Crested macaque monkeys follow friends before family

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC Nature

Crested macaque monkeys look to their friends for "guidance" more readily than to their family, according to scientists.

The University of Portsmouth team that made this discovery measured how quickly one monkey would follow the gaze of another.

Gaze following is very important in macaque society - helping the animals to find food or spot potential danger.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

They reveal, the researchers say, the importance of friendship in complex societies, where animals live together and rely on one another.

"We [study these primates] to try to explain how our own social system evolved," explained lead researcher Jerome Micheletta from the University of Portsmouth.

"We want to know why we humans form groups and... social relationships."

Mr Micheletta, who is studying the behaviour of macaques as part of his PhD, said that previous research on social primates had already shown how important friendship was in terms of "fitness, reproductive success and the reduction of stress".

"But there's little evidence about how social relationships and friendship actually affect behaviour," he explained to BBC Nature.

To find this out, he and his colleagues studied the animals' habit of following the gaze of another.

The team worked with captive monkeys at Marwell Wildlife Zoological Park in Hampshire.

During the experiments, the scientists had to wait for two macaques to sit together, facing one another.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16494192

Savanna Chimps Exhibit Human-Like Sharing Behavior, Anthropologists Say

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — 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 witnessed 41 cases of Fongoli chimpanzees willingly transferring either wild plant foods or hunting tools to other chimpanzees. While previous research by primatologists had documented chimps transferring meat among other non-relatives, this is the first study to document non-meat sharing behavior.

"They're [the Fongoli chimps] not the only chimps that share, but in terms of the resources that we cover here, that is unique," said Pruetz (left), who was named a 2008 National Geographic Emerging Explorer for her research on savanna chimpanzees in Senegal. "I guess all chimps share meat, but they don't share plants or tools. Yet they do here, in addition to meat. It was intriguing when we first started seeing these events."

Read more here ...

Study: Crows remember colors a year later

TOKYO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Japanese researchers say they found crows have long-term memory, perhaps better than humans in some ways, allowing them to remember colors for at least a year.

In experiments at Utsunomiya University, the birds were able to select containers with hidden food items based on color cues after extended intervals, Kyodo News reported Monday.

"It is not easy even for human beings to remember visual color information for a year," said Shoei Sugita, a professor of animal morphology who led the research. "Crows may be even better than human beings in a certain aspect of memory."

The latest finding came in Sugita's research commissioned by the Chubu Electric Power Co., which has been troubled by crows' nests on it power line towers, Kyodo News reported

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/12/05/Study-Crows-remember-colors-a-year-later/UPI-93491323105163/

Cichlid Male Nannies Help Out, Especially If They've Been Sneaking

ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) — Subordinate male cichlid fish who help with the childcare for the dominant breeding pair are occasionally actually the fathers of some of the offspring they help to rear, according to new research from the University of Bristol published in the online journal PLoS ONE. This sneaky paternity increases the subordinate fish's investment in the offspring in their care.

The highly social cichlid fish Neolamprologus pulcher, endemic to Lake Tanganyika in Africa, live in social groups consisting of a dominant breeding pair and between 1 and 15 subordinates of both sexes that perform brood care, territory defence and maintenance. Subordinates are often distantly related or unrelated to the dominants.

Cooperative breeding of this kind has puzzled evolutionary biologists for a long time as it is costly and often does not generate obvious fitness benefits to subordinates. In the case of N. pulcher, the main benefit for subordinates to stay in a territory of dominant breeders seems to be the protection gained against predators provided by the large group members.

Previously, it was assumed that male subordinates never achieved paternity but the Bristol researchers suspected that, due to low relatedness between dominants and subordinates, mature male subordinates would attempt to father offspring and that achieving paternity would increase their helping behaviour.
The team, led by Dr Rick Bruintjes, tested this theory by studying groups of cichlids at Kasakalawe Point, Zambia and found that while dominant females were the mothers of 99.7 per cent of all offspring, the dominant males only sired 88.8 per cent. Subordinate females did not participate in reproduction, but male subordinates successfully gained paternity in 27.8 per cent of all clutches.
Furthermore, subordinate males that sired offspring defended more rigorously against egg predators compared to similar males that did not sire offspring, and they also tended to stay closer to the breeding shelter.

The study shows that the cooperative behaviour of the subordinate male fish has a direct fitness benefit for them -- that is, producing their own offspring -- as well as such indirect benefits as safety.
Dr Bruintjes said: "This is the first evidence in a cooperatively breeding fish species that the helping effort of male subordinates may depend on obtained paternity, which stresses the need to consider direct fitness benefits in evolutionary studies of helping behaviour."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111012185628.htm

Very small male zebrafish use sneaky sex strategy

Small male zebrafish adopt sneaky tactics to improve their chances of reproducing, scientists have found.

Male zebrafish fertilise eggs after they are laid, a process of external fertilisation known as spawning.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield discovered that the most diminutive males were able to get between a female that had just laid eggs and larger, rival males.

This gave them first access to the eggs in order to fertilise them.

The findings are published in the journal Ethology.

Zebrafish are widely studied by scientists, particularly in genetic research.

There is now increasing interest in their behaviour, the study of which can shed light on how our distant aquatic ancestors evolved.

Fish society

The University of Sheffield team that carried out this study was interested in one particular element of zebrafish "society" - their hierarchy.

"You can spot the dominant males," explained Penelope Watt, the biologist who led the study. "You see them patrolling the tank, chasing smaller fish away."

She and her team wanted to find out more about the importance of this dominance in reproduction, so they carried out paternity tests on zebrafish embryos to see if dominant males fathered more offspring.

The team placed a single female into a tank with two males - one dominant male and one subordinate. The female was contained in a plastic cylinder covered in fine mesh, so she could smell the males but could not make contact with them.

After 24 hours, the scientists released the female, allowing the fish to spawn, with males and females releasing masses of eggs and sperm together at the base of the tank.

When the female was ready to lay eggs, males jostled for position close to her, explained Dr Watt. The closer a male was to a female, the better the chance he had of fertilising the eggs she produces.

When the team DNA-tested the resulting offspring, they found, as expected, that dominant males had fathered more offspring than subordinate animals.

But the "subordinates" that had the best chance of fathering offspring were the smallest.

"It's probable that the smaller males are sneaky males and they're more manoeuvrable," the scientists said. "They can get in between the female and the larger male."

Such sneaky mating strategies are seen in other fish species, and this finding supports the idea that, in some species, male fish evolved "sexual tactics" to compensate for their diminutive size.

Dr Watt added: "It's nice to find out something about their behaviour that we didn't expect.

"They're a more complex species than we've given them credit for."
By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15010109

'White-Coat Effect' Elevates Greyhounds' Blood Pressure

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2011) — The "white-coat effect" is not reserved for only the human patients who see their blood pressure rise in response to the stress of a doctor visit.

In a new study, researchers have determined that anxiety associated with being in a veterinary hospital elevates the blood pressure in retired racing greyhounds -- a breed known for having higher-than-average blood pressure in the first place.

The average systolic arterial pressure -- the top number in a blood pressure reading -- in the dogs was about 30 points higher in a veterinary clinic when compared to blood pressure recorded at home.
The environment seemed to make all the difference. Blood pressure readings recorded in a home were similar when taken by either a veterinary student or the dog's owner. In general, normal blood pressure in dogs, as in humans, is 120 over 80.

Some animals' blood pressure readings normalize after they've had time to acclimate to the hospital setting, but in these greyhounds, that trend is less common. According to the researchers, this study suggests that the presence of the dog owner might have a more calming effect than the passage of time in the clinic.

"We see a lot of greyhounds and they are very high-strung dogs," said Guillermo Couto, professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. "Some greyhounds come in here with blood pressure above what an instrument can read -- that is 300 systolic. We know this could not really be their blood pressure because these dogs would be dead. But we also almost never get blood pressure under 150 or 160 for systolic.

"In the study, their blood pressure was nearly normal at home, independently of whether the researcher or the owner checked the pressure. To my knowledge, nobody has documented that white-coat effect in dogs with hard data before."

Most of the estimated 200,000 pet greyhounds in the United States are former racers that have been adopted at the end of their careers. Couto and colleagues recommend that retired racing greyhounds' blood pressure be recorded in the home if possible to provide a more accurate measure.

The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

The scientists performed the study with 22 retired racing greyhounds that are enrolled in a blood donor program at Ohio State's Veterinary Medical Center. The average age of the dogs was 7 ½ years. Twelve were male and 10 were female.

Blood pressure measurements were taken in three different ways: in the veterinary medical center by a veterinary student wearing scrubs; in the dog's home by that same student, again wearing scrubs; and in the home by the dog's owner.

In-home blood pressure readings were taken between seven and 28 days after the hospital measurements to avoid any effects of the dogs' blood donations during their hospital stays. The owners then followed the student's in-home reading 24 hours later.

The student used a specialized machine and instructed each owner on how to use it, providing reading material and offering a demonstration. The machine costs about $1,500, but Couto said manufacturers are currently working on developing a less expensive and more user-friendly device that could be used by dog owners in a home setting.

The researchers recorded systolic pressure, diastolic pressure -- the lower number in a blood pressure reading, mean arterial pressure and heart rate.

The systolic and mean arterial pressures, as well as heart rate readings, taken in the hospital were significantly higher than all of those same measures taken in the home environment. The average hind-limb systolic pressure was 165, compared to at-home measures of 131 and 133 when taken by the researcher and the owner, respectively.

"This study emphasizes the need to consider the environment in which the blood pressure is measured before diagnosing or eliminating hypertension," Couto said.

Unlike the blood pressure readings, heart-rate levels, while still higher than in the home, were lower in the clinic among "veteran" greyhounds that had frequently visited the hospital before the study. According to the researchers, this finding suggested that acclimation to the clinical environment did affect this particular stress response.

The researchers also found that the limb used to measure blood pressure affected the results. Measures were taken in both forelimbs and hind limbs. Measures tended to be higher in the back legs, but the reasons for this were not determined by the study.

Couto and his colleagues are now exploring whether retired racing greyhounds' hypertension resulting from this white-coat effect causes any damage to their kidneys or other organs.

Couto, an oncologist, is leading a number of studies on these animals to gauge the effects of racing on their health, as well as likely genetic contributions to their high risk for bone cancer. Since he adopted his first retired racing greyhound 20 years ago, he has been committed to investigating their physiologic idiosyncrasies.

"They're hypertensive and yet they don't have target organ lesions that people with hypertension get. They have strokes, unlike most dogs, but the strokes they have are different from strokes in hypertensive humans. Their kidneys and eyes don't take a beating from the high blood pressure," he said. "So my thinking is that greyhounds are 'Type-A personality' dogs. They are raised in a racing environment, but they are pack animals, so this stresses them out. And then once they retire, they are couch potatoes. We're trying to put all of this together, and it's all aimed at promoting wellness in these dogs."

This research was supported by the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine Summer Student Research Fellowship Program and Ohio State's Greyhound Health and Wellness Development Funds.

Co-authors include fourth-year student Christina Marino, clinical instructor Richard Cober and Maria Iazbik, managing director of the Animal Blood Bank, all of Ohio State's College of Veterinary Medicine.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906144606.htm

Salmon can sniff out predators

Salmon know when their most common predator is around, because they can tell that it's eaten salmon before, new research shows. Young fish can do this too, even if they've never encountered that particular predator before.

Researchers from the University of Swansea put young Atlantic salmon in tanks of water, some sections of which were scented with diluted otter faeces. They found the fish tended to avoid the scented water – provided the otter in question had previously eaten salmon.

'It's the predator's diet – not just its own smell – that's alerting the salmon,' explains Dr Laura Roberts from the University of Swansea, co-author of the report published in Animal Behaviour.

Otters are common predators of salmon so it's clearly useful to the fish to be able to sniff them out.
The smell acts as an early-warning system for the fish, even when they can't see the predator. It lets them work out the potential risk of being eaten and balance predator avoidance with other vital activities like foraging and reproducing.

Previous studies have shown that some fish can detect the presence of other predatory fish, but this is the first research to show the mechanism works for mammal predators too.

'We wanted to test whether the salmon were able to recognise the otter as a threat using just chemical cues, and also to see whether they were detecting the smell of the predator's itself or of its diet,' says Roberts.

The researchers tested individual fish in a 'Y-maze chamber' – essentially a trough with two arms and a holding tank at one end. This arrangement meant different scents could be released into the arms of the tank and kept separate, while allowing the salmon to swim into whichever arm it chose.

In each test, differently scented water was introduced to each arm of the tank: either unscented, scented with the faeces of an otter that hadn't eaten salmon, or scented with faeces of an otter that had eaten salmon.

The researchers measured the salmons' avoidance behaviour by seeing how much time they spent in different parts of the tank. The fish seemed unperturbed by water scented with faeces from the non-salmon eating otter. But when the water was scented by the salmon eater's faeces the fish steered clear, avoiding that arm of the tank around 85 per cent of the time.

The researchers monitored other behaviours associated with predator avoidance, and these also varied depending on the scent. For example, more of the fish rested motionless on the bottom of the tank (known as 'freezing') in the presence of the salmon-diet scent. Fish exposed to this scent also breathed more quickly – a stress response which can be a reaction to the presence of a predator.

This suggests the fish aren't reacting simply to the otter's presence; they are reacting to the smell of an otter that has proved to be a predator by eating other salmon. And this ability gives them a head start in a world where many different creatures are out to eat them.

'The salmon's ability to sense these chemicals helps them react to a wide range of predators without the need to learn about each individual species,' says Roberts.


by Adele Rackley
http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1061

Walruses forsaking sea ice for sand

The spotting of huge herds of walruses over the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast again is, according to scientists at the US Geological Survey, an indication of climate change in the region --- since the walruses are clearly forsaking sea ice for sand.

A large herd of nearly 5,000 walruses were spotted on Wednesday by a contractor taking part in federal marine mammal aerial surveys over the Chukchi Sea; and, second herd of 3,000 walruses was found resting a short distance away.

Even though the number of walruses recently spotted was comparatively lesser than those spotted last September, the researchers are of the opinion that the behavior is a sign of lack of sufficient Arctic sea ice for the big, swimming mammals for use as resting platforms after deep dives searching for food.
It was in 2007 that several thousand walruses were first seen on Alaska's northwest shore. They returned in 2009; and, the numbers that they gathered in last year were unprecedented --- with more than 20,000 animals counted near Point Lay, an Eskimo village which lies 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

Noting that the melting of sea ice in Arctic waters generally goes on through mid- to late September, Bruce Woods – a spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service – said that the herds of walruses gathering on the northeast coast of Alaska will apparently continue to grow this time round.

http://topnews.net.nz/content/217839-walruses-forsaking-sea-ice-sand

Chimps like to help others, study finds

Female chimpanzees like to spontaneously help others rather than act selfishly, suggesting altruism may not be a uniquely human trait, US researchers said on Monday.

Scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in the southeastern state of Georgia tested seven female chimpanzees to see if observations of the species' generous behavior in the field matched their decisions in a lab.

Given a choice of two colored tokens, one which guaranteed a banana treat for two and the other which gave a reward for the chooser only, the chimps tended to pick the social option, said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies have suggested that chimps tend to act selfishly in so-called pro-social tests.

The researchers also found that chimps most often acted generously when the waiting partner reminded the chooser gently of her presence but did not act up or bully her into picking a treat for two.

"We were excited to find female after female chose the option that gave both her and her partner food," said lead author Victoria Horner.

"It was also interesting to me that being overly persistent did not go down well with the choosers. It was far more productive for partners to be calm and remind the choosers they were there from time to time," she said.

Researchers said they believe this study was more appropriately designed to judge chimps' behavior than previous studies because it placed the waiting partner in view of the chooser and included a treat that was wrapped in a noisy package.

"I have always been skeptical of the previous negative findings and their over-interpretation," said co-author Frans de Waal.

"This study confirms the pro-social nature of chimpanzees with a different test, better adapted to the species," he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/chimps-like-to-help-others-study-finds-2337662.html

Cat brings entire goldcrest nest, with chicks, into house

August 2011: Most cat owners are used to their pets bringing home the odd bird, frog or other late-night catch. But Bella, a five-year-old tortoiseshell cat, deposited a whole nest - complete with three baby birds - in Vikki and Wesley Spencer's house in Taunton. It was intact with a baby goldcrest sitting inside it.

Vikki said: ‘The nest just looked like a bit of tumbleweed lying on the floor, we didn't know what it was.

‘While we were all looking at it Bella had gone out again and she came back with the two other birds in her mouth and just dropped them on the floor.

One of the birds has survived

‘She looked at Wesley as if to say, "That's my nest, what are you doing with it?!" I couldn't believe it.'

Vikki placed the nestlings in an airing cupboard overnight to keep the birds warm and took them to RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre near Taunton the next morning.

Peter Venn, manager at RSPCA West Hatch, said: ‘Two of the birds sadly died but one of them is doing very well. I've not heard of a cat doing anything like this before but that's not to say it hasn't happened.'

The remaining goldcrest will be cared for at RSPCA West Hatch until it is old enough to be released into the wild.

The goldcrest is the UK's smallest songbird, with adults standing just 9cm high. These birds are dull green above and buff white below with a distinctive orange or yellow crown stripe. It is found almost wherever there are trees and bushes, especially conifers.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/goldcrest-cat.html

Hunting jellyfish threaten fish stocks

Far from being at the whim of wave and tide, the enigmatic jellyfish has been found by new research to move deliberately in search of food – an ability that could threaten the future of other species already at risk from human activity like fishing.


A team of researchers led by Swansea University attached data-loggers to jellyfish off the Welsh coast, to monitor their vertical movements. The results suggest that these movements are deliberate and probably intended to maximise the creatures' chances of finding food.


Jellyfish adapt readily to changing conditions and can quickly increase in numbers to fill the 'gap' left by species in decline from over-fishing. The ability to deliberately pursue prey would give them even greater advantage over falling numbers of fish larvae looking for the same food.

'Everyone can recognise a jellyfish, but we don't know very much about how they spend their time,' says Dr Victoria Hobson of Swansea University, who organised the fieldwork and is co-author of the research report, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

'We have discovered they are actually quite proactive – they move independently and choose where they go,' she explains.

The research team flew over Carmarthen Bay in Wales to find groups of the jellyfish Rhizostoma octopus. Operating from a boat, divers then loosely tied the data-loggers around the creatures' peduncle – the bit that joins the swimming bell to the arms; not an easy task with creatures up to half a metre in diameter and weighing up to 30kg.


The loggers took water-pressure readings every minute as well as measuring water temperature. The researchers retrieved the loggers as they washed up on the beach once the jellyfish had died, and downloaded the data. Of the 72 loggers deployed, 25 have so far been recovered.

Once the researchers had discounted non-intentional vertical movements, for example due to wave action, they could see how far and how often the jellyfish moved through the water column. They found that the creatures travelled on average around 600m vertically through the water each day, and were clearly not simply drifting at a fixed depth.

The pattern of movement was also similar to what's known as a Lévy walk – a foraging pattern thought to be adopted by certain animals to give themselves the best chance of locating scarce prey.

By examining the gut contents of several jellyfish the researchers could see that, however they were doing it, their foraging technique was successful, as the jellyfish stomachs were full of a variety of prey regardless of where and when they were caught.

Jellyfish are resilient creatures; they reproduce quickly and eat a wide range of prey, so they can adapt to changes in the marine environment that would pose problems for other species.

As over-fishing reduces fish numbers, jellyfish populations could increase, making the problem even worse because many fish larvae feed on the same plankton as the jellyfish.

The discovery of these complex and deliberate movement patterns adds significantly to our understanding of jellyfish behaviour. It also suggests they may be able to compete more strongly with fish then previously thought, making jellyfish even more dominant as oceans conditions change.

Adele Rackley

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1026

Chimpanzees' 66 gestures revealed

Wild chimpanzees use at least 66 distinct gestures to communicate with each other, according to scientists.


A team of researchers from the University of St Andrews in Scotland filmed a group of the animals in order to decipher this "gestural repertoire".

The team then studied 120 hours of footage of the chimps interacting, looking for signs that the animals were intentionally signalling to each other.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Cognition.

Previous studies on captive chimps have suggested the animals have about 30 different gestures.

"So this [result] shows quite a large repertoire," lead researcher Dr Catherine Hobaiter told BBC News.

"We think people previously were only seeing fractions of this, because when you study the animals in captivity you don't see all their behaviour.

"You wouldn't see them hunting for monkeys, taking females away on 'courtships', or encountering neighbouring groups of chimpanzees."

Dr Hobaiter spent 266 days observing and filming a group of chimpanzees in Budongo Conservation Field Station, Uganda.

"I've spent two years studying these animals, so they know me," she said. "I follow them through the forest and they just ignore me completely and get on with their daily lives."


She and her colleague, Professor Richard Byrne, scrutinised the footage and categorised each distinct gesture.

They looked for clear signs that the animals were making deliberate movements that were intended to generate a response from another animal.

"We looked to see if the gesturer was looking at their audience," explained Professor Byrne.

"And we looked for persistence; if their action did not produce a result, they would repeat it."

The team is still studying the footage for the next stage of their project - to figure out what each gesture means.

For some of these gestures, the meaning seems obvious to us, perhaps because - as great apes- we make similar movements. A chimp will often beckon to another group member, or a youngster will hand shake at another juvenile to entice it to play.

In one piece of footage captured by Dr Hobaiter, a mother reaches with her left arm towards her daughter.


"The mother wants to move away and is gesturing to request that her daughter 'climbs on' her," Dr Hobaiter explained.

"She could just grab her daughter, but she doesn't. She reaches and holds the gesture while waiting for a response."

When the youngster starts to approach, the mother repeats the gesture and adds a facial expression - a "bare-teeth grin", at which point the daughter climbs on and they move away.

"But actions often have effects that their maker did not intend," said Professor Byrne.

"So to understand the intended meaning, it's no good just discovering a gesture's typical effect. We have to look for what effect makes the signaller stop gesturing and appear satisfied and content with the outcome, to be sure that that was what they intended."

The results have provided clues about the origins of chimps' gestures, suggesting that they are a common system of communication across the species, rather than each movement being a learned custom or ritual within one social group.

In fact, by comparing these observations with those of gestures made by gorillas and orangutans, the researchers showed there was significant overlap in the signals used throughout the family of great apes.

Dr Hobaiter said: This supports our belief that the gestures that apes use (and maybe some human gestures too) are derived from ancient shared ancestry of all the great ape species alive today."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9475000/9475408.stm






By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9475000/9475408.stm

Mandrill monkey makes 'pedicuring' tool

A crude "pedicure" carried out by a mandrill at Chester Zoo suggests the monkeys are capable of more advanced tool use than previously thought.


Scientists from Durham University, UK, filmed the mandrill stripping a twig and using the resulting tool to clean under its toenails.

They published the findings in the journal Behavioural Processes.

Mandrills are the fifth species of Old World monkey seen deliberately modifying tools.

Non-human apes, including chimpanzees and orangutans, can adapt basic tools for specific jobs.

One well-known example of this behaviour is termite fishing in chimpanzees, where the animals strip down grasses to make fishing rods that they then poke into termite mounds to snag the nutritious insects.

The gap between monkeys and great apes is not as large as we thought it was”

"It is an ability that, up until a few years ago, was thought to be unique to humans," said Dr Riccardo Pansini, who led the research.

The new findings, he said, indicate that monkeys' intelligence may too have been underestimated.

"The gap between monkeys and great apes is not as large as we thought it was in terms of tool use and modification," he told BBC Nature.

Dr Pansini captured the footage while studying stress-related behaviour in the zoo's mandrills.

His research during that time helped inform the design of a specially landscaped enclosure, which contained shrubs to give the animals hiding places. The design won an animal welfare award in 2007.

In the footage that Dr Pansini captured, a large male mandrill strips down a twig, apparently to make it narrower. The animal then uses the modified stick to scrape dirt from underneath its toenails.

Though the scientist was excited to witness this deliberate tool modification, he said it was not entirely surprising.

"Mandrills have been seen to clean their ears with modified tools in the wild," he told BBC Nature. "This was thought to help prevent ear infections and therefore might be an important behaviour in terms of hygiene."

He thinks the captive setting may have helped bring out this behaviour.

"Animals have more time in captivity to carry out tasks that are not focused on looking for food or mating," he said. "So in zoos, you can occasionally pick up behaviours that are a little bit strange.

"In the wild this 'pedicuring' would be considered trivial," he explained. "But cleaning their ears with the same modified tool probably gave the animals some relief from the pain in their ears.


"So we're witnessing the same behaviour that's used in quite important tasks being adapted for a less important task," Dr Pansini said.

Dr Amanda Seed, an expert in primate tool-use from the University of St Andrews, UK, praised the researchers for capturing such interesting footage.

She added, though, that it was not entirely clear that the mandrill was deliberately modifying the stick for the specific goal of producing a "sharpened toenail-cleaning tool".

She told BBC Nature: "For me, the behaviour is closer to what we already know from other species, using a stick for self-cleaning purposes, than the tool modification of say chimpanzees - which rake their stick tools through their teeth to produce a brush for gathering termites.

"But these definitions are always tricky. You could say that as soon as an animal pulls a branch from a tree, they're modifying that branch."

Dr Sonya Hill a research officer at Chester Zoo, added that research findings from zoos could have a "direct impact on evidence-based conservation and husbandry practices".

"They can also contribute to a wider body of scientific knowledge, as this mandrill study has shown."

By Victoria Gill

Science reporter, BBC Nature

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14227783

Gorilla becomes cameraman

A gorilla became a cameraman for a day - with amazing results - at a wildlife park on Jersey.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust gave an HD camera to Ya Kwanza, a 27-year-old silverback, to see what he would come up with.

The charity provide their gorillas with 'enrichment devices' to encourage them to forage for food and keep them mentally stimulated.

This time, the bright yellow box was not only coated with honey and oats and stuffed with raisins, but was also fitted with a hi-tech camera.

The idea came from one of the charity's mammal keepers Jon Stark, who has taken care of the critically endangered western lowland gorillas for four years.

He wondered what it would be like to take a look at life from the primate's perspective.

The resulting footage shows the silverback investigating the device and meticulously picking out raisins with a surprisingly delicate touch.

He then turns cameraman and takes a number of close ups and profile shots before peeling off the branding on the case.

Ya Kwanza then perfectly captures a shot of Jon asking for the device back, before happily throwing the box to his waiting keeper on the outside of the enclosure.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Gorilla_becomes_cameraman

Sperm whales: the 12-metre-long babysitters

Underwater mammals in the waters of Azores solve their childcare issues in a spirit of mutual cooperation

Sperm whales may be the biggest predators that ever lived, but they have childcare issues too. The solution? A very big babysitter.


Here in the Azores, where I've spent the past two weeks diving with sperm whales off the island of Pico, a resident population of these remarkable mammals search for their main source of food: squid.

While the sperm whale is a natural submarine, able to dive a mile in depth for up to two hours, young calves still suckling their mother's milk (which is 60% fat, with the consistency of cottage cheese) cannot undertake such deep plunges. So while their mothers hunt for food, calves are cared for communally in what amounts to a cetacean creche. This accompanying image, taken by the accomplished underwater photographer Andrew Sutton, shows whale altruism in action. Only one of the four juveniles with this large female is hers; she may not even be genetically connected to the others.

João Quaresma of Espaco Talassa, our Azorean skipper, told me that to see four young with one female is unusual. "Calves start to feed themselves at around three or four years," he says, "but they've found whales up to the age of nine still suckling." Studies by scientists such as Dr Hal Whitehead of Nova Scotia University have shown that sperm whales organise themselves in highly complex societies, communicating in discrete dialects of sonar clicks, passing on culture learned matrilineally. Such behaviour reinforces what we are beginning to discover about the intelligence of these whales, which possess the largest brain of any animal.

Operating under special licence from the Azorean government which determines strict care for the whales' welfare, Andrew and I snorkelled with this group, watching them silently twisting and turning around one another in a physical expression of social solidarity. It was a salutary moment. In the 20th century, our species came close to driving the great whales to extinction. This week, the International Whaling Commission meets in Jersey to decide the fate of cetaceans around the world. Conservationists hope that they'll make the right decisions. Sometimes whales need more than a babysitter to help them – even when she's 12 metres long.

Philip Hoare

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 10 July 2011 19.59 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jul/10/azores-whales-cooperative-childcare

Monkeys in India take over hospital after mastering automatic doors

Patients at an Indian hospital have been receiving some surprise visitors after monkeys learned how to operate its automatic doors.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi recently installed a new entry system – with unforeseen consequences.

Local rhesus macaque monkeys soon worked out how to use the motion-censor doors and have since been running amok in the wards, kitchens and corridors.

They have terrorised patients in the neurosurgery department and recovery rooms, stealing food, playing with medical equipment, attacking staff and generally causing chaos.

An unnamed doctor told the Times of India about one of his encounters with the red-bottomed monkeys.

'I was at the patient recovery room when a nurse cried out that a monkey had sneaked in,' he said.

'The monkey had somehow entered the main corridor and was hiding in the false roof. As soon as the security guard moved away, it jumped inside. The doors open once they detect any movement, and this is how the simian got in.'

With an average of one monkey bite case in the hospital every week, authorities have taken steps to scare off the macaques.

They have hired two larger monkeys - grey langurs – to chase them away.

Killing or trapping the macaques is not an option, due to their association with the Hindu deity Hanuman.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/868820-monkeys-in-india-take-over-hospital-after-mastering-automatic-doors

Video - Cat barks like dog

In the 20-second video, our black feline friend can be seen from behind, sticking its head out of a window and making said barking noises (some have suggested the mimic is to scare off an actual canine, but we're not sure). When it realises its owner is behind it, camera in hand, however, the cat immediately switches to making more, err, cat-like noises.

Read on...

Gyrfalcons are 'secret seabirds'

The world's largest falcon, the fast, taloned gyrfalcon, is a secret seabird, scientists have discovered. Gyrfalcons living in the high Arctic overwinter out at sea, spending long periods living and hunting on pack ice.

It is the first time any falcon species has been found regularly living at sea. The birds likely rest on the ice and hunt other seabirds such as gulls and guillemots, over what appears to be one of the largest winter ranges yet documented for any raptor.

Read on...

Chimpanzees' 66 gestures revealed

Thursday, 5 May 2011
By Victoria Gill
Science and nature reporter, BBC News

Wild chimpanzees use at least 66 distinct gestures to communicate with each other, according to scientists.

A team of researchers from the University of St Andrews in Scotland filmed a group of the animals in order to decipher this "gestural repertoire".

The team then studied 120 hours of footage of the chimps interacting, looking for signs that the animals were intentionally signalling to each other.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Cognition.

Previous studies on captive chimps have suggested the animals have about 30 different gestures.

"So this [result] shows quite a large repertoire," lead researcher Dr Catherine Hobaiter told BBC News.

"We think people previously were only seeing fractions of this, because when you study the animals in captivity you don't see all their behaviour.

"You wouldn't see them hunting for monkeys, taking females away on 'courtships', or encountering neighbouring groups of chimpanzees."

Dr Hobaiter spent 266 days observing and filming a group of chimpanzees in Budongo Conservation Field Station, Uganda.

"I've spent two years studying these animals, so they know me," she said. "I follow them through the forest and they just ignore me completely and get on with their daily lives."

She and her colleague, Professor Richard Byrne, scrutinised the footage and categorised each distinct gesture.

They looked for clear signs that the animals were making deliberate movements that were intended to generate a response from another animal.

"We looked to see if the gesturer was looking at their audience," explained Professor Byrne.

"And we looked for persistence; if their action did not produce a result, they would repeat it."

The team is still studying the footage for the next stage of their project - to figure out what each gesture means.

For some of these gestures, the meaning seems obvious to us, perhaps because - as great apes- we make similar movements. A chimp will often beckon to another group member, or a youngster will hand shake at another juvenile to entice it to play.

Gesture dictionary

In one piece of footage captured by Dr Hobaiter, a mother reaches with her left arm towards her daughter.

"The mother wants to move away and is gesturing to request that her daughter 'climbs on' her," Dr Hobaiter explained.

"She could just grab her daughter, but she doesn't. She reaches and holds the gesture while waiting for a response."

When the youngster starts to approach, the mother repeats the gesture and adds a facial expression - a "bare-teeth grin", at which point the daughter climbs on and they move away.

"But actions often have effects that their maker did not intend," said Professor Byrne.

"So to understand the intended meaning, it's no good just discovering a gesture's typical effect. We have to look for what effect makes the signaller stop gesturing and appear satisfied and content with the outcome, to be sure that that was what they intended."

The results have provided clues about the origins of chimps' gestures, suggesting that they are a common system of communication across the species, rather than each movement being a learned custom or ritual within one social group.

In fact, by comparing these observations with those of gestures made by gorillas and orangutans, the researchers showed there was significant overlap in the signals used throughout the family of great apes.

Dr Hobaiter said: This supports our belief that the gestures that apes use (and maybe some human gestures too) are derived from ancient shared ancestry of all the great ape species alive today."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9475000/9475408.stm

Beware of thieving monkeys

The Times of Malta
Monday, April 11, 2011, by Liam Creedon, PA

A troupe of pilfering primates are being taught to turn their backs on the fashion world after embarking on a crime wave.

London Zoo’s gang of Bolivian squirrel monkeys have taken a shine to the sunglasses worn by visitors in the recent warm weather.

Pinching with impunity, the quick-fingered monkeys have developed a habit of whipping sunglasses off the heads of startled visitors.

The shameless simians have now built up an impressive stash of designer shades including Ray-Bans and aviator sunglasses.

As a result, their keepers have had to dream up a course of corrective behaviour to stem the animals criminal tendencies.

Staff have coated a selection of sunglasses with a bitter tasting apple substance.

It is hoped the monkeys will find the taste so unpleasant that their stealing habits will come to an abrupt end.

Zoological Society of London keeper Kate Sanders said it was the youngest monkeys that posed the biggest problem.

She said: “The little one are very inquisitive, they are attracted to the shiny lenses on the sunglasses.

“Once they get hold of a pair they all race round the enclosure chasing the monkey with the glasses. They’ve grabbed around seven pairs so far.

“Hopefully this treatment with the bitter apple will work, we are planning to repeat it until they associate sunglasses with something that is unpleasant.”

This is not the troupe’s first brush with criminality, four years ago keepers also had to put the monkeys on a short mobile phone training programme – to discourage them from stealing phones.

Bolivian squirrel monkeys live in the rainforest and eat insects, fruit and seeds. ZSL London Zoo, along with other zoos in England, is involved in breeding programmes aimed at increasing numbers of the species.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110411/world-news/beware-of-thieving-monkeys.359334