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Primate Report
For my primate report, I have chosen the following primates for observation Cotton top tamarin, Debrazza's Monkeys, Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, and White Cheek Gibbons. Through this assignment I have acquired much knowledge on the locomotion, feeding behavior, special senses, and social behavior of primates, as well as these attributes of human behavior.
I.Locomotion
Cotton Top Tamarin Saguinus Oedipus
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The Cotton Top Tamarin is a New World Monkey that lives in the tropical rainforests of Northern Columbia. It weighs less that 1 lb. This animal is arboreal and diurnal. The animals that I observed were two females in the gallery section of the Regenstein Small Mammal House. Following my observation of these two females, I learned that there were three additional cotton top tamarins in the "tropical" section of the house.
The individuals that I observed were two small females. Their backs were a reddish brown. Their tails were approximately a foot in length. The tail is reddish brown as well, with the last six to eight inches black. The crests of these animals are white, as is the mane-like hair surrounding their faces. Their faces are very small. The noses on these animals are flat, indicating that they are platyrhine animals. The flat nose is an indication that they are New World Monkeys. Their legs and feet are a yellowish color. I did not observe any substantial differences in the size of the two females, suggesting to me that they are approximately the same age. Their limbs are relative to body size. The cotton top tamarin is roughly the size of an kitten.
Their habitat in the wild is a rainforest. However, in my observations, the habitat in the zoo (in the Gallery at least) is not representative of their natural habitat. The habitat I observed consisted of rock like structures on the bottom, branches throughout the display, and a few dead leaves on the branches. There are no dimensions posted, but I estimate the habitat to be 10 feet wide by 15 feet tall. Although these animals occur in rainforests in the wild, I saw no source of water in the habitat.
The cotton top tamarin moves by four limb locomotion. Their backbones stay parallel to the ground as they move across the branches. I did not see any leaping from branch to branch. They use their hands and feet to grasp the branch that they are moving on. I did observe one of the females using its upper body strength to pull up to a higher branch. These animals have a tail as noted above; however, they do not use their tails in locomotion. The tails probably serve as a balance mechanism since they do not use them in locomotion. The animals seem to know which of the branches in the habitat can support their weight since they avoid the smaller weaker looking branches.
These animals were napping much of the time that I observed them. They curled up their tail underneath their bodies and sat very near one another while resting. I did see some grooming as well as food sharing. One of them went so far as to take the food from the other's mouth. The female that had the food "stolen" did not make any aggressive moves to retrieve the stolen food. She simply let her friend take the food from her mouth and dropped the chow to the ground.
II.Feeding Behavior
Debrazza's Monkeys Cercopithecus neglectus
The primates that I have chosen for this section of the report are the Debrazza's Monkeys. These animals live in Africa, residing in swamp and mountain forest areas of Central Africa. They live in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Cameroon. They eat primarily fruit, supplemented with seeds, mushrooms, flowers, and insects. They live in either male/multi-female groups or paired couple and offspring groups. Males are said to be fiercely protective and will aggressively defend their territory.
The group of Cercopithecus neglectus that I observed consisted of a family of three mother, father, and baby. The baby was born on June 4, 00. These monkeys are larger than the cotton top tamarin. The weight of these animal range from up to 16 lbs for males and females average lbs. The length ranges from 16 to 5 inches. They have round black-brown heads with a long white beard, white muzzle, and an orange crown. They have white stripes on their rumps and thighs. The most obvious indicator of sex was the fact that the female had large breasts. I am unsure whether or not the baby is still nursing. The tails of this animal are quite thick and long. They do not have a prehensile tail. The mother moved by four limb locomotion, whereas the baby moved by four limb locomotion as well as leaping around the habitat. These animals do not move by brachiating, yet they can be observed leaping from one rope to the next.
The habitat of these monkeys is larger than that I observed for the first section of the report. By estimate, it is 0 to 50 feet in length and 0 feet high. The habitat includes many ropes, rock caves, a pool of water, and dead trees. The walls are painted to look like more rock as well as a baby blue sky. The numerous ropes and bars dominate the habitat. The monkeys are semi-arboreal, and the ropes probably make the monkeys feel at home despite the fact that there are no trees in the habitat. The particular animals may be from the drier climatic geographic range in which Debrazza's Monkeys are found.
The baby was the one that did most of the eating while I was there. These animals do not eat directly from the bowl. It appears that a box of food is set out for them and they forage throughout the day. I did not see them eating from the box. It seems as if they drop food throughout the habitat and simply find it later and consume it. The baby held the fruit in its hand and took small bites. The fruit appeared to be a mango. The fact that the monkeys are being given fruit is consistent with the foods they eat in the wild. The baby looked at the fruit before eating it, seeming to "choose" which part it wanted to eat. I did not observe the baby nursing, yet one can ponder the possibility that it continues to nurse based on the size of the mother's breasts. Later on, it picked up a celery stalk like food and pulled it apart before holding it in its hand and taking bites of it. I suspect that it was trying to find the "juiciest" part to eat rather than eating the dried out edges. While it was eating the stalk, it got some of it stuck in its teeth. The young monkey used his fingernails to dig it out, just as a human would do.
The male of the group basically sat in a corner of the display and was seemingly chewing on nothing. However, upon further research of these monkeys, I discovered that C. neglectus have cheek pouches for food storage. Possibly the father was holding some food in his cheek pouch. I am not certain. Prior to realizing that these primates have cheek pouches, I wondered if he was regurgitating his food, or if the motion was a display of aggression. Throughout my time observing these monkeys, he continued this same motion.
The female of the group did not eat much of anything. She picked up a piece of paper at one point and smelled it. The monkey realized that it was not a food source and dropped it. One of the few times she did eat, she shared with her offspring the piece of fruit when it came up to her. This act did not appear to be an act of kindness. The baby just approached her and took a piece of the fruit and she allowed him to take it.
Basically, these animals appear to forage for their food. I am sure that in the wild, food consumption is the only daily task, and these animals in captivity exhibit the same behavior. During my observations, the animals moved about their habitat, found food, ate it, and went to rest.
III.Special Senses
Black and White Ruffed Lemur Varecia variegate
For this section I have chosen the lemur to observe. The lemur is a prosimian. Prosimians are interesting to me because they are the furthest primate to hominoids. Before observing these animals, I knew that they are supposed to focus more on olfactory sense than on vision. I wanted to observe this phenomenon in person.
The black and white ruffed lemur has a total length of about 110 cm. These prosimians are the largest animal I have observed for this project. They have black fur on the chest, tail, face, and top of their heads. The feet are white as is around the ears. These animals use four limb locomotion. They live in Eastern Madagascar, as do all prosimians. They reside in rainforests, and are primarily arboreal. They eat fruits, flowers, and leaves.
The habitat is fairly large,15 feet long and 0 feet tall, by estimate. There is a tree stump with many branches coming out of it. There are a few ropes in the habitat as well as a hollow piece of tree. This habitat has the most live vegetation that I have observed in the whole project. There is also a stream of water.
The noses on these animals are quite prognathic. This is a visual indicator that the animal relies on his sense of smell to gather information. My observations reflects that while the lemur uses his sense of smell, vision and hearing also play a role in this animals perception of the world around him. As soon as I settled in to watch the lemurs, they decided it was naptime. As I was running short on time, I could not allow this. So I took a coin and began tapping on the glass (gently, of course) to get and keep their attention.The lemurs both immediately responded to the noise that I was making. Another strategy I used to gauge their sense use was to walk back and forth in front of the glass. They followed me with their eyes. I then stuck my tongue out at them and they simply looked at me, seeming to think that I was crazy. When moving through their environment, I observed one of the lemurs sniffing the branch as he moved about on all four limbs. This leads to the conclusion that lemurs rely on more than just smell alone to gather data. The focus, when moving, is on smell since they cannot clearly see the branches and ropes that they are moving on. From talking with a zookeeper, I learned that different scents are also sprayed onto the branches to stimulate the animals. Possibly the lemur just caught a scent that he did not recognize and had to stop and check it out.
IV.Social Behavior
White Cheek Gibbon Hylobates concolor
I have found the gibbon to be the most interesting, active primate during this whole assignment. This animal is the closest relative to humans represented at Lincoln Park Zoo. Like humans, it is an anthropoid, catarrhine, hominoid creature. Physically, the gibbon is tailless like humans. The gibbon splits from humans at the family level. Humans belong to the great apes and the gibbon is also an ape. The gibbon is a hylobatid, whereas humans are of the hominid family.
The white cheek gibbon exhibits dichromatism. Both sexes are born a buff color, and both turn black at about six months old. The white cheek gibbon is so named since the cheeks turn white by about two years of age. At the age of sexual maturity, usually around six to eight, the females turn buff once again while the cap remains black.They are 18 to 5 inches tall and weigh about 15-0 pounds. Their arms are significantly longer than their legs because these apes move by brachiating.The gibbons are not sexually dimorphic in size, although among the family that I observed, the female seemed larger than the male. This could be caused by the fact the male/father, who is named Caruso is extremely more active than is Burma, the female/mother.
The gibbons live in Laos, Vietnam, and Southern China. They have a home range of about 75 to 100 acres and travel about a mile a day throughout this range. They are arboreal creatures, who move by brachiating, which is a very quick way to get where they need to go. Gibbons can travel at speeds up to 0 mph. The habitat of the gibbons was only the second largest that I saw while at the zoo. It is filled with ropes so that the animals can get around. There are also rocks, straw, and a pool of water. By estimate, the habitat is 50 feet across and 5 feet high. Food is dumped and the gibbons forage throughout the day. Burma has her corner that she can go to when she does not feel like being watched. Burma is a relatively new mother, and perhaps this corner was where she took the baby off of public display. I observed them late in the afternoon softening up the chow by first dropping it in the water. Caruso would drop food into the water and the baby would come take it. I did see some minor irritation in Caruso, but he did not attack his son when he took his food.
The gibbons are an interesting subject for interaction. Caruso has been on public display for most of his life. He likes to "perform" for people. Burma, on the other hand prefers to stay back in her corner whenever people approach the viewing window. She only comes out to feed and move about a little bit. Caruso puts on a show for the people watching him. Therefore, it is easier to watch Caruso and his son interact than it is to observe the mother son relationship.
. Caruso seems to be irritated by the little one more than anything. The baby likes to aggravate his father. Baby will chase dad around, and dad almost seems to be a little intimidated by him. Caruso will go up to the top corner and hang on the wall ledge to escape his son. When baby really gets on his nerves Caruso will attempt to strike him. The baby then runs back to his mother for protection and comfort. The baby will suckle, even though Burma has stopped producing milk. He does this for comfort.
These animals interact with each other as well as the public to some extent. Caruso is defiantly the showman of the family, though baby is pretty active with the public as well. Caruso will swing back and forth, sometimes with his back to the glass. When he does this, he looks around to see if you are still watching him. He will zip through the ropes as long as there is someone there to watch him. During my observations, I stood right up by the glass. Caruso came down to the ground to check me out. He made some high pitch noises and showed me his teeth a few times. Gibbons, at least this group, have a playful side. The baby chased his dad around. Caruso likes to sneak up on you. He would wait until I had looked away to approach the window and hit it on his way to the ground. While I was there at the glass, Caruso came up and sat down and I got a good look at his feet. His big toe is set far from the rest of his toes. I believe this is a biological advantage for their form of locomotion.
V.Conclusions
Primates are good to study because they belong to the same order that we as humans do. Aspects of their behavior can be found in human behavior. For example, the baby Debrazza's Monkey "choosing" which bite he wanted first. Many humans do not simply pick up a food and consume it without even considering it first. All animals check out their food before eating it, but humans, as well as some monkeys will examine the food and pick what is best to the individual to eat. Another aspect of shared behavior is the fact that the primates I observed are more tolerant of their young than I would have expected. Both fathers that I saw with their children exhibit some patience. Eventually, as any parent, they lost their temper and lashed out at the children. The kids immediately ran to mother after such a confrontation. These animals definitely take an interest in the well being of their offspring.
Humans differ from these primates in many ways. We walk bipedally, whereas the other primates usually use either four limb locomotion or a specialized form of movement like brachiating.We interact with one another in a more complex manner. Yet quite a few of behaviors are shared. Studying primates is a good way to understand early hominid behavior. Humans have bigger brains, and therefore a great deal more information can be stored. Interpretations of the world can be made due to our large brains. We have developed complex languages and communicate with each other on a deeper level. Yet when it comes to living in basic harmony with one another, the other primates have accomplished this as well, and even seem to exist with each other more effectively than we as humans do.
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