After reading the introduction and first chapter of Primates of Park Avenue I have came to the conclusion that the author, Wednesday Martin, was very interesting in her way of using her knowledge of the habitants of Park Avenue to incorporate it into her “anthropological expedition”. The unusual norms of this subculture that Martin reveals to me as the reader really caught my eye. The fact that she moved from Michigan into the Upper East side shows thats her opinion on the Park Avenue society is authentic. The way Martin uses her expertise in anthropology to take in all of what is going on around her once she moves to this area provides a more detailed and understanding way of who these people are. The anthropological perspective clearly…
Four factors that limit the primate’s diet is plant defense, the reproduction status of a female, seasonality, and competition. Plants can use physical barriers to stop animals from eating them. For example, some plants will use thorns others will use certain substances that make digestion difficult, resulting in small quantity conception. Female primates who are pregnant require more calories, meaning they need to obtain more food. If they are lactating they require 50% more calories compared to when they are not breastfeeding or pregnant, according to the online lecture of Primate Ecology. Seasonality proves as a challenge due to food sources becoming scarce. Depending on their location primates may look at small sources that have calories that will help their dietary needs. Lastly, competition will occur when there is a small supply of food primates will compete. Once they begin to compete for the primate who cannot defend itself might not be able to obtain any food.…
The sciencemag.com article “Anti-Alzheimer’s Gene may have Led to the Rise of Grandparents” by Kelli Whitlock Burton talks about the how the protective variant of the CD33 gene may explain why humans have grandmothers that help with child rearing. The article explains the “grandmother hypothesis” that says humans live such long and healthy lives even after they are no longer able to reproduce because they help with child rearing. The CD33 gene plays a big role in Alzheimer’s disease and scientists Ajit Varki and Pascal Gagneux discovered that there are two variants of it: a protective allele and a damaging one.…
Either the Heron or Hawk and fish populations in the salt water marshes are a prime example of a predator-prey relationship; the heron finds its prey by walking or “waddling” through the shallow waters of the marsh and catching fish by striking them with the birds long neck and beak, swallowing the fish whole; and the Hawk with its powerful wings flies down and grabs the fish right out of the water (Also helping to control the area’s fish population.)…
Summary Response In the article “Of Primates and Personhood” written by Ed Yong, demonstrates major developments between primatologist, biologists, and ethicists around the world. These major developments are a pending spanish law that would grant unprecedented protection toward great apes; Also, a recent extension to a swiss law that protects the dignity of organisms, and to redefine the meaning of human rights, and indeed whether such rights are the exclusive domain of humans. Furthermore, the Great Ape Project (GAP) has been established (1993). Not everyone had been comfortable with the GAP’s project, says Yong;…
Before Jane Goodall’s discovery scientists believed that non-human primates lived simple life. It turns out that they are highly intelligent, emotional creatures that live in complex societies. This new discovery lead people to feel compassion and concern for the animals. Leakey’s once said “new we must redefine tool, redefine man, or consider chimpanzees as humans”. We now see that we are not alone with being advanced that there are other non-human primates that also are advancing.…
Bruce Bowers article, “Fossils hint at India’s crucial role in primate evolution” published in September of 2016, gives the theory of how certain bones excavated from a coal mine in India resemble the first primates from as early as 65 million years ago (). This article states how these bones approximately reveal how a common ancestor would look like and act. Researchers believe that since having the qualities of both superfamilies, Adapoidea and Omomyoidea they left behind a large quantity of different skeletal traits. With the idea that the evolution of primates and their relatives occurred on an isolated island of idea then spread, that gives them the time to evolve and have the specific bone structure and abilities that key them into being…
Primate socio-ecology varies and has different determinants that decide many different characteristics. As a virtual paleontologist, we discovered two different sites and skeletal remains in Kenya and deductively reasoned their mating habits, group size, and several other characteristics about the Praeanthropus dimorphicus and the Praeanthropus monomorphicus with what I know about primate socio-ecology. Based on my prior knowledge, logic, and reasoning, by looking at skeletal remains we are able to deduce many different features included in primate socio-ecology for these two different species that include: group size, diet, mating system, habitat, and finally ranging behavior and territoriality.…
In the Ecological footprint lab I had learned that my family uses a lot of resources, goods and etc. In some parts of the calculations for the ecological footprint my family would either use less and in some parts of the footprint my family would use more of. That my ecological footprint is 5.6 hectares. 5.6 hectares is about 14 acres. Just for the goods, housing, food, transportation, services and waste my family is spending about 56,285. My ecological footprint is high, and my family, including me should not be using as much items, or spending money on waste, when we do not have to. Exactly what is an ecological footprint?…
The book A Primate’s Memoir by Robert M. Sapolsky takes the reader into the everyday life of a baboon. What Sapolsky was able to do was give insight in the everyday life of a baboon and we as the readers cannot help but compare and contrast the similarities and differences we have in common with these animals. Whether it is mating, fighting, competing, friendship or even mating we can all find similarities and differences. The book is filled with different stories taking and explaining the different personalities of each baboon in the tribe. By reading the book we as the readers are able to distinguish how closely similar or different we are to the baboons described by Sapolsky. With all of the different personality each baboon has, every single reader can surely relate to a baboon living in the tribe, due to the variations that is possessed within the tribe. Just like humans, the different personality each baboon has plays an important factor in their hierarchy as well as their mating success. Although not everyone agrees that humans and baboons are very much the same due to the difference in language and appearance, it is amazing how similar the two parties think and go about our everyday lives.…
The first type of primate I observed was a Bolivian Grey Titi Monkey which is a type of new world monkey species found in areas of eastern Bolivia and also can be found in Brazil. The scientific term for this species is Callicebus donacophilus. These types of monkeys have medium sized body structures and do not exhibit sexual dimorphism between male and females. The Grey titi monkey is diurnal making them mostly active during the day. They are also arboreal, which means that this species spends most of its life living in the trees. I noticed that this type of monkey is able to travel around on the ground and move throughout the trees very quickly. Since they are able to move around so quickly and have a sustainable life in the trees, I think that is how they avoid potential predators or larger animals that would be a threat on lower levels. The form of locomotion that they mostly use is walking, using all four limbs to support their bodies, which makes them quadralpedlic. Their diet primarily contains of fruits, leaves and insects that they forage by searching on the ground and using their hands to reach in the trees to obtain it. There is a strong bond between adults mating pairs. Evidence of the bond was observed through their behavior and proximity of the pair, while resting on a branch, I observed the pair with their tails intertwined with one another. When separated to communicate within the small range of their cage, I noticed that both used high pitch squeaks to call and find their partner. While observing…
Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.…
Researchers have proposed two major mental map representations of space in non-human primates. In a route-based or topological spatial representation map, primates have ideal pathways that they make use of repeatedly. Route-based makes also consist of discrete chosen landmarks as reference points to arrive at numerous locations from distinct directions (Urbani, 2009). In comparison, euclidean (coordinate-based) spatial maps are more technical depictions of ecological features. The mental representation of these features are said to encode an x and y coordinate scale that is fairly precise (Garber and Dolins, 2014). Moreover, landmarks are points, features or olfactory cues in the environment used…
To compare the distinctive features of primate parenting, we first need to know what they are. Primate parenting features including, feeding their offspring, along with teaching them vital skills in order for them to obtain their own food. An example of this would be the variety of tool using, or culture, used by several primates (using rocks to crack open nuts, or using a branch to get ants and consume them) not only demonstrate the learning ability of these creatures, but also the importance that parenting has when dealing with the development of the offspring. Apart from the learning behaviors that are thought to the offspring, other distinctive parenting features come into play, for example primates usually give birth to more than one offspring…
Dutch primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal once questioned, “If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee's eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?” Waal’s insightful query brings into focus the idea that we, humans, are all essentially “animals” with thoughts and behavioral traits that are unique to us. Moreover, he compares us to chimpanzees—a primate—for the reason that they are “intelligent” and “self-assured,” not unlike humans. However, despite the countless similarities between nonhuman primates and human beings, numerous species of “monkeys” are used in animal testing. Cruelty Free International defines animal testing as “any scientific experiment or test in which…