Latest Primate Stories
A recent study shows that, over the last two decades, areas with the greatest decrease in African great ape populations are those with no active protection from poaching by forest guards. Recent studies show that the populations of African great apes are rapidly decreasing. Many areas where apes occur are scarcely managed and weakly protected. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have carried out an international collaborative project...
Sharing food has widely been considered by scholars as a defining characteristic of human behavior. But a new study by Iowa State University anthropology professor Jill Pruetz now reports that chimpanzees from her Fongoli research site in Senegal also frequently share food and hunting tools with other chimps. Co-authored by ISU anthropology graduate student Stacy Lindshield, their study is posted online in Primates and will be published in a future issue of the journal. The researchers...
Ravens use their beaks and wings to point and hold up objects in order to attract attention, much like humans use our hands to make gestures, according to a new study by German and Austrian experts. The study is the first time researchers have observed such gestures in the wild by animals other than primates, suggesting that ravens (Corvus corax) may be far more intelligent than previously believed. Simone Pika from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Thomas Bugnyar from the...
If you are a male human, nothing puts a damper on romantic success like having your mother in tow. If you are a male northern muriqui monkey, however, mom's presence may be your best bet to find and successfully mate with just the right girl at the right time. In a study of wild primates, reported this week (Nov. 7, 2011) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist Karen B. Strier describes a monkey society where equality and...
The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals, Sun Yat-Sen University, and BGI, the world's largest genomic organization, announced that they were among the research organizations from China, US and UK comprising an international research group that completed the genome sequence and comparison of two non-human primate animal models - Chinese rhesus macaque and cynomolgus. The study is published today online in the journal Nature Biotechnology. This study marks an important...
From hot pink to traditional French and Lady Gaga's sophisticated designs, manicured nails have become the grammar of fashion.But they are not just pretty "” when nails appeared on all fingers and toes in modern primates about 55 million years ago, they led to the development of critical functions, including finger pads that allow for sensitive touch and the ability to grasp, whether it's a nail polish brush or remover to prepare for the next trend.In a new study co-authored by University...
With the aim of better protecting endangered species, game wardens are studying the behavior of surviving great apes in the wild. This is often painstaking work because it is difficult to distinguish between different individuals. A new software system will make things easier by analyzing the animals' faces for individual identification.The pictures from the video trap are highly encouraging. A strong young male gorilla appears several times "“ in a tree, moving through the forest, at a...
An international team of scientists, with Spanish participation, has shed light on cannibalism and infanticide carried out by primates, documenting these acts for the first time in the moustached tamarin (Saguinus mystax). The mothers, which cannot raise their infants without help from male group members, commit infanticide in order to prevent the subsequent death of their offspring if they are stressed and in competition with other females."Infanticide is an extreme behavior, and in...
Almost universally, red means stop. Red means danger. Red means hot. And analyzing the results in the 2004 Olympics, researchers have found that red also means dominance. Athletes wearing red prevailed more often than those wearing blue, especially in hand-to-hand sports like wrestling.Why? Is it random? Is it cultural? Or does it have evolutionary roots? A new study of male rhesus macaques strongly suggests it's evolution. "The similarity of our results with those in humans suggests that...
Physical anthropologist Chris Kirk has announced the discovery of a previously unknown species of fossil primate, Mescalerolemur horneri, in the Devil's Graveyard badlands of West Texas.Mescalerolemur lived during the Eocene Epoch about 43 million years ago, and would have most closely resembled a small present-day lemur. Mescalerolemur is a member of an extinct primate group "“ the adapiforms "“ that were found throughout the Northern Hemisphere in the Eocene. However, just like...
Latest Primate Reference Libraries
Geoffroy’s tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi) is a small primate that is native to Colombia and Panama. Its other common names include the rufous-naped tamarin, the red-crested tamarin, and the Panamanian tamarin. It can be found in many different habitats including dry, moist, tropical, and secondary forests. In Panama, it occurs in the central and eastern regions, but is found less on the Atlantic coast. It can be found in Metropolitan Natural Park as well as an urban park with its Panama...
The white-headed Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) is a New World monkey that is native to Central America, as well as the far northwestern area of South America. It is also known as the white-faced capuchin and the white-throated capuchin. Its Central American range includes Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. Reports have shown that it may occur in southern Belize and eastern Guatemala, but these reports have not been confirmed. Its South American range is limited to the northwestern area...
Campbell’s mona monkey (Cercopithecus campbelli) is a primate that can be found in many areas including the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, and Liberia. Its other common names include Campbell’s monkey and Campbell’s guenon. In 2009, studies revealed that this monkey might have advanced communication skills. It previously held Lowe’s mona monkey as a subspecies. Campbell’s mona monkey appears on the IUCN Red List with a conservation status of “Least Concern”. Image Caption:...
The Ugandan red colobus (Procolobus tephrosceles) is a primate native to Africa. It is an Old World monkey that was not classified as its own species until 2001. Its range includes five areas of Uganda and Tanzania that equal 621.3 miles. These areas include the edge of Lake Victoria in Tanzania and Kibale National Park in Uganda, where the largest population is thought to be located. The preferred habitat of this monkey depends on its location, and it some areas, sustainable habitat is...
The collared mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus) is a species of primate in the Old World monkey family. Its other common names include the red-capped mangabey and the white-collared mangabey, which allows for some confusion with the sooty mangabey. The collared mangabey is native to Africa, with a range including western Nigeria extending into south and east Cameroon. It can also be found through Equatorial Guinea and from Gabon to the Gabon-Congo border near the Atlantic shore. The collared...
