Urban Squirrel Observation Essay

For instance, among the two hours of observation, the lemurs were huddling together without any grooming or other socializing behaviors. This might be attributed to the colder temperature in Madison than that in their native habitation, Madagascar, even with the help of the temperature controlling system in the zoo (though whether this is true or not would need more data collection to testify). The well-known sunbathing behavior of ring-tailed lemurs was also absent during my observation, and this might be due to their lack of access to sunlight in such an environment. Moreover, there are still many uncertain factors that were not included in the results such as the age of the primates, which might have attributed to long amount of time the primates spent resting. Further data would be needed to get a better understand of the differences in behavior between the captive ring-tailed lemurs and their wild

Rat infestations have swarmed throughout the world, looking for food, and spreading diseases, so of course people attempt to get rid of them. First off, they spread disease. It states in Source 1, “Around 60% of the rodents carry Weil's disease...” This quote states that the majority of all rodents, have Weil’s disease. That means that if you see a rat, it is probably infected with disease. This is incredibly dangerous for people walking the street, or someone without a home. That person who does not have a home, could get a disease very easily. The rats can carry disease and they can spread that disease, it even states in Source 4, “It was this rat which ushered in the Black Plague.” In this piece, they are speaking of Black Rats. These rats were probably one of the unlucky 60%, or it was a carrier something that was on them.

It is generally known that people can be more aggressive when they are not being watched by anyone or anything. This can

Given that, city rats are the same breed as a pet or lab rat, they can grow to about 16 inches and weigh up to a pound, moreover, their colonies can grow to 40 to 50 rats, and they have the habit of to travel in packs. In addition, when they reproduce, they can mate 20 times in six hours and female rats can give birth to 40 to 70 rats a year. Therefore, they are extremely difficult to kill and New York City, containing an underground subway system, empty lots, apartment complexes and lots of garbage, is the perfect environment for a massive reproduction of these undesirable animals.

success was found, behavioral isolation is very likely to have been the reason why. Our data supports this as well since the St. Kitts rodent spends 12.6 seconds during courtship display while the Nevis rodent spends 21.3 seconds, almost

The Thirteen-lined ground squirrel gets its name from having thirteen stripes running the length of this ground squirrel’s body. The adult Thirteen-line ground squirrel size ranges in length from 10 inches which includes a 3 inch tail. The average weight for these ground squirrels is about 8 ounces. It is a slender rat-sized rodent. Five light and four dark stripes extend along the top of the head and end at the eyes. The underbelly is thinly covered with light tan fur. The cheeks, sides of the body and the legs are yellowish. Each front foot has four toes with long digging claws. There are five toes on each back leg (Internet Center).

This paper aims to study the traits of non-human primates. By observing two types of primates including Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and Western Gorillas (Gorilla Gorillas), I try to find out their characteristics, pattern of their behavior, and differences between these two primate species. Especially, characteristics and behavior such as social interaction, food acquisition and intelligence will be discussed and compared in this paper. In order to enhance the persuasiveness of my observation, I recorded and examined at least 25 distinct characteristics of both Common Squirrel Monkeys and Western Gorillas. It is also helpful for me to compare these two primates. Apart from exploring the primates’ traits and differentiation between them, this paper will discuss the effects of captivity. How being in captivity and on display in a zoo would influence their behaviors and emotions? The observation was a great success and I have successfully derived with a hypothesis base on our observing data. The ultimate goal of this paper is arousing humans’ awareness of the importance of studying primates.

At times their normal behaviors might seem abnormal and aggressive but most of time they are just having fun among themselves and they mean no harm. Kicking and banging things could mean they are excited about someone or something and are very common. When they are nervous or frighten they usually show their gums and teeth. Grooming each other is an act of friendliness, respect and acceptance. In the wild, they live in social communities of large groups where hierarchical priorities are practiced; when assessing food during feeding and foraging activities rank of hierarchy is important.

Ancient Squirrel’s Nest Leads to Discovery of Giant Virus is a CNN article written by Jen Christensen. This article is about the discoveries of a fruit seed and virus that was found in a 30,000 year old squirrel’s nest. Protected by the permafrost, scientists in Russia were able to sprout the seed into a flourishing and flowering plant. Although the ancient seed was an interesting find, most the attention belongs to the virus. Buried 30 meters down was an inactive virus called mollivirus sibericum. Mollivirus sibericum is considered a giant virus, meaning that you can see it under a light microscope. It also has a large number of genes. Scientists believe that these viruses would be harmful to human health, but are not 100% sure yet. While

On Friday, March 31, a observation study was conducted at the L.A. Zoo. The time of arrival for the observation was at 11:48 am and the end of the observation was at 2:42 pm. The weather condition at the zoo was very sunny with a mild gust of wind every so often, which is a perfect weather condition to conduct a study. The main reason for conducting this observation study was to study and gather information about the many different types of primate that are located at the zoo. To see how different or similar each primate is to one anotherin different aspects.

Eating and foraging were similar events, but categorized differently. Eating was any time the monkey stayed in one location to eat. He could be sitting or standing. This was most notably seen when the monkey would grab a leaf or stick, climb up to a branch, and sit there while eating. Foraging was when the monkey would walk or climb around to look for food, occasionally eating what he found. The monkey we observed was seen foraging arboreally by picking at leaves through the fence and terrestrially, where he would sift through the grass or debris on the ground to find things to eat.

We investigated whether terrestrial behavior in titi monkeys is affected by study duration, group habituation, fruit availability, presence/absence of humans and predators, and forest height. Titi monkeys used the ground to perform many standard activities, such as resting, moving, feeding, and geophagy, as well as to disperse between forest

The cognitive-neoassociation theory of aggression, otherwise known as the negative affect theory, was proposed by the American social psychologist Leonard Berkowitz. The theory suggests that certain experiences, or affects, can contribute toward the onset of aggressive feelings or behaviour. These affects can range from weather conditions (e.g. high temperatures) to unpleasant external stimuli (e.g. odours and sounds). Concurrently, the theory advocates that merely observing different types of aggressive behaviour can prompt aggression within the viewer. Given these points, an intriguing question comes to mind: might the implications of this theory be that repetitive exposure to catalysts of aggression increases a person’s inclination to be confrontational?

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Los Angeles zoo on a beautiful, sunny Thursday (October 19th). Although I arrived off schedule which left a minimal amount of time to observe primates, I managed my time well. After being told that the larger animals get put away earlier, I figured my first stop would be at an ape enclosure. The ape I chose to see that day was the gorilla. The time that I began my observation was at approximately 3:05. At that time only one ape was quite visible and he was sitting at the front making eye contact with me making it seem as if he is HABITUATED. Next, post gorilla watching, I had the chance to take a gander at the ring railed lemurs at 3:40. These prosimians all had their own personalities which interested me deeply. Lastly, and certainly not least on my journey through the LA zoo, I had the chance of looking at the mandrills which were once classified as baboons. Considering that two baby mandrills were present and only a month old, this was my favorite exhibit to see because of their high energy and randomness of actions.

Immediately we ran to the tree, firing our guns as if we both were in an infantry fighting a battle. One, two, three squirrels were dropped out of the tree by our deadeye-aimed shots. As we gazed over the dead corpses, we contemplated the need to shoot these animals for no obvious reason. Was it our insatiable compulsion to shoot the guns or a morbid goal to shoot the squirrels on the run? Apparently it was an odd mixture of both cases. As guilty as we might have felt for shooting them, we searched for more life to murder.