Zoos and Aquarium (AZA). Zoo animals usually have at least two areas where they are housed (excluding some aquatic animals): the holding area and the exhibit area. During visiting hours... Continue Reading →
