Primate Observation Paper

I primarily observed three orangutans, one male, one female, and one juvenile, of Sumatran and Bornean descent, scientifically known as Pongo abelli and Pongo pygmaeus, respectively, and to a lesser extent, two gibbons known as siamangs, or Symphalangus syndactylus. These primates share the same enclosure in the San Diego Zoo in California. I observed the orangutans from 12:58 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. CST on September 19th. During this time frame, the three orangutans mainly stayed high up in their man-made structures, consisting of multiple metal bars covered with nets, ropes, and hammocks. The female and juvenile orangutans stayed above ground from 12:58 P.M. to 1:31 P.M., and again from 1:48 P.M. until 2:00 P.M, approximately 45 minutes. During

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.

The main method of socializing, according to my observation, is grooming. During the two-hour time period, these two gibbons spend almost an hour grooming each other. To be more specifically, the female gibbon groom, while the male one rest on a tree. What also astonishes me is that the female groom exactly the same spot on the male body. It might be like what the professor suggest: grooming may serve way more than the purpose of keeping hygiene because we expect a larger area of the body to be groomed. It should not for reducing anxiety or heart rate because humans do not seem to be a threat to them since they see the presence of us every day.

Male and female sitatungas may group differently. Sitatungas tend to be solitary animals.(2) Females might make loose herds, but the males may keep to themselves.(2) “Male and female sitatunga come together temporarily to form mating season.”

With the exception of humans chimpanzees use objects from their environment as tools better than any other living animals. Chimpanzees not only use tools, they combine them and use them in sequence , and create new tools. Most chimpanzee groups have tool kits that consists of twenty different tools. Tools in a tool kit are used for many functions like grooming,feeding,sociality and courtship. A tool set is a group of two or more tools that are used in sequence to achieve a goal. An example chimpanzees in Gabon use a tool set that is made of five tools (a collector,enlarger, perforator, pounder and swab) to get honey. Tools in a tool set must be used in the correct

But in large group, a sudden scatter of alarm primate competes for attention with the alarm call itself. In large group, individuals spend less time in scanning for predators, which simply mean they can dedicate their time in foraging.so collective action of some individuals may deter predators from attacking. For diurnal primate that lives in groups, sociality is an effective anti-predator strategy with includes detection, dilution and defense. Nevertheless, sociality also has costs like competition, contagion, inbreeding, infanticides etc. (van Schaik and Horstermann, 1994).

Direct female-female competition is an important feature of woolly monkey reproductive biology. Direct competition regarding reproduction among males was minimal despite the fact that females mated with multiple males. Relationships with females were similar in the sense that they were generally tolerant but non-affilitive; females often directed harassment toward copulating pairs.

Scientists have been studying primates for many year. Primatology helps anthropologists make inferences about the early social organization of hominids. (Kottak, 96) The three primates I recently observed at the Lowry Park Zoo are the Collared Lemurs, Mandrills, and the Bornean Orangutans. Each primate are categorized differently. The Collared Lemur (Eulemur collaris) is part of the prosimians. They are inhabited in one small protected area in Madagascar. The Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) belongs to the Old World monkeys whom are native in Malaysia. Lastly the Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is categorized with apes and they are native to the island of Borneo. Based on my observations, you can definitely recognize the difference between

They have distinctly high pitched alarm calls that signal the threat of predators that target their young. From the documentary, this specie seems to reside in both the dry forest and lush rainforests. They rely heavily on scent marking to identify their home range. Their locomotion is leaping from tree to tree. In terms of their young, the offspring suckles for three to months but as they grow, tend to explore more and more. When twins are born it indicates a rich supply of food. In particular, they eat mud from termite mounds for nutrition and forage on the ground eating spiders, and pods of trees, leaves, shoots, and

Monthly observation methods included the use of 10 x 40 binoculars to track orangutans for a total of less than fifteen hours. During one of these observation periods, researchers observed one orangutan using hooked branches in order to successfully travel a greater distance between two spans of trees. Another orangutan was observed stacking Erythrina leaves to create a protective pad for his hands. In order to detect patterns among orangutan populations, Fox also refers to previous

They have a population of less than 100. They have a life span of up to 60 years at the most and 30 years at least. They are a nocturnal animal. There biggest threat is water pollution. Their predators are humans, birds, and raccoons. They weigh from 181kg to 363 kg. they have scales and there colors are green, grey, black, brown, and yellow.

A place called helping hands is taming monkeys to perform lot’s of tasks says “Monkey Collage” Youtube.Some monkeys have improved more than others that have just started.When monkeys go places with their owners people are more comforted says “Animals

1998a). Despite the fact that they are found in rapidly outlined woods, they are found in subordinate fixations in these amazingly upset zones (Rosenbaum et al. 1998a). Peaked dark macaques dedicate their days moving, feeding, rummaging, blending, and unwinding. Of these endeavors, they invest 59% of their time relocating, searching, and sustaining and the remaining piece of their daytime is spent unwinding and standardizing (O'Brien & Kinnaird 1997). Socialization happens in the morning and twelve, and unwinding happens in the mid to late

Proboscis monkey showed variation in percentage of time spent feeding, resting and travelling in relation to different categories of height of tress (Boonratana, 2000). Groups usually sleep in one or several nearby tress (Yeager, 1990) and feeding peaks were in the morning and at dusk (Boonratana, 1993). They engage more in resting than feeding and moving when availability of fruit is scarce (Matsuda et al., 2009). Their foraging activity depends on weather, if it was raining and cold, they were normally not actively foraging but stayed in a stationary position, resting or sleeping (Kombi and Abdullah, 2013). They are very selective feeder (Bennett, 1986). They prefer to eat young leaves, fruits and soft part of the leaves by plucking, pulling,

As you explore the forest nature, you will see lots of golden figure shape that is swinging all the trees. They are called the golden snub nosed monkeys, and I think they are most beautiful primate that I seen so far. By watching this animal, you will outstand their natural habitats, locations, their behaviors