I. Introduction:
The Allen’s Swamp Monkey is a “strong, stocky primate” covered in a gray and greenish fur. The toes and fingers of the monkey are webbed which allows them to swim well. The males are usually larger than the females and they are really active primates. Their origins can be traced from the Congo Basin to western Zaire. The habitat of the monkeys is limited to swamp forests. In behavior they are mostly active during the day and are tree-dwellers. Their diet consists of fruits, leaves, fish and insects. Little is known about their reproduction but it is said that females bear young for three months and they are mature after three to five years. Common predators include raptors, snakes, and bonobo, however, swamp monkeys can dive into water to avoid them. Swamp …show more content…
monkeys are in fact being endangered day by day. As they are hunted for their meat by humans. It unknown what population of swamp monkeys is left but in order to protect them zoo’s around the world are taking them into captivity and taking care of them to live a healthy and safe life.
II. Purpose: The significance of this research is to be informed and learn about animal behavior in a given amount of time by observing them in a focal or scan sample.
III. Prediction: As I have seen the Colobus Monkey in the same exhibit as Allen’s Swamp Monkey to be stationary, I believe that the swamp monkey will also be at rest more than moving around.
IV. Hypothesis: My hypothesis after realizing the independent (types of behaviors), dependent (behavior frequency), and standardizing (temperature and feeding time) variables is that the swamp monkey will be moving around more than resting.
V. Procedure: The observations took place at the Brookfield Zoo on September 8, 2014 around 11:30 a.m. in the Tropic World exhibit. This observation is a focal sample. We decided to choose the swamp monkey for the focal sample because of its small size compared to the other larger monkeys. We set up our ethogram by animal behaviors and animal behavior frequency. Then we set the stopwatch for 10 minutes for our pre-observations. In the pre-observations we observed behaviors such as: walking, running, grooming, climbing, jumping, shaking head, lying down, dragging objects, making noises, and playing with other monkeys. After the pre-observations we started the actual observation for 9 minutes and 30 seconds with 30 second intervals, tallying our findings by just focusing on the specific individual. In total twenty observations were made. In the behaviors we noticed the swamp monkey would quickly move from one end to another, it would climb steep rocks, and then rest without any interaction involved. Then suddenly the monkey would groom itself or groom another monkey and after that it might go play around with other monkeys or play by himself by jumping on the branches. After all the observations finally noted we moved on to the next exhibit.
VI. Data.
Pre-observations: In the pre-observations we observed behaviors such as: walking, running, grooming, climbing, jumping, shaking head, lying down, dragging objects, making noises, and playing with other monkeys.
Actual observations:
VII.
Discussion: The significance of this graph is that it exactly shows the number of times the animal did a specific behavior. It might seem like the swamp monkey rests more but in fact the number of times the monkey is doing an action is greater than the number of times it is resting. One can also learn from the behaviors of the swamp monkey that while it likes to be a strong individual the monkey also needs a group. If it’s playing around or grooming or even resting I have learned through the behaviors of focal sampling that the swamp monkey spends a fair amount of time in and out of a group. The reason being that when in a group the swamp monkey feels a bit more secure as he was very comfortable when grooming with other monkeys but as soon as he left he was always on his guard. Some things I could have done differently are that I should have observed the swamp monkey for just a bit longer. I learned that at times the monkey was doing one action constantly until he moved on to another action. Then it went back to that same action only after a great amount of time. So I think if I had observed it for a bit longer I could have gotten more accurate
results.
VIII. Conclusion:
Some things I have learned from this research is that animals tend to behave differently over a period of time. Also that in order for a behavior to count as a behavior it has to be recorded over intervals. I’ve learned that just because a Colobus monkey is lazy, it doesn’t mean that Allen’s swamp monkey is lazy as well. That not all monkeys have the same behavior even if their all primates.
My hypothesis was that the swamp monkey will be moving around more than resting and it is correct. While just looking at the graph one may say that the monkey rested more but in fact the number of times the monkey was doing some sort of action is greater than the number of times it was resting. To be exact the monkey rested only eight times while he committed an action eleven times. He ran three times, climbed twice, groomed five times, and played with other monkeys once proving that my hypothesis is correct.