Scoop on Primates

Climate Change and Primates

2017-03-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

Climate change is real - we are already seeing the effects worldwide. It is affecting everything on earth, large and small creatures alike; non human primates are no exception.

According to an article published in the Journal of Primatology and Concordia University last year, the species that will be the most affected by climate change are located in Central America, the Amazon, Southeastern Brazil, East and Southeast Asia. The authors Tanya L Graham, H. Damon Matthews (Concordia University of Montreal) and Sarah Turner (McGill University) predict that some will experience "1.5 degree Celsius for every degree Celsius of global warming".

This is not something new. Scientists have known for some time that climate change, combined with other factors linked to human activity, such as deforestation, pose a major threat to the survival of our closest cousins. I would recommend checking another article published in 2010 in the Journal of Biogeography which emphasized that gorillas may not be able to survive - and we know how few of them are left in the world. Rising temperatures and decreased rain falls will affect foraging, it will displace groups and impose additional stress to already difficult conditions.
Primate habitat will be fragmented and group size will be impacted.

Climate change has been on my mind for quite some time. Floods, extremely summer temperatures, extremely cold winters, spring days arriving too soon, Peacock having chicks out of season, canceled flights… everything is out of whack.

I have been concerned about the plight of endangered species - such as the black and white ruffed lemur, I have been friends with for the past fiver years. Many days, I felt angry and powerless. This is why I finally decided to do something different and applied to the Climate Reality Project Corp Leadership Training and I was privileged to be accepted and attend a three day training session last week in Denver, CO. I expected the experience to be amazing, but it was more than amazing. It was life changing. There were about 700 trainees (900 people total) from all over the world - all dedicated to the mission of combatting climate change one step at a time to save our beautiful planet and its many inhabitants. I met the most interesting, passionate and warm people ever.

Listening to former Vice President Al Gore Chairman of the Climate Reality Project., former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, the panel of scientists who attended and so many other speakers, I became hopeful for the first time in so long.

It is encouraging to know that solutions are at end - renewable energies are gaining momentum, they are cheaper, produce clean energy, have a lesser impact on the environment, will prove to be profitable to businesses, create jobs and last but not least will give us a chance to save our species and our planet, IF we take action quickly.
There is a "IF" but if we all do our part, we have a fighting chance. Hope at last!!!

I was equally encouraged to hear that large companies, campuses and indeed entire cities are committing to 100% renewable energies. Such progress!

It is a world issue, that concerns us all - hence the Paris Agreement on Climate. If primates don't survive, we won't either.

So, on behalf our fellow human primates and my dear non human primate friends, I urge everyone to take a little step - however small - to heal our Planet - our only home.

Do Primates Understand Property?

2016-12-26T21:14:00.003-08:00

As is the tradition in many zoos and sanctuaries, we distributed Christmas boxes filled with shredded paper and some treat items to small primates at the place where I have been volunteering for many years .

"What is the point?" - will you ask - "animals, do not know the meaning of Christmas."

True. They don't, but keepers have a duty to ensure animals in their care are busy. They must provide some enrichment to their lives in captivity and the gift boxes are an opportunity to forage for treat items. Foraging is a natural behavior in the wild. Figuring out how to unwrap and open a box provides primates with an opportunity to use their brains and hands. It is an exciting moment. All observe carefully as volunteers place the boxes in their enclosures. They get excited. They know it is for them.
No sooner is the catch cage open than they each rush and grab a box. They bring it to a corner where their mates will not disturb them and start the grand ceremony of opening their gifts.
One colorful capuchin reaps the wrapping paper apart with the enthusiasm of a 5 year old human child under the Christmas tree. He utters little screams of joy as he finally opens a side of the box - but then seems disappointed that it only contains the usual shredded paper, peanuts and seeds. He jumps over to the next platform where his friend opened another box. The two exchange places and seem pretty satisfied to get the treats out.
Another capuchin monkey leaps up in the air screaming, while he swiftly lifts a gift box and brings it to his catch cage. He is a lot more delicate than his friend and carefully opens one side of the box without spilling anything out. He calmly eats out the treats as his two roommates who already finished up theirs look at him. The baboon gets slightly irritated because the box is not cooperative- harder to open than he anticipated.

I am rejoiced at their reaction to the gifts. They each individually behaved as if they knew this was a special gift - which made me wonder if primates do have a sense of ownership and property.
In the wild, this manifests around food items. In captivity, studies have demonstrated that they understand and practice barter - giving different values to different food items (or even tokens representing food items).

I refer you to two interesting articles:
Property in Non-Human Primates - Georgia State University
and
How scientists taught monkeys the concept of money (ZMEScience.com)

And to cheer everyone up, a video from Chimp Haven.

Wishing all a great end of the year and holidays!

Cheek Pouches

2016-02-28T16:53:00.002-08:00

Cheek pouches are pockets between the jaw and the cheek used to temporarily store food. Many rodents, marsupials and monkeys have them.

Apes and New World monkeys do not have cheek pouches.
Old World monkeys have cheek pouches but do not use them with the same frequency. For instance, baboons in the wild don't seem to use their cheek pouches as much as they do in captivity.

It was long believed that cheek pouches were the result of an adaptation to ground foraging, to store food in high risk situation while on the ground and consume it later high in a tree, however Ciochon and Feagle argue that cercopithecines who live mostly arboreal have the largest cheek pouches. (Primate Evolution and Human Origins).

Unlike those of rodents, primates' cheek pouches secrete large quantities of amylase - which converts starches into sugar. In her book "Primate Behavioral Ecology", Karen Strier writes: "this adaptation for digesting unrip fruits, which are often high in starch, gives cercopithecines a competitive advantage over sympatric chimpanzees which tend to wait for fruits to ripen and may account for cercopithecines' high evolutionary success compared to apes (Lambert, 2005)." Cheek pouches also soften the fruit. Gautier-Hion recorded in 1971 that cercopithecus talapoin used their cheek pouches to hold live prey - such as insects. Lindburg suggested that in addition to providing temporary storage for food monkeys could eat in a safer place away from danger and conspecific individuals, it also allowed the animal to continue feeding while engaging in social activities (like grooming and feeding the young).

In a study conducted in Japan between 1986-1995, scientists collected data related to seed dispersal via cheek pouches and compared the results to seed dispersal via feces. (Japanese monkeys - Macaca fuscata yakui, on Yakushima Island, Japan - Takakazu Yumoto, Naohiko Noma, Tamaki Maruhashi). They found that the seeds dispersed via cheek pouches were bigger than those spread through feces and a higher percentage (82%) germinated compared to those spread through feces. They conclude that cheek pouch seed dispersal plays an important role in the evergreen forest of Yakushima.

More recently a study looked at the correlation between cheek pouch use and the use of a preferred hand. The scientists wanted to find out if right or left-handedness evolved from the pre-existing laterality of basic brain functions and behavior of if the two evolved simultaneously. (Do Right-Handed Monkeys Use the Right Cheek Pouch Before The Left?)

In captivity, it seems that primates use their cheek pouches more than in the wild - most likely because in a small environment where escape is not much of an option (apart from climbing up or hiding under a contraption), they feel more pressure to take as much food as they can before a higher ranking individual shows up. I have seen this scenario many times with baboons - females will fill their cheek pouches as quickly as possible before the dominant male arrives and grabs all the enrichment items he can get his hands on. What I have never seen is an individual stealing food directly from the cheek pouches ofa lower rank individual or a juvenile. Yet, this situation occurs. So cheek pouches are a safe way to save food, but not always…

A Tail’s Tale

2015-11-01T19:41:00.003-08:00

Humans and great apes seem to be the only creatures deprived of a tail. Yet, our coccyx is what scientists call a “vestigial” organ. It doesn’t serve any purpose but it is there. As Darwin writes in his Origin of Species: “Rudimentary organs may be compared with the letters in a word, still retained in the spelling, but become useless in the pronunciation, but which serve as a clue for its derivation.” In short, the fact we don’t have a tail doesn’t exclude the possibility that one of our distant ancestors had one. So, what is a tail for?

For some, it is a built-in fly swatter – like cows in the field; for others a navigation tool like fish; for many a means to keep their balance and for others a way to communicate. When you come home, I am sure your dog greets you by jumping around with vigorous tail wagging – that is, if you are lucky enough to have one. Scientists at the University of Bari, Italy, have been studying tail wagging and its meaning for quite some time. The results of their research show that the direction of the tail indicates different emotional states in dogs. For instance, if the tail wags more to the left, emotions tend to be negative; whereas wagging to the right is a sure sign of happiness. The direction the tail goes is a by-product of the asymmetry of the brain and dogs probably do not intentionally communicate their emotional state to others. However experiments showed that when dogs watched videos of other dogs wagging their tails to the left, they exhibited signs of anxiety; they were more relaxed when watching other dogs wag their tails to the right. A domestic cat holding its tail high up can be trusted. It is a friendly and contented cat. Stay clear if the tail is bushy though, that means the cat is bristling with anger.

Now that we know a little bit more about cats and dogs, let’s talk about wild animals. Equidae, like zebras, use their tails to keep away biting insects and, much like dogs, the position and movement of the tail is a good indicator of the animal’s emotional state and condition. Side to side or up and down wagging is a sign of irritation. A threatening zebra will lower its head, pull its ears back, bare its teeth and lash its tail around. One can also read the mood of a panther by its tail. A flicked and twitched tail indicates annoyance, anticipation or anger. As for tigers, they usually keep their tails in a low position, unless they’re curious about something, then they hold it high up.

For birds, the tail is an aerodynamic tool serving pretty much the same function as the rudders of a boat. It helps them steer while flying and provides stability when they take off and land. It also helps them keep their balance when they’re perched. However, nature can be fickle and some birds have a tail so cumbersome, one can wonder what purpose it really serves. Take the male peacock for instance – why does it have such a long, colorful tail? The theory is that it conveys a clear message to females that the individual is healthy. A peacock uses its tail in an elaborate dance to court females and hope to get lucky! Peacocks are not the only ones to attract mates with their exuberant tails, the long-tailed widowbird, Cape sugarbird, quetzal, long-tailed sylph are but a few other examples.

Not all tails are equal. Prehensile tails are by far the coolest! Arboreal mammals, like kinkajous, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys and also pangolins, anteaters and some rodents have prehensile tails. Those provide safety and come in handy when you have to find your food and evolve in an environment full of unevenly spaced branches. Skeletal structural differences can be found in mammals with and without prehensile tails. Mammals with a prehensile tail have more vertebrae. Those are more robust and allow for increased strength and flexibility of the distal end of the tail. Prehensile tails are so strong they can support the entire weight of the animal it belongs to. Both spider monkeys and capuchin monkeys have prehensile tails – but these differ in more than one way. Spider monkey tails are long, thin and bare underneath with dermatoglyphs (i.e. ridges in the skin like our own fingers). This area of their tail is highly enervated and therefore tactile. As a matter of fact, it pretty much acts as an extra limb or hand. When touching something with the bare part of their tails, spider monkeys gather information about its texture, scent and consistency. Capuchin monkey tails, in contrast, are shorter, fully covered with hair and deprived of tactile receptors. The tail of spider monkeys represent about 7% of their total body weight, slightly less for capuchins – about 5%. While spider monkeys use their tails for suspensory locomotion and for feeding, capuchin monkeys use it mostly as a weight-bearing tool when feeding in the canopy.

Black and white (or red) Ruffed lemurs, who spend their lives up in the canopy, use their tails for balance during locomotion. They can leap great distances between trees, but the use of her tail as a balance mechanism can be easily observed when they walk on all fours along branches or (suspended fire hoses when in captivity). They hold her tails low, slightly curved to the right or the left to keep moving straight along the path. As opposed to black and white ruffed lemurs, ringtail lemurs spend a lot of time foraging on the ground and hold their tails high up in the air. So do coatis. This helps them keep track of each member of the group while foraging or traveling.

So you see, there is much to tell about tails!

Should Great Apes Be Granted Similar Legal Status as Humans?

2015-08-02T10:56:00.001-07:00

How we treat great apes (and other animals for that matter) is a question that has been gaining momentum the last few years.
Organizations like The Non-Human Rights Project argue that a legal status, other than that of "property" should be granted to great apes in particular.

I could not agree more. Animals are not objects and should not be considered as such by the law, no matter which country they live in.
We do know that animals (from mice to apes) have feelings and experience empathy ** (see references below) - so how can we justify trading them as mere junk?

The question is even more pertinent when it comes to the ethical treatment of great apes in facilities using them for the greater good - (think medical research). Progress has been made and it seems that we (humans) are now moving towards a consensus that medical research should move away from animal testing where other solutions apply. However, some argue that computer simulation, in vitro testing cannot viably replace animal testing - here's an interesting article on the subject from "Speaking Of Research".

Yesterday, non human rights were debated again in the press and the battle is far from being over if some continue to think that keeping things as they are is the right thing to do. See "Sanity In the Court: Judge Denies Claims that Chimps are Persons". However, per the article, an Argentinean judge granted habeas corpus to an orangutan at the end of last year. To quote the article in Scientific American: "In Argentina, at least, Sandra now has the right to life, liberty and freedom from harm." It also mentions that in New Zealand, a river was granted rights as well "Agreement Entitles Whanganui River to Legal Identity"
This means there is hope for those who think that advanced species (and natural resources*** essential to our lives) should be granted some rights - even if they cannot plead their own case in our language.

** The Scientist "Mice Show Evidence of Empathy"
** Frans De Waal interview about The Feelings of Animals

** Frans De Waal talks about empathy

*** The idea that natural resources should have rights first was formulated in the 1970s by Professor Christopher D. Stone when the book "The Lorax" came out. You can check out this document "Should Trees Have Standing?" for more details.

Gorilla News!

2014-09-28T17:43:00.002-07:00

Gorillas are endangered and your children may never see one alive. This is why the event that just took place in London is so encouraging. Who would have thought a bunch of runners could raise funds and awareness for gorillas when the world is going through so many trials and there are so many things to worry about. Yet, these runners were able to raise the not so shabby sum of one hundred thousand pounds!

Read the full article in the Irish Independent here.

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More gorilla news…

Kiki a seven year old epileptic gorilla was transferred from her home in Germany to the Antwerp zoo where she will find some much needed quiet and rest. She is being integrated slowly into her new group.

For more information read the full article in Flanders Today.

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Some hope for Bua Noi (Little Lotus) a female gorilla who has been exhibited in a high rise zoo in Bangkok since 1987. It is now a well known fact that great apes (but really all primates) are social animals who do not do well in small cages and isolation. Activists are requesting Bua Noi be transferred to a facility offering a better environment and it seems they are being heard.
Let's hope this works out and let's follow-up on the story.

More on BBC news.

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Let's watch some happy baby gorillas now.

Chimpanzee Gestures Interpreted

2014-07-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

While for many years researchers focused on teaching great apes how to learn our language, through sign or symbols, Dr Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews in Scotland just published an article in the journal Current Biology. She expands on her research into chimpanzee communication and says that wild chimpanzees are able to communicate very specific messages to one another using specific gestures.
For instance, offering a particular part of the body to another chimpanzee is a request to be groomed; whereas tearing strips from a leaf indicates a chimpanzee is showing sexual interest in another individual.
The study findings are based on the analysis of numerous videos made while the research team was following chimps in Uganda.
While we are not quite ready yet to understand the subtleties of chimpanzee gestures and partake in comprehensive conversations with our next of kin, it is great news.

You can consult the BBC article for more details.

Along the same line, an article "Pantomine in Great Apes", published by Anne E. Russon (Professor of Psychology, Glendon College, York University, Toronto) and Kristin Andrews (York University, Toronto) outlines that wild orangutans can communicate using gestures as well.
Orangutans solicite grooming by initiating grooming with another individual; they pretend to be unable to do something when they need help and like chimpanzees, they teach other individuals how to do something through demonstration.

Why Do Apes Point? (Janni Pedersen, Iowa State University), Par Segerdahi (Uppsala University) and William M. Fields (Great Ape Trust of Iowa), argue that bonobos deliberately use pointing gestures.

Although not related to primates, here are two interesting articles addressing how dogs and elephants understand human gestures and sometimes can use that knowledge to their advantage.

The Scientist : Catch My Drift?

National Geographic: African Elephants Understand Human Gestures

A great start for 2014 in the primate world!

2014-02-12T22:04:00.001-08:00

I have been so busy, I have neglected my blog but I have decided 2014 would be a little more prolific. So, to begin with, I browsed through all the news related to primates since the beginning of January and there are already quite a few exciting highlights.

The Cincinnati zoo celebrated the first birthday of Gladys, the baby gorilla raised by surrogates. It's like Tarzan, but in reverse - human surrogates helped raise a baby primate - not an easy task but definitely worthy.
In this video you can see Gladys and her gorilla friends eating a very special birthday cake and hear about the great conservation work the zoo is doing.

Bonobos are extremely rare and only found in one specific region of the Congo. Needless to say they are extremely endangered. Only a handful of zoos in the US have the privilege to exhibit bonobos and the same Cincinnati zoo introduces to the world a young bonobo female (the 8th bonobo birth in that facility). See the baby in the video below.

Then… out of nowhere comes the great news that a "chimpanzee mega-culture"has been discovered in the central Uele region of Northern DRC. A group of thousands of individuals sharing the same "customs" and behaviors. Knowing the chimpanzee populations have been declining drastically over the years, this was totally unexpected. For more information, read this article in the Huffington Post.

Wounda, a female chimpanzee overcame illness and is released on the island of Tchindzoulou. Watch the story of Wounda now. So very touching.

What would you do if one of your animals escaped? Well, a zoo in Japan holds drills every two years to keep its staff on the alert. See for yourself…

Come back soon for more news on primates.

Say "Cheese" Before I Snap!

2013-10-27T11:28:00.002-07:00

Did you ever curse at your dentist for saying you don't floss enough? Well, you think twice because apparently, some primates do it without the prompt of a professional. So, whether you agree or disagree that flossing is a necessity to preserve your pearly whites, there might be some benefit to it after all.

A Japanese macaque female, named Chompe, resident at Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, was seen pulling a hair tight between her hands and running it through her teeth to remove food remnants. According to Jean-Baptiste Leca, the lead author of a report published in the January 2013 issue of the journal Primates, flossing may have been an "accidental bi-product of grooming".
Apparently, this wise female came up with three different techniques of flossing - 1) by moving her mouth to run hers or another monkey's hair through her teeth; 2) by gently moving her head backwards to run hers or another monkey's hair through her teeth; 3) by pulling a strand of her own hair and running it through her teeth with her hands (much like we do).
For more details on this interesting phenomenon, I recommend you check out an article on Discovery entitled "Tidy Monkey Flosses Teeth".

Let's look at the differences between human and non-human primate teeth. The most obvious difference is that humans do not have large canines. Baring our teeth to impress a competitor would be a most unusual behavior for our kind. Note that the presence of large canines prevents side to side jaw movements. Another important difference. Female primates usually have smaller canines - especially for apes. Human teeth are smaller and less specialized than those of non-human primates - we really are not furry enough to necessitate the use of a tooth comb like our lemur friends. Human molars have five points on the grinding surface, while ape molars only have four - a very useful trait for paleontologists to identify their finds. In humans, permanent canines grow before permanent second molar, it is the reverse in apes. The arch of the mouth is different in humans and non-human primates. Humans seem to have fast growing enamel, whereas apes seem to have slow growing enamel. Thin enamel generally characterizes fructivores; humans have thick enamel more adapted to plant and meat eating. There is more micro wear in thick enameled teeth and a diet higher in sugary food is more likely to cause decay.

Mind your diet and keep flossing.

Recommended readings: Primate Dentition - An Introduction To The Teeth of Non-Human Primates. - Daris Swinder.

Dental Microwear in Live, Wild-Trapped Alouatta palliata From Costa Rica - Duke Univsersity

Book Review: Primates of the World

2013-08-31T15:12:00.000-07:00

I just recently received a copy of "PRIMATES OF THE WORLD" and am delighted to write about it today. Originally published in French, the English version of this stunningly beautiful book is elegantly translated and will be available as of September 18. It is "the" reference everyone interested in primates should have by their bedside.

It opens with a great overview of primates, their origins, evolution, anatomy, habitats, social organization and communication. Although succinct, it clearly outlines the diversity of species and how they share resources. It is full of interesting facts - for instance, a reduction in the number of large trees in the forests of Madagascar "could have led to the first locomotion specializations in ancestral indrids, leading them to leap from trunk to trunk instead of moving around on branches." Or did you know that the slender Asian loris, when sensing danger, rears up and that the "undulating movements of its body combined with the markings on its head give the impression of a cobra"? I had never reflected upon the fact that a predator invasion from North America may have led to "the development of specialized prehensile (grasping) tails in certain New World monkeys".

The second part is dedicated to the classification of primates - it features a beautiful graphic which clearly illustrates the branches of the order Primates, followed by handy classification tables.

The third part of the book is the most comprehensive documentation of primates I have ever come across. Each page comes with a color coded map, description of the species and magnificent illustrations depicting sub-species, males, females, babies in different postures. Each drawing is lively, colorful and very practical to identify animals one might come across either in captivity or in the wild.

As stated by the authors: "Our generation is privileged in comparison with those that will follow because we are still able to witness, before it is destroyed, what is left of a natural world that helps us to understand a little about our own origins. If we do not protect our monkey and ape "brothers", it will no longer be possible to observe that, according to many criteria, they were barely more primitive than we are."

For those of you interested in getting a copy, the book is coming out on September 18.
Here are the title and ISBN reference:

PRIMATES OF THE WORLD

An Illustrated Guide

Jean-Jacques Petter & François DesbordesTranslated by Robert Martin
Princeton Univesity Press

Cloth | $29.95 / £19.95 | ISBN: 9780691156958

About the Authors & Translator:

Jean-Jacques Petter (1927-2002) was a world authority on lemurs and one of France's leading primatologists. He was a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. François Desbordes is one of France's premier wildlife illustrators.Robert Martin is the A. Watson Armour III Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Illustration examples from the book:

Indri and Avahis

Howler monkeys

Famous PG Tips Louis the Chimps dies

2013-07-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

Many articles were published recently to announce the death of a famous advertising talent - Louis, a chimpanzee who starred in PG Tips advertising as a Bond-like character, who saved the world and sure enjoyed a good cuppa!

He wasn't the only star in those commercials that aired in the 70s and 80s, the tea company built their entire advertising campaigns on the adventures of a family of chimps. These colorful characters greatly contributed to PG Tips brand awareness and popularity and were voted most "favorite advertising characters" in a 2003 poll in the Guardian (UK). Animal rights organizations, however, forced the PG Tips company to stop using primates and nowadays a sock monkey has replaced the talented actor who finished his life at the Twycross zoo in Atherstone, Warwickshire, England.

Louis died at age 37 and is survived by his screen and life partner Choppers, aged 42, who will be moved in with other chimps so she can survive the grief of losing a lifelong companion.

Primates, especially chimpanzees, have been used many times by humans - their clumsiness, not so good looks are amusing to us. They allow us to laugh at ourselves, but also feel superior.
The problem is that animals used in the entertainment industry are not always treated ethically and humanely. Because they are so strong and dangerous as adults, only babies and juveniles are used on stage. They are exploited - bringing in high financial rewards for the companies employing them, only to end up in a zoo or other sanctuary at best, or in laboratories, when they are too old to be handled safely. This is happening because animals (not only primates) are considered pretty much everywhere in the world as "objects" rather than "beings" by the law. Some associations are working hard at changing this status, such as, among others, The Non Human Rights Project.

The continued use of primates in the entertainment industry also encourages the illegal pet trade and contributes to propagating an inaccurate portrayal of these very intelligent and emotional creatures. This is why, even though, like many other fellow humans, I laugh and enjoy seeing them on screen, I think it is important that we stop exploiting them and give them back the dignity they were born with and deserve - especially when a sock monkey can be as effective as a real one to sell a product a chimp would never enjoy in real life!

Chimp behaviors and personalities

2013-06-15T17:08:00.001-07:00

I want to refer you to a very interesting article published in The Economist under the title: "Planet of the Apes".

This article focuses on the results of a report from the American Journal of Primatology by Dr. Freeman and her team who have been studying chimpanzee behavior for a long time. It would seem that chimpanzee personas have six dimensions (extroversion, agreeableness, openness, reactivity, dominance and methodicalness) as opposed to five for humans (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness). Reactivity could be compared to neuroticism in humans but is different enough not be identified as such; methodicalness measures how the apes solve problems (using a twig to retrieve ants for instance) and could be more or less equated to conscientiousness in humans, although different. However, per Dr. Freeman and her team, there is no human equivalent to chimp dominance.

The study is important for zoo keepers since it allows them to assess whether or not two chimps could get along in the same enclosure.

Chimpanzee dominance - BBC video

Chimpanzee empathy - De Waal

Rock'n Primates

2013-04-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Walking down the main road of the sanctuary where I volunteer, I often hear the rhythmic drumming of chimpanzees and think it would be fun to make a music album. It would be wild, but full of spirit. Those chimps seem to enjoy the repeating beats and honestly with an electric guitar it would sound fantastic! After reading the summary of a recent study conducted at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, I am comforted in this idea that chimps can rock'n roll.

Researchers trained a group of three chimpanzees to hit keys on a keyboard and played distractor sounds as they were doing it. A female then aligned her tapping to the distractor sound. Although, this may not sound like much and more research is warranted, it could mean that humans are not the only ones who are able to synchronize sound with movement.

On the same subject, I recommend a very entertaining article from Psychology Today entitled "Why Chimpanzees Would Dance to Johnny Cash's Music" in which we meet a very unusual musician by the name of Harry Hmura head of "Musicians for Apes" who played for chimpanzees in a sanctuary outside of Montreal. He recalls how Toby (a chimpanzee) started swaying his head back and forth to the rhythm of the strumming and even began to "sing". He also played for orangutans in Florida and their reaction was different - they sat and listened very intently, interested in the guitar.

A rescued chimp playing a toy piano:

As the old saying goes: "Music has charms that soothes the savage beast"!

Great Apes and Theory of Mind

2013-01-14T21:42:00.003-08:00

I really love finding articles related to the theory of mind and how it applies to great apes.
I just found this article about orangutans and how they are able to communicate with gestures with the humans who work with them - modifying their gestures if they assess their message has not been clearly understood.
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/1517/orangutans-communicate-with-charades

In a paper published in 2007, Zimmerman et al write about primates able to point distally at objects or places (not necessarily food) they want access to. Pointing is not a natural behavior seen in the wild, but can come naturally to language-trained great apes. In experiments, some were able to guide humans to places where an object was hidden, if they saw the human was not able to locate it at first attempt.
http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/pdf/Publications_2009_PDF/Zimmermann_et_al_2009.pdf

In a paper published in 2008, Call and Tomasello of the Plank Institute assess the studies performed with great apes and the question posed by Premack and Woodruff 30 years prior: "Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?" with a resounding "yes", but it is different than the theory of mind of humans.
http://email.eva.mpg.de/~tomas/pdf/TICS30.pdf

Apes self-awareness - part 1

Apes self-awareness - part 2

Robert Sapolsky speaks about Theory of Mind

Good reads!

Do Apes Need Psychologists?

2012-11-28T23:19:00.002-08:00

Emotions are not the privilege of human beings. Animals exhibit a wide array of emotions, but none so much as our "cousins" the great apes.

They can be happy...

They can be sad...

They can enjoy peaceful moments...

And according to a recent study, they can also experience midlife crisis.

So, I went to the Medicine.net site and looked it up. A "midlife crisis" is defined as "A period of personal emotional turmoil and coping challenges that some people encounter when they reach middle age, accompanied by a desire for change in their lives, brought on by fears and anxieties about growing older. "
For humans, this phenomenon can happen anytime around the age of 45 until we are either old enough to have gained wisdom and find a renewed sense of wellbeing or too old to remember what we were feeling unhappy about. (I started at 12, hoping the rest of my life would be a cruise but I haven't gained enough wisdom to end it yet.)
Since I am not a psychologist, my understanding of the cause of this change some of us are doomed to go through is very simplified and probably would cause more than one experts to tear their hair out. Anyway, we start young and enthusiastic, we go through many many challenges, realize we don't control our fate the way we thought we could magically do it when we were 10 and BLAH, midlife crisis is here! That's because as Jung put it so eloquently: "We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning; for what in the morning was true will in evening become a lie."
From what I read here and there in popular magazines, it seems that the causes for a midlife crisis vary from person to person, it can be a tragic life event or simply boredom, aging, hormonal changes (andropause / menopause).

It is the same for great apes?
The authors of a paper published this month and entitled "Evidence for a "Midlife Crisis" in Great Apes Consistent with the U-Shape in Human Well-Being" find that the causes maybe rooted in biology more than in economic and sociological factors. They explain that, based on studies conducted over 20 years all over the world, there is strong evidence that human happiness follows a U-shape with the most happiness early and late in life and the lowest point in midlife for both males and females. The authors conducted well-being surveys of 508 aging great apes (chimpanzees, orangutans) in zoos and sanctuaries in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Singapore and Australia. All were rated on their moods, social interactions, activity level and well-being by keepers who knew them for at least 2 years. All displayed signs of midlife crisis between the ages of 28 and 35. This is the first study on well-being conducted with non-human primates. If socioeconomic factors are not the only ones playing a role in midlife crisis, then biological and evolutionary factors must be at play. Why do apes (like humans) get happier again later in life? If unhappy apes die sooner than other better adjusted apes their age, this could explain a higher level of well-being with the older population. It is also possible both apes and humans experience age-related changes in the brain areas associated with well-being the same way. The authors' suggestion is to conduct studies in the area of neurodevelopment shared by humans and great apes.

Click here to check out the University of Warwick press release and download the article in PDF format.

Holding Hands

2012-10-06T21:43:00.001-07:00

We use them every day, yet we do not realize how much we rely on them. Hands are a wonderful thing. They help us feel the world, take things, prepare food, create tools, build houses, feed ourselves, communicate and express love or dislike with a slap.

Michel de Montaigne expressed it very well when he wrote: “Behold the hands, how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides, with a variation and multiplication of variation which makes the tongue envious.”

Many expressions used in common language refer to them - such as: "healing hands", "he's putty in her hands", "a show of hands", "in good hands", "to give a hand", "helping hands" to list but a few.

They are mentioned in songs, like in this old French one from Charles Trenet: "Place your hand in my hand, your heart against my heart and tell me if there is any more charming way of being happy...). Not to mention the Beatles' hit "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" famous the world over.

This is why I want to spend a few minutes writing about hands and the differences between human and non-human primate hands.

Looking at the pictures below, you will notice that humans have a much longer thumb than most primates and our feet (of which we are not going to speak about today) have lost the opposability of the big toe, which in turns provides for more stability - an adaptation to bipedal locomotion.

The use of our hands and the evolution of two typical human handgrips, identified by JR Napier, are believed to have played an important role in the survival of our species. These are the "precision grip" (most useful for throwing objects) and the "power grip" (most useful for hitting with clubs). (Journal of Anatony, 2003 - Richard W. Young - "Evolution of the Human Hand: The Role of Throwing and Clubbing")

Human hands have the most mobile thumb of all primates (you can touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your auricular finger) - this is what enables us to have "precision grip".

Humans have straighter fingers compared to primates. Chimpanzees have hands (probably very similar to those of our early ancestors) with a short relatively weak immobile thumb, elongated carpal and metacarpal bones. The third and fourth metacarpal are very strong and used for knuckle walking. The proximal and middle phalanges are curved toward the palm, which is useful for arboreal locomotion. Their fingertips are cone-shaped.

As a matter of fact, primate hands and feet evolved differently for different primates. If you look at the hands and feet of baboons, for instance, they look kind of similar. Their hands and feet share many functions for grasping and propulsion. Gibbons have hands and feet most adapted to suspensory behavior and vertical climbing. Spider monkeys have an underdeveloped (quasi non-existent) thumb and long curved fingers. Their hands are most adapted to brachiation. They are not as dexterous as capuchin monkeys whose hands are close to ours.

All monkeys have nails instead of claws (except the lemur who still has a toilet claw on its feet). This enhances their sense of touch.

"The primate hand is a remarkable invention and one that helped forge a new relationship between the animal and its environment.... The baboons' nimble fingers were into everything, plucking grass blades, digging up roots, selecting the tiniest herb pecking out of the ground cover... Their hands had both power and precision; the opposability of the thumb and fingers was as essential here on the savannah as it had been millions of years ago when tiny ancestral primates climbed into the forest canopy. Some foods had to be excavated from rock-hard ground, others had to be peeled or seeded." ("Almost Humans - A Journey Into the World of Baboons" - Shirley C. Strum)

Much like us, non-human primates use their hands to accomplish a multitude of tasks - locomotion, feeding, changing the shape of objects to create tools (the use of a rock to crack a nut), scratching, grabbing, slapping (lemurs are big slappers), grooming.

Grooming is extremely important, it is the social glue in primate societies (including ours - who doesn't like a good massage?) Grooming helps individuals reconcile, form alliances, develop friendships. Females groom a new mother in the hope of being granted the right to hold her infant. It is used for courtship, to cement bonds between family and clan/group members, as well as soothing a grieving member. All this would not be as efficient without hands.

Finally, hands are essential for humans and non-human primates to communicate with each other. In the 1960s, baby chimps were trained to use sign language; Koko is famous for pointing at symbols on a board and expressing her thoughts and desire pretty clearly to her human team. This is not surprising, since many studies show that sensory information travels from the hands to the brain. This is why some researchers, like Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, are big advocates of handwriting for children as well as aging folks. When we hold a pen, large regions of the brain involved in thinking, language and memory are activated. When a young chimp learns how to hold a twig to fish out termites, the same regions light up.

So, next time you hold a hammer, make sure to keep your fingers out of the way. Love your hands!

Will the Rio Summit Help Primates?

2012-06-24T12:13:00.001-07:00

A lot has been written about the 2012 Rio Summit that just ended on June 22, yet not much optimism was expressed. For many, this is just a repeat of the past summits and not much is expected to come out of it. So, here are some highlights.

According to an article published in Business Standard, "the world leaders in their declaration said they recognized the crucial importance of enhancing financial support from all sources for sustainable development for all countries, in particular developing nations." ... "We further stress the importance of cooperative action n technology innovation, research and development. We agree to explore modalities in the relevant forums for enhanced access to environmentally sound technologies by developing countries."

The San Francisco Gate wrote about the Hollywood celebrities who attended and spoke about biodiversity. The article quotes Greenpeace Executive Director kumi Naidoo who speaking about the ongoing assault the Arctic is going through is campaigning for a ban on offshore oil drilling and unstainable fishing.

Because there aren't any clear regulations for the management of the oceans, for instance, when deep sea drilling is allowed and accidents happen, we ought to seriously ask who will ultimately be held responsible for damages to the ecosystem and loss of species?

Jane Goodall addressed attendees at the meeting held by Avoided Deforestation Partners. Her message continues to the be same: "Help the chimps", but it is not only about helping the chimps, it is about helping people in "desperate poverty".

As stated by Washington Post "The world's forests are among the crucial, life-sustaining environmental systems scientists say are teetering on the brink of a tipping point. The U.N.'s Environment Program warned earlier this month that the planet's systems - which also include air, land and oceans - 'are being pushed towards their biophysical limits,' after which sudden and catastrophic changes could ensue." In the same Washington Post article, we can read about Prince Charles' concerns about the growing human population. You can also see a video of Prince Charles talking about how the world is "sleep walking to climate catastrophe" in The Telegraph.

The disappearance of tigers, wolves, chimpanzees, other primates, honey bees and so many other species, is slowly but surely putting the survival of humans at risk. So what solutions can we come up with to save ourselves?

The Power of Convergence and Collaboration - hope for the future!

Stress and Health

2012-04-13T17:47:00.000-07:00

We have all heard that stress can have harmful effects on our health. The CDC published a paper entitled "The Effects of Childhood Stress on Health Across The Lifespan" which outlines that, although beneficial in small doses, stress can have very detrimental effects on those who have been exposed to it repeatedly from a very young age. Abused and neglected children are particularly at risk. Toxic stress can affect brain development, the immune system, learning and memorization. It also increases a person's risk of depression, substance abuse and suicide into adulthood.
Toxic stress includes bullying and there again, the effects on the victims' health are long lasting.
According to a study conducted across a sample of 3,000 adults and published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, those who were bullied as children do suffer emotionally and physically as adults. Symptoms vary and include depression, anxiety, fatigue, pain and frequent colds.
The reason seems to be linked to the fact that stress forces the body to produce high levels of cortisol and adrenaline - thereby increasing heart rate, causing digestive upsets, tight muscles, among other things.

How does this relate to monkeys?

Well, because Duke University just released results of a study related to status and stress in rhesus macaques. This study focused on the physical effects of stress on the lowest ranking animals in a group. The last individuals introduced into a social group is always lowest ranking and exposed to threats more often than other members of the group. They can be slapped, kicked and bitten, which causes a lot of stress. By collecting blood samples, researchers saw huge differences in the genes related to the good functioning of the immune system of the low ranking animals compared to high ranking ones. When the same individuals achieved a higher status in their respective groups, their sense of well-being improved and so did their immune system. For more information, you can read: Changes in Monkeys' Social Status Affect Their Genes published in ScienceDaily.

How does this translate in the workplace for humans? Although individuals with a high status in society have better health than those who are unemployed and struggle financially, being the boss does not mean one is healthier according to a paper from 2008 entitled "Do People Become Healthier after Being Promoted?" Of course, there are many factors to be taken into consideration.

The subject is not exhausted and more studies are needed. However, for humans there is no question in my mind that being poor and having a low social status definitely affect how we see ourselves and whether or not we can afford health care.

Humans vs. Chimps

2012-02-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

Are humans smarter than chimpanzees or vice-versa?
It has been established for quite some time that great apes have a theory of mind. They can relate to others, anticipate on their actions or perceived thoughts - like a chimpanzee pretending to be looking for a treat in a part of the enclosure where she knows the treat isn't in order to induce another chimp in error.

Pushed by curiosity and a fascination with our fellow primates, we, humans, have dedicated a lot of time and thought to compare ourselves to them. I recently stumbled upon a serious (yet funny for us in 2012) article in 1902 in Pearsons' Magazine, which dealt with the similarities of human babies compared to primate babies. The goal was to explain the theory of evolution and the author (Sydney Savory Buckman - geologist and palaeontologist 1860-1929) was trying to prove that humans did descend from an extinct monkey-like ancestor. He was careful to emphasize: "A man cannot be descended from his cousins who are living, but he is descended from his ancestors who are dead. And the now living monkeys stand to man as cousins, or collaterals, but in no wise as ancestors." He went on to outline what he considered proofs. I cannot help but quote some of these here: "A character in which a baby so much resembles a monkey is its face. Aristotle noticed that all babies were snub-nosed, which is correct. And this snub-nose, which is about as broad as it is long, and has the end cut off obliquely, showing two wide nostrils which seem to open almost straight into the head, is a character which goes back to quite a low form of monkey." I must admit I would never have thought of this! Here is another quote: "The baby has the power to move its toes independently - that wriggling of the toes so often commented upon by mothers. This form of movement is a heritage from those ancestors who, like modern monkeys, would have used the fingers of their hind feet as we do the fingers of our hands." He then explained the strength babies exhibit when sustaining their bodies with their arms as a remnant of the time our ancestors were tree dwelling, that babies like to sleep on their bellies much like quadrumani, all of this illustrated with pictures of monkeys and babies in similar poses.

Today researchers continue to study primates and compare them to humans - much like in the following videos which I found quite interesting.

Chimpanzee vs. Human Child Learning

Amazing Apes: Self-awareness

Experiments with altruism in children and chimps

ABC news, chimps vs. humans

Chimpanzee culture and learning

Hope you enjoyed these. Please let me know!

Primates in Art - Part II

2012-01-09T22:11:00.000-08:00

Last October, we started exploring how primates were perceived in various cultures and how they were depicted in art. If for the most part, primates had a bad reputation in the Western world as symbols of the devilish functions in humans; in other cultures they were revered as gods.

The Sacred Baboons

In Ancient Egypt, hymadryas baboons were associated to Thoth and the Sun God Re. Hamadryas baboons are are not native to Egypt but were imported from Somalia, Ethiopia, Erithrea, Saudi Arabia and Yemen for the pleasure of the wealthy Egyptians. They were considered as vessels who could be inhabited by deities and were treated as such. Illustrations of baboons were found in tombs; baboons were mummified and many artifacts representing Thoth show a god with a baboon head.
Even though baboons depicted on papyrii or in sculptures perform human tasks, there is no evidence that baboons were trained.

King Sun Goku

In Asia, Monkey King Sun Goku is a well known traditional character. A monkey born from stone, Sun Goku is said to have traveled to India to gather Buddhist sutras. Through his practice of the Tao, he acquired supernatural powers, such as the ability to lift up to 17,000 pounds and transform himself into 72 animals and objects. He knew spells that allowed him to control the elements like wind and water.

Brooklyn Museum - Asian Art collection: One Hundred Aspects of the Moon - Yoshitoshi

Hanuman the Monkey God

In Hindu religion, Hanuman is an ape who courageously helped Lord Rama defeat evil. He is worshiped for his physical strength and perseverance in the face of obstacles. He is an inspiration to those who read his epics.

Howler Monkey God

For the Mayas, Howler Monkey God was the patron of scribes and artists. Very often, two monkey gods are depicted on artifacts - one writes and the other carves human heads. This is believed to be a metaphor to explain the origins of the world. Large sculpures representing Howler monkey can be seen at the archeological site of Copan in Honduras.

Howler Monkey in Copan Archeological site

Chinese Zodiac - The Monkey

According to the Chinese Zodiac, monkeys are fun, loving, energetic and always cheerful. They are extremely smart and can only make the lives of those who surround them more interesting. They enjoy being the center of attention, they use charm and humor to feed their popularity. They are successful at everything they do.

How charming! I wish I were a monkey, don't you?

There would be a lot more to share about monkeys in art - we did not even talk about the famous three monkeys - but it is getting late, so ... maybe some other time...

Japanese wood carving 1646 AD, Treasure of the Hase Dera Temple in Kamakura, Japan

URGENT: The Wildlife Waystation Needs Your Help!

2011-12-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

I am very sad to write this post. The Wildlife Waystation - a unique organization I am grateful to be volunteering at is in urgent need of financial support.

For over thirty years, the Wildlife Waystation has rehabilitated wild animals, educated adults and children alike about wildlife, wild and exotic animals and has provided a shelter for exotic animals who would not otherwise be alive. It is the home of many varied species, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, primates, but also pigs, lamas, exotic birds and many more.

I urge anyone reading this post to please, forward this information to your friends and families, visit the Wildlife Waystation website, visit the Wildlife Waystation Official Fan Page on Facebook and if you can, make a donation today.

Thank You in advance. Anything you can do, will be appreciated and tremendous help for this worthy non-profit.

onlinecourses.net

Primates featured in Art - part I, the Western World

2011-10-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

In my last post I talked about primates making art. Today, I want to talk about primates featured in artwork and how different cultures perceived (and maybe still do) perceive primates.

There is no shortage of paintings featuring primates and many come to mind.

They tell us about our history. The painting below by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) depicts Prince Edward of Wales with a monkey. The monkey is not represented realistically. It has a striped tail, similar to that of ring-tailed lemurs and ears we often see in mythical creatures found in Gothic art, possibly ears of a dragon. It was customary for foreign dignitaries to offer exotic animals to European royalty, so it is possible that the prince possessed a monkey at one time. In his book "Henry VIII: the king, his six wives and his court", Nick Ford specifies that the monkey the prince is holding is a guenon "which signifies wealth and exotic taste".

Kuntsmuseum collection, Basel, Switzerland

They also betray how religion influenced art and society. In The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena, Garofalo (1476-1559) placed a monkey at the foot of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. The monkey is small and his back is rounded as if he were shameful. The most likely interpretation is that the monkey represents the animal instinct in humans which can be tamed and kept under control though the Christian faith.

Oil on wood - London National Gallery, UK

Monkeys and great apes were later represented to point out the arrogance of humans, especially artists and maybe also to remind us that we are not as noble as we think we are. This is what Decamps (1803-1860) probably meant to do in Le Peintre Singe (The Monkey Painter).

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

In Nineteen Century Europe, exotic animals were associated to wealth, but also to women of ill virtue. It was not uncommon to see pictures of women with an exotic bird or a monkey they would have received as gifts from a rich lover. Le Douanier Rousseau who liked to paint in Le Jardin des Plantes depicted two monkeys in love in an orange grove. Is this something he saw in the parc?

Private collection

In more recent times, primates were also depicted as companions, such as in the two self portraits of Frieda Kahlo (1907-1954) and her pet monkey (who seems to have been a spider monkey).

1938 - self-portrait with a monkey - Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Self-portrait with Bonito and a parrot - Private collection, USA

In part two, we will look at art featuring monkeys in other cultures. Until then... cheerio!

Primate Art Making

2011-10-13T22:31:00.000-07:00

When visiting Lascaux and admiring the beautiful rendition of horses, one cannot help wondering how primitive humans became such beautiful artists. The paintings date back about 17,000 years; yet the people of Lascaux knew what they were doing. For instance, they deliberately chose to use protruberances in the stone to add relief to the rumps of the creatures they were depicting.

Where does art come from? Do we have an innate ability for it? Can other creatures make art? Could our primate cousins create art and deliberately choose to depict what they see or experience on paper?

A couple years ago, I visited with "Cheetah", a chimpanzee residing in Southern California and I bought a painting he made. The strokes are very free and colorful. Some are strong, others are light - and I must say the composition is not bad for monkey art.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when psychologists and primatologists teamed up to teach chimpanzees how to sign or use pictograms to communicate with humans, others set out to investigate the origins of art and decided the best way to go about it was to hand out a set of paint brushes to chimpanzees. Centuries before, painters such as Teniers or Decamps, had portrayed the artist as a monkey to poke fun at the vanity of humans and of art in general. This time, primates would be taken seriously!

Congo the Chimpanzee, and others like him, shook up the art world. On August 14, 1954, Dr Desmond Morris published an article in the New Scientist magazine. The sub-title of the article reads: "Hundreds of paintings and drawings by a young inhabitant of London Zoo are being analysed. In their progress from simple to more complex patterns they strikingly resemble the scribblings of human infants, and already reveal the germ of visual composition". In the article, Morris goes on to describe how Congo, who started drawing when he was a little over a year old, became fascinated by the marks he was making on paper and repeated the exercise with a lot of focus. The lines and strokes filling the page made patterns. When he graduated to painting, he proceeded with the same intensity to the point of screaming and throwing temper tantrums if his painting sessions had to be interrupted.

In his book "Monkey Painting" Thierry Lenain relates the story of Nanni, a female chimpanzee at the Munich zoo who discovered the joy of drawing on her own. "On the table was the book in which the temperatures were recorded. The ever-bored Nanni took up the pencil one day and began scribbling in the book. When she threatened to spoil the book with her doodlings, she was given the pencil the wrong way up; she noticed however, that her efforts produced no visible result and, after examining the pencil, realized the reason and turned it around".

Lenain explains how primates (mostly chimpanzees were used in these experiments) like patterns. If given shapes, they would fill them up or draw around them to cover the page with lines.

The fan shape seems to be a recurring theme in those paintings and line drawings. The primates would keep working until the page was covered with lines and shapes that made intricate compositions.

Personally, I love the finger drawings created by Baltimore Betsy.

Lenain's conclusion is that since there is no intent to make art by the primates, their work cannot really be considered art. At best it is a collection of sometimes well balanced markings that create the illusion of composition.

In 2005, The Guardian covered an art sale in which three of Congo's paintings featured along with works by Renoir and Warhol.

Protecting the Great Apes from Intrusive Experiments

2011-09-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

I recently read a paper published by Dr Hope R. Ferdowsian in which she and her team explore the effects of captivity on primates and their use in research. "Since nonhuman animals, including chimpanzees, are frequently used in research, there is an ethical imperative to understand the potentially adverse effects of captivity and their use in research. The association of pathological behaviors with captivity in nonhuman primates has been noted for decades" says the report.
It goes on to explain that symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders have been proven to result from severe repeated trauma in humans. However, no study of psycho-pathology has ever been conducted on nonhuman primates.
Since chimpanzees, like all great apes, demonstrate abilities of self-awareness even in infancy, they have strong attachment to their mothers and have a great memory of events and places, it would be logical to find out if captivity and experimentation can lead them to exhibit mood and anxiety disorders.
The study conducted by Dr Ferdowsian and her team aimed at finding out the prevalence of behaviors in chimpanzees that would compare to human psychiatric disorders. They used the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD and depression and developed an alternative set of criteria for chimpanzees where those used for humans required the use of language. For instance "recurrent distressing dreams of the event" was removed from the list since there is no way of knowing if a chimpanzee can dream about a traumatic event.
They compared reports of chimpanzees from laboratories used for HIV, hepatitis and other medical experimentation, as well as chimpanzees living in sanctuaries in Africa, whose histories included being orphaned and violent human conflicts. The case studies included, among others, Negra, 36 year-old female taken away from the wild as an infant and held in captivity for medical research her whole life and Mawa, a 14 year-old male who had been captured for the pet trade and had serious injuries when he arrived at the sanctuary where he now lives. Both exhibited a depressed hunched posture, avoidance behavior, poor attention span (chimpanzees are extremely good at focusing on a task for consecutive hours) and did not show significant interest in grooming (which is the core of social interaction for chimps). Both showed improved behavior and mood after months spent in their respective sanctuaries.

Dr Ferdowsian and team write: "Our study shows that previously traumatized chimpanzees demonstrate persistent abnormal objective symptoms and that these symptoms cluster into syndromes that are similar to PTSD and depression".

You can request a copy of the study from the "Physicians for Responsible Medicine" organization.

This leads me to a story that many of you probably read about this week - i.e. the release of 30 chimpanzees from a medical lab. The most popular video on the subject shows the chimps hugging and smiling when they see the sky and the grass of their new enclosure at the Austrian Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary. The chimps had been in captivity for over 20 years, kept in isolation never seeing the light of day. You can see a summary of their lives at the sanctuary website.

Great apes are highly social creatures with complex social lives, they are very intelligent, self aware and suffer from similar psychological disorders as humans. They are also extremely endangered. Gorillas are on the brink of extinction, so are bonobos and orangutans. The chimpanzee population is decreasing rapidly as well. This is why it is so important that we, humans, act on their behalf and give them a voice.

Please join me in supporting the Great Ape Protection Act 2011. Spain was the first country to adopt it a couple of years ago. We do not want to remain silent.
More information also available at the Great Ape Project website.

No Aging Chimps Ever Lost Their Marbles

2011-08-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

In times when a word is stubbornly stuck on the tip of my tongue, or when I accidentally call my neighbor Steve when his name if Jack, I seriously wish I were a chimp!
Especially since I found out that chimp brains do not age the same way as human brains do.

According to a study published by Chet Sherwood of The George Washington University, humans are paying a price for evolution - i.e. brain shrinkage. Sherwood and his team set about to determine whether chimps' brains also experience noticeable aging. Using MRI to measure various brain areas in groups of humans from age 22 to 88 and chimpanzees from age 10 to 51, the scientists discovered that chimpanzee brains age with much less degeneration than human brains do.
Sherwood's conclusion is that "the high energy cost of a large brain in humans leads to more wear and tear that cannot be easily repaired because most neurons are not renewed", thereby making human brains more vulnerable to degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Read: Aging Brains Are Different in Humans and Chimpanzees in ScienceDaily for more information.

Check this link to see comparative brain scans of humans and chimpanzees.

If you are getting worried about brain atrophy, you might as well start taking care of your brain fitness. There are some exercises (I am told) that you and I can do to maintain, if not improve, our mental abilities.
You may want to check this out "Your Brain, Just Brighter". If that doesn't do the trick, be sure to ingest a lot of cod liver oil...