9 June 2011
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
Chimps have "replayed" an ancient fable, a team says in Plos One journal.
In Aesop's 2,000-year-old tale, a crow uses stones to raise the water level in a pitcher to reach the liquid so as to quench its thirst.
But when given a similar set up, chimps were able to attain an out-of-reach, floating peanut by spitting water taken from a dispenser into a vertical tube.
One hungry chimp went even further by urinating into the vessel to get hold of the prized snack.
"He was spitting water into the tube, then got frustrated," explained lead researcher Daniel Hanus from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Leipzig, Germany.
"So he started peeing and then he realised: 'Wait a minute, if I move in that direction, that fills up the tube'."
The chimp's unusual method proved successful, the scientist said. The fact that the peanut was urine-sodden did not deter the animal from eating it, he added.
The study was carried out with gorillas and chimpanzees.
The primates were presented with a vertical glass tube, which was secured to a cage so it could not be moved or broken. At the bottom was a peanut, floating on a small amount of water.
They were also given access to a water dispenser.
The idea was that the animals would take water from the dispenser in their mouths, and then spit it into the tube to raise the water level.
It would take several visits back and forth between the dispenser and tube to gather enough water to get to the peanut.
The team found that none of the five gorillas was able to complete the task.
Chimps however were more successful. Out of 43 chimps, based in the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, in Uganda, and Germany's Leipzig Zoo, 14 worked out that they needed to take the water in their mouths and spit it into the tube, and seven did this enough times to successfully obtain a peanut.
Dr Hanus said the study highlighted the chimps' ability to solve problems.
He explained: "You cannot explain it by trial-and-error learning. They weren't just spitting water around the room and some fell in by accident.
"Instead, they were standing in front of the problem, trying to work out the solution - at first by trying to use their fingers, or trying to break it.
"But some, then went to the drinker and got the mouthful of water and came back and spat it directly into the tube, and a few did it enough times to get the peanut."
He added: "I think it is quite impressive - I call it insightful behaviour."
The urinating chimp, he said, was an interesting case.
The animal had initially solved the problem using the standard spitting technique, but when tested again, he was struggling to direct the water into the tube.
The urine did the trick, said Dr Hanus.
He said: "He seemed like he understood. He was like: 'That's cool, this helps me'."
Child's play
The team also repeated the study with children of varying ages.
Dr Hanus said: "Whenever we talked to people about this task, they'd say: 'Well, this is a demanding task, it is tricky - I don't know if I could solve that'.
"So we decided to test four, six and eight-year-olds."
This time, the subjects were given a watering can to fill up the tube rather than rely on a water dispenser and a refined spitting technique.
The researchers found that the four-year-olds were outperformed by the chimps: only two out 24 younger children could solve the problem.
Six-year-olds did better, with 10 out of the 24 managing to work out they needed to use the water. And eight-years-olds did the best, 14 children - 58% - completed the task.
Dr Hanus said: "Even the older children found it hard. It was interesting and impressive to see how difficult it was for them."
This research follows a similar study carried out with orangutans in 2007. They were very good at solving this problem: five out of the five primates tested could successfully complete the task.
The team said the difference between the three primate species was striking - although they plan to test the gorillas again using a slightly different set-up.
Birds too have been able to carry out this task.
A paper published in 2009 revealed that rooks were highly successful at working out a solution to this problem.
With a slightly different experiment design, where the birds had to drop stones into the water, and a peanut exchanged for a floating maggot, the team found that all four of the rooks tested could complete the task.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13560247
Showing posts with label Apes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apes. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Why are chimps hunting red colubus monkeys to death?
According to census data collected between 1975 and 2007, the Ugandan red colubus monkey has seen an 89% population drop, and the hunting habits of common chimpanzees are almost entirely to blame. Disease and competition with similar monkey species have also been cited as factors, but the researchers say these still just pale in significance when compared to the effects of chimp hunting.
Indeed, these chimps seem to be actively trying to wipe out their primate brethren. The chimps generally target younger monkeys that haven't yet reached reproductive age, which means there are far fewer red colubus monkeys around who can help bring the population back. Chimpanzees have been doing very well during all this, as their population has increased by 53% over the same time period that the monkeys have nearly disappeared.
It's a good reminder that overhunting is not a strictly human practice, although we tend to be particularly adept at wiping out other species through excessive hunting. The researchers aren't sure what is driving the chimps to kill so many colubus monkeys - it's possible that other food sources decreased or that environmental shifts could have made increased hunting the most effective option.
There is a bit of good news, though - the chimpanzees seem to have seriously cut back on their hunting in recent years, which might mean the red colubus monkeys can survive after all. This means that fewer adult chimps are passing on their hunting skills to their young, which is creating generations of poor hunters, which can only help the colubus monkeys. No one is quite sure why the chimps changed their hunting patterns, but I'd like to think this is our first evidence of chimp conservationism.
American Journal of Primatology via Scientific American. Image via.
http://io9.com/monkeynews/
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Rare lion tamarin monkey born at Durrell
 |
| Francisco is now almost two months old |
By Matt Walker
Editor, BBC Nature online
One of the world's most endangered primates has been born at the headquarters of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The species of monkey is critically endangered in the wild, with fewer than 1,000 black lion tamarins remaining.
Named Francisco, the baby's arrival will help efforts to reintroduce the species to its native habitat.
Black lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) are small agile monkeys, which have silky long black hair and a mane around their heads.
Adults are 25-33cm long with a slightly longer tail, and weigh 550-700g.
The species only survives in 11 localities in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
This rarity led the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, an internal charity based in Jersey that works to save species from extinction, to begin a captive breeding programme of the species.
Francisco was born on 22 March this year by Caesarean section. Durrell delayed announcing his birth until keepers were confident he had made it past his potentially risky early few weeks of life.
"This birth is great news; monitoring and successfully delivering the baby has been a very tricky event to manage," says Mark Brayshaw, head of Durrell's animal collection.
He is the first healthy baby born to his mother, named Roxanne, who has previously lost two babies and suffered several miscarriages.
Due to her previous problems the Durrell staff decided to monitor her four-and-a-half month pregnancy and deliver the baby by Caesarean at the appropriate time.
"Predicting when the infant would be sufficiently developed yet intervening prior to natural parturition has been key and has involved dedicated input from the mammal team with lots of early mornings and late nights to monitor progress."
According to Durrell staff, so far both mother and baby are doing well.
The infant is being hand-reared and syringe-fed every two hours throughout the day and night and over the next few weeks they will slowly teach him to lap milk from a dish. When he is able to do this successfully he will be returned to his family.
"The importance of this is that it is the first live birth of a black lion tamarin in captivity outside of Brazil for eight years and thus incredibly important to the European Endangered Species Programme," added Mr Brayshaw.
"There is still a very long way to go to ensure that the captive population's viability is assured but this is most definitely a step in the right direction."
There are currently nine critically endangered black lion tamarins, including the new baby, at Durrell's headquarters in Jersey.
In 1999 the Durrell team returned a group of black lion tamarins to Brazil for reintroduction to the wild.
See video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13424246
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
Friday, May 6, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
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
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
Friday, March 18, 2011
Iran launches first capsule for living creature into orbit
17.03.2011 15:09
The Iranian Aerospace Organization launched into orbit its first capsule with a living being on March 15, the IRNA reported.
The capsule, which is located on board the Kavoshgar-4 rocket, was designed to carry a monkey. For the pilot trip, a wax figure was placed into the capsule instead of an animal.
The launch will test the capsule's components.
The capsule took an aerial photograph of the Earth at an altitude of 120 kilometers from its surface. Technical failures were not reported.
Iran successfully launched the Kaveshgyar-1 missile on Feb. 4, 2008, which was used to collect data and place the first national satellite into orbit. Tehran launched the Kavoshgar-2 rocket with scientific equipment in November 2008. The rocket took the atmospheric pressure and measured the wind speed at different altitudes.
In February 2010, Iran successfully test-fired the Kavoshgar-3 rocket, which carried one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into space and returned them to Earth alive.
Iran's first astronaut will fly into space in 2017, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier.
http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1847092.html
The Iranian Aerospace Organization launched into orbit its first capsule with a living being on March 15, the IRNA reported.
The capsule, which is located on board the Kavoshgar-4 rocket, was designed to carry a monkey. For the pilot trip, a wax figure was placed into the capsule instead of an animal.
The launch will test the capsule's components.
The capsule took an aerial photograph of the Earth at an altitude of 120 kilometers from its surface. Technical failures were not reported.
Iran successfully launched the Kaveshgyar-1 missile on Feb. 4, 2008, which was used to collect data and place the first national satellite into orbit. Tehran launched the Kavoshgar-2 rocket with scientific equipment in November 2008. The rocket took the atmospheric pressure and measured the wind speed at different altitudes.
In February 2010, Iran successfully test-fired the Kavoshgar-3 rocket, which carried one rodent, two turtles, and several worms into space and returned them to Earth alive.
Iran's first astronaut will fly into space in 2017, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier.
http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1847092.html
Friday, March 11, 2011
Aging Rates, Gender Gap in Mortality Similar Across All Primates
ScienceDaily (Mar. 10, 2011) — Humans aren't the only ones who grow old gracefully, says a new study of primate aging patterns.
For a long time it was thought that humans, with our relatively long life spans and access to modern medicine, aged more slowly than other animals. Early comparisons with rats, mice, and other short-lived creatures confirmed the hunch. But now, the first-ever multi-species comparison of human aging patterns with those in chimps, gorillas, and other primates suggests the pace of human aging may not be so unique after all.
The findings appear in the March 11 issue of Science.
You don't need to read obituaries or sell life insurance to know that death and disease become more common as we transition from middle age to old age. But scientists studying creatures from mice to fruit flies long assumed the aging clock ticked more slowly for humans.
We had good reason to think human aging was unique, said co-author Anne Bronikowski, an associate professor at Iowa State University. For one, humans live longer than many animals. There are some exceptions -- parrots, seabirds, clams and tortoises can all outlive us -- but humans stand out as the longest-lived primates.
"Humans live for many more years past our reproductive prime," Bronikowski said. "If we were like other mammals, we would start dying fairly rapidly after we reach mid-life. But we don't," she said.
"There's been this argument in the scientific literature for a long time that human aging was unique, but we didn't have data on aging in wild primates besides chimps until recently," said co-author Susan Alberts, associate director at the NSF-funded National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, N.C., and a biologist at Duke University.
The researchers combined data from long-term studies of seven species of wild primates: capuchin monkeys from Costa Rica, muriqui monkeys from Brazil, baboons and blue monkeys from Kenya, chimpanzees from Tanzania, gorillas from Rwanda, and sifaka lemurs from Madagascar.
The team focused not on the inevitable decline in health or fertility that come with advancing age, but rather on the risk of dying. When they compared human aging rates -- measured as the rate at which mortality risk increases with age -- to similar data for nearly 3,000 individual monkeys, apes and lemurs, the human data fell neatly within the primate continuum.
"Human patterns are not strikingly different, even though wild primates experience sources of mortality from which humans may be protected," the authors wrote in a letter to Science.
The results also confirm a pattern observed in humans and elsewhere in the animal kingdom: as males age, they die sooner than their female counterparts. In primates, the mortality gap between males and females is narrowest for the species with the least amount of male-male aggression -- a monkey called the muriqui -- the researchers report.
"Muriquis are the only species in our sample in which males do not compete overtly with one another for access to mates," said co-author Karen Strier, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied muriquis since 1982. The results suggest the reason why males of other species die faster than females may be the stress and strain of competition, the authors said.
Do the findings have any practical implications for humans? Modern medicine is helping humans live longer than ever before, the researchers note.
"Yet we still don't know what governs maximum life span," Alberts said. "Some human studies suggest we might be able to live a lot longer than we do now. Looking to other primates to understand where we are and aren't flexible in our aging will help answer that question."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110310141427.htm
For a long time it was thought that humans, with our relatively long life spans and access to modern medicine, aged more slowly than other animals. Early comparisons with rats, mice, and other short-lived creatures confirmed the hunch. But now, the first-ever multi-species comparison of human aging patterns with those in chimps, gorillas, and other primates suggests the pace of human aging may not be so unique after all.
The findings appear in the March 11 issue of Science.
You don't need to read obituaries or sell life insurance to know that death and disease become more common as we transition from middle age to old age. But scientists studying creatures from mice to fruit flies long assumed the aging clock ticked more slowly for humans.
We had good reason to think human aging was unique, said co-author Anne Bronikowski, an associate professor at Iowa State University. For one, humans live longer than many animals. There are some exceptions -- parrots, seabirds, clams and tortoises can all outlive us -- but humans stand out as the longest-lived primates.
"Humans live for many more years past our reproductive prime," Bronikowski said. "If we were like other mammals, we would start dying fairly rapidly after we reach mid-life. But we don't," she said.
"There's been this argument in the scientific literature for a long time that human aging was unique, but we didn't have data on aging in wild primates besides chimps until recently," said co-author Susan Alberts, associate director at the NSF-funded National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, N.C., and a biologist at Duke University.
The researchers combined data from long-term studies of seven species of wild primates: capuchin monkeys from Costa Rica, muriqui monkeys from Brazil, baboons and blue monkeys from Kenya, chimpanzees from Tanzania, gorillas from Rwanda, and sifaka lemurs from Madagascar.
The team focused not on the inevitable decline in health or fertility that come with advancing age, but rather on the risk of dying. When they compared human aging rates -- measured as the rate at which mortality risk increases with age -- to similar data for nearly 3,000 individual monkeys, apes and lemurs, the human data fell neatly within the primate continuum.
"Human patterns are not strikingly different, even though wild primates experience sources of mortality from which humans may be protected," the authors wrote in a letter to Science.
The results also confirm a pattern observed in humans and elsewhere in the animal kingdom: as males age, they die sooner than their female counterparts. In primates, the mortality gap between males and females is narrowest for the species with the least amount of male-male aggression -- a monkey called the muriqui -- the researchers report.
"Muriquis are the only species in our sample in which males do not compete overtly with one another for access to mates," said co-author Karen Strier, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin who has studied muriquis since 1982. The results suggest the reason why males of other species die faster than females may be the stress and strain of competition, the authors said.
Do the findings have any practical implications for humans? Modern medicine is helping humans live longer than ever before, the researchers note.
"Yet we still don't know what governs maximum life span," Alberts said. "Some human studies suggest we might be able to live a lot longer than we do now. Looking to other primates to understand where we are and aren't flexible in our aging will help answer that question."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110310141427.htm
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
PETA honors Guayama mayor for saving monkeys
Bioculture can’t take primates away from home now
March 1, 2011
by Peggy Ann Bliss
When Glorimari Jaime RodrÃguez, mayor of Guayama, approved two historic ordinances prohibiting the exportation, breeding and use of monkeys for experiments in her city she put an effective end to the plans of Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc., to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from the island of Mauritius, confine them cruelly in cages, force them to reproduce in Guayama and sell their progeny to foreign laboratoris to use in painful and lethal experiments. For this effort Mayor Jaime will be honored with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Compassion Award.
"Mayor Jaime knows that Bioculture's plans would have been disastrous for her community and for the animals," said Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA's lab research division.
"Thanks to her, there apparently will be no legal road for Bioculture to take the monkeys away from their home in the jungle, raise them in Guayama and sell their offspring to laboratories for cruel experiments."
In addition to the Guayama legislation, last year the Puerto Rico Senate approved a resolution sponsored by Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly,urging government agencies of the United States to "deny [to Bioculture] any request for a license to import monkeys to Puerto Rico."
The island legislature had simultaneously submitted bills to make it impossible for any other municipality to open its doors to doing business with Bioculture. However, the question could be moot if their importation could be blocked completely.
Animal advocates had complained that in Mauritius, babies were forcefully taken from their mothers before the natural weaning process, causing extreme anxiety and stress. They also point out that while the tests on the animals are not always painful or fatal, monkeys are social animals who cannot survive caging for years. It was also noted that when the testing is completed, the animals usually have nowhere to go and must be euthanized. For more information or to see the prize awarded to Guayama's mayor, visit the Web at PETA.org or the PETA blog.
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/PETA-honors-Guayama-mayor-for-saving-monkeys
March 1, 2011
by Peggy Ann Bliss
When Glorimari Jaime RodrÃguez, mayor of Guayama, approved two historic ordinances prohibiting the exportation, breeding and use of monkeys for experiments in her city she put an effective end to the plans of Bioculture Puerto Rico, Inc., to capture more than 4,000 monkeys from the island of Mauritius, confine them cruelly in cages, force them to reproduce in Guayama and sell their progeny to foreign laboratoris to use in painful and lethal experiments. For this effort Mayor Jaime will be honored with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Compassion Award.
"Mayor Jaime knows that Bioculture's plans would have been disastrous for her community and for the animals," said Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA's lab research division.
"Thanks to her, there apparently will be no legal road for Bioculture to take the monkeys away from their home in the jungle, raise them in Guayama and sell their offspring to laboratories for cruel experiments."
In addition to the Guayama legislation, last year the Puerto Rico Senate approved a resolution sponsored by Sen. Melinda Romero Donnelly,urging government agencies of the United States to "deny [to Bioculture] any request for a license to import monkeys to Puerto Rico."
The island legislature had simultaneously submitted bills to make it impossible for any other municipality to open its doors to doing business with Bioculture. However, the question could be moot if their importation could be blocked completely.
Animal advocates had complained that in Mauritius, babies were forcefully taken from their mothers before the natural weaning process, causing extreme anxiety and stress. They also point out that while the tests on the animals are not always painful or fatal, monkeys are social animals who cannot survive caging for years. It was also noted that when the testing is completed, the animals usually have nowhere to go and must be euthanized. For more information or to see the prize awarded to Guayama's mayor, visit the Web at PETA.org or the PETA blog.
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/PETA-honors-Guayama-mayor-for-saving-monkeys
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Rare gorilla twins born in wild
Twin mountain gorillas have been born in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
The babies born on 3 February 2011 are only the fifth set of twins ever recorded in the history of Rwanda's mountain gorillas.
The last reported birth of mountain gorilla twins was in 2004, according to conservation group The Gorilla Organization.
Fewer than 800 mountain gorillas are thought to remain in the wild, though numbers are thought to be increasing.
"It is very rare to hear of mountain gorilla twins, so we were all excited to hear the news from rangers yesterday," says Emmanuel Bugingo, Programme Manager in Rwanda for The Gorilla Organization, which has staff in London, UK and Africa.
Double gain
The twins are both boys.
"Gorilla mothers usually have only one baby every four years or so - which is one reason why they are so vulnerable - so twins give a rare double gain in one birth," adds Says Ian Redmond, Chairman of the Ape Alliance, an international coalition of organisations and individuals that works for the conservation and welfare of apes.
The mother, known fondly to rangers as Kabatwa, belongs to the Hirwa group of gorillas.
The last mountain gorilla twins, born in 2004, were named Byishimo and Impano by the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, at a gorilla naming ceremony in 2005.
Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are a subspecies of the Eastern gorilla.
The Eastern Lowland Gorilla (G. b. graueri) is the other subspecies, and is the most populous, at about 5,000 individuals.
Last year a census revealed that the population of endangered mountain gorillas has increased significantly in the last 30 years.
A survey carried out in the Virunga Massif - where most of the world's mountain gorillas live - revealed 480 individuals living in 36 groups.
Conservationists say that, 30 years ago, only 250 gorillas survived in this same area.
Along with the 302 mountain gorillas from a census in Bwindi in 2006, the world population is now more than 780.
The Virunga Massif includes three contiguous national parks: Parc National des Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda.
The only other location where mountain gorillas exist is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, and scientists are considering elevating the few hundred remaining Bwindi gorillas to the rank of subspecies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9391000/9391967.stm
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
See also: http://news.uk.msn.com/environment/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=156089219
Scientists Find Singing Apes Feature Different Accents
By Jeffrey Kluger
Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
You've got to love gibbons. Part of a genus of primates known as small apes, they comprise seven species with such irresistible names as the northern white-cheeked gibbon, the southern buff-cheeked gibbon and the eastern black gibbon. They also sing — conducting long-distance dialogues that primatologists call "duets." Now it appears those duets are also sung with what amounts to dialects — or at least regional accents — a decidedly human trait in a decidedly nonhuman critter.
All species of gibbons are jungle-dwellers, and all can be found across most unspoiled stretches of southeast Asia. Their calls and songs are ubiquitous throughout their range, forming a background accompaniment similar to bird songs — though much, much louder. Like bird songs too, gibbon songs are packed with meaning, used to define territory, attract mates and, once those pair bonds are formed, strengthen them. (See TIME's photo gallery "The World's Most Elusive Primates.")
But even casual observers of gibbon songs have noticed that they're not all the same and that the farther you travel from any given spot, the more the songs seem to change. To determine how great those differences are and what drives the regional variations, a team led by primatologist Van Ngoc Thinh of the German Primate Center in Goettingen, Germany ventured into the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to listen to gibbons in 24 different areas.
The investigators set up listening posts in the jungle each morning throughout 2007 and 2008 and eventually collected 400 calls of male and female gibbons in 92 groups. They also extracted samples of mitochondrial gibbon DNA in 22 of the the 24 locations.
To untrained human ears, the songs the researchers gathered might not sound terribly hummable, but the scientists themselves heard the music in them. The female eastern black gibbon, for example, "produced fast up-down sweeps like a spiral spring with a vibrato sound on the first two notes," Thinh and his colleagues wrote. By contrast, "The first note of the male [western black gibbon] call had slightly ascending structure followed by notes with fast up-down modulation."
But while the species calls may have all differed, some were more different than others. The four species in the southern part of the survey region had very similar calls that were distinguished mostly by comparatively subtle lilts and dips — like the accents of the residents of neighboring counties across the southern U.S. Two of the northern species, however, sang with twangs that were entirely different from each other as well as from the southern troops — like adding a Boston and Chicago accent to the mix. (See pictures of primates facing extinction.)
The investigators analyzed the frequency, pitch and other differences among all the songs — reducing them to objective data as opposed to the subjective impressions of the listeners. They then plotted all of these on a scattergram, with each song's acoustical characteristics determining its position. Here too the gibbon calls clustered in three principal groups. Finally, the investigators conducted DNA analyses of their mitochondrial samples and found that those followed a similar drift, with the differences in genes widening as the differences in geography and song did.
"The high significant relation between acoustic similarity, geographic distance and genetic relatedness show that gibbon songs are a salient feature of their genetic relatedness," the researchers wrote.
That may not seem entirely surprising — genes determine a whole lot of things, after all — but it reveals a lot about singing gibbons, not the least being that they don't bring as much brainpower to their work as you'd think. Birds of the same or similar species tend to vary their trilling when they live close to one another — the better to distinguish my song, my territory and my mates from yours.
Gibbon, as the scattergrams show, do just the opposite, with proximity driving musical similarity. That's because gibbons are pretty much born with their song software preloaded. It can change over time and over generations, but only at the speed the genes change. Songbirds must actually learn their tunes, making it possible to alter them in real time if too many competitors start singing along.
In that sense, birds may actually be a little bit closer to humans on the communications hierarchy than gibbons are. But our primate cousins are nonetheless a good deal more verbal than we ever knew — and that makes the bonds of kinship a little tighter too.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2047222,00.html#ixzz1DaG2BJeG
Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
You've got to love gibbons. Part of a genus of primates known as small apes, they comprise seven species with such irresistible names as the northern white-cheeked gibbon, the southern buff-cheeked gibbon and the eastern black gibbon. They also sing — conducting long-distance dialogues that primatologists call "duets." Now it appears those duets are also sung with what amounts to dialects — or at least regional accents — a decidedly human trait in a decidedly nonhuman critter.
All species of gibbons are jungle-dwellers, and all can be found across most unspoiled stretches of southeast Asia. Their calls and songs are ubiquitous throughout their range, forming a background accompaniment similar to bird songs — though much, much louder. Like bird songs too, gibbon songs are packed with meaning, used to define territory, attract mates and, once those pair bonds are formed, strengthen them. (See TIME's photo gallery "The World's Most Elusive Primates.")
But even casual observers of gibbon songs have noticed that they're not all the same and that the farther you travel from any given spot, the more the songs seem to change. To determine how great those differences are and what drives the regional variations, a team led by primatologist Van Ngoc Thinh of the German Primate Center in Goettingen, Germany ventured into the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to listen to gibbons in 24 different areas.
The investigators set up listening posts in the jungle each morning throughout 2007 and 2008 and eventually collected 400 calls of male and female gibbons in 92 groups. They also extracted samples of mitochondrial gibbon DNA in 22 of the the 24 locations.
To untrained human ears, the songs the researchers gathered might not sound terribly hummable, but the scientists themselves heard the music in them. The female eastern black gibbon, for example, "produced fast up-down sweeps like a spiral spring with a vibrato sound on the first two notes," Thinh and his colleagues wrote. By contrast, "The first note of the male [western black gibbon] call had slightly ascending structure followed by notes with fast up-down modulation."
But while the species calls may have all differed, some were more different than others. The four species in the southern part of the survey region had very similar calls that were distinguished mostly by comparatively subtle lilts and dips — like the accents of the residents of neighboring counties across the southern U.S. Two of the northern species, however, sang with twangs that were entirely different from each other as well as from the southern troops — like adding a Boston and Chicago accent to the mix. (See pictures of primates facing extinction.)
The investigators analyzed the frequency, pitch and other differences among all the songs — reducing them to objective data as opposed to the subjective impressions of the listeners. They then plotted all of these on a scattergram, with each song's acoustical characteristics determining its position. Here too the gibbon calls clustered in three principal groups. Finally, the investigators conducted DNA analyses of their mitochondrial samples and found that those followed a similar drift, with the differences in genes widening as the differences in geography and song did.
"The high significant relation between acoustic similarity, geographic distance and genetic relatedness show that gibbon songs are a salient feature of their genetic relatedness," the researchers wrote.
That may not seem entirely surprising — genes determine a whole lot of things, after all — but it reveals a lot about singing gibbons, not the least being that they don't bring as much brainpower to their work as you'd think. Birds of the same or similar species tend to vary their trilling when they live close to one another — the better to distinguish my song, my territory and my mates from yours.
Gibbon, as the scattergrams show, do just the opposite, with proximity driving musical similarity. That's because gibbons are pretty much born with their song software preloaded. It can change over time and over generations, but only at the speed the genes change. Songbirds must actually learn their tunes, making it possible to alter them in real time if too many competitors start singing along.
In that sense, birds may actually be a little bit closer to humans on the communications hierarchy than gibbons are. But our primate cousins are nonetheless a good deal more verbal than we ever knew — and that makes the bonds of kinship a little tighter too.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2047222,00.html#ixzz1DaG2BJeG
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
How 'Chimpus Commercialus' Went From Ad Star to Endangered Species
Pressure From Animal-Rights Groups Has Agencies Pledging Not to Use Great Apes for Ad Entertainment
By Brian Steinberg
Published: February 06, 2011
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- They were once stars. After a rough start in life -- taken from their mothers during infancy -- they found themselves on the national stage, making millions laugh during the Super Bowl. Their careers were short, two or three years at most, and now they've been shunted aside. But they're the lucky ones. Sent to finish out their lives in Florida, the four chimpanzees from the original CareerBuilder Super Bowl ads share a home with Michael Jackson's former pet, Bubbles, at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula. They could have ended up in cages in roadside attractions, or on the nightly news, put down after going on a rampage.
Before this year's Super Bowl, it had likely been years since most Americans had seen a national TV spot featuring an ape. That's because chimpus commercialus and its kin, thanks to pressure put on marketers and ad agencies by animal-rights groups, are on the verge of extinction.
But there are still reminders. After moving away from the use of chimpanzees in its Big Game commercials, CareerBuilder has sparked a minor controversy by reviving interest in the animals that have long been a staple of big-budget TV advertising. CareerBuilder ads in last night's game returned to the theme from the company's memorable efforts in 2005 and 2006: chimpanzees as obstinate, time-wasting cubicle-mates who demonstrate the need for CareerBuilder's online job listings.
Last night's spot could mark the last for this close relative of the monkey that has ridden on Madison Avenue's back for decades.
Eighteen different ad agencies have agreed in the last few years to stop using great apes in the commercials they produce, the result of an ongoing effort started in 2008 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Among the big firms involved are Omnicom Group's BBDO, GSD&M and Merkley & Partners; Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann Erickson, DraftFCB and RPA; Havas' Arnold and Euro RSCG; WPP's Grey Group, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam and JWT; and Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett.
"The list is only going to grow," said Julia Galluci, a primatologist with PETA who studies the use of apes in commercials.
Indeed, Omnicom's DDB and TBWA/Chiat/Day, two agencies that work for marketers that have made memorable ads with chimps in the past -- Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo -- are not yet on the list.
PETA also successfully lobbied several major advertisers to modify or pull ads in 2010 when apes were featured. Pfizer edited out an orangutan used in a commercial crafted by Grey Group for its Robitussin, and decided instead to incorporate a digital image of a chimp. Dodge, AT&T and Travelers Insurance made similar moves after PETA's approach.
For its part, CareerBuilder, which created its ad in-house, said it has treated the animals involved in this year's Super Bowl plans well. "During the production of our ad, we followed the strictest guidelines to ensure our chimpanzee stars were treated well and not harmed in any way. We hired top trainers known to provide the highest standard of care for their animals. We also had a member of an animal rights group, the American Humane Association, on set during the entire filming to ensure the chimpanzees were treated with respect," the company said in a statement. "This was very important to us."
But it's not the treatment of the animals on set that is the main concern from animal-rights groups. Rather, it's the procurement and disposal of apes for acting.
Apes in the wild stay with their mothers for nearly the first decade of life, and typically nurse for the first five or six years, said Patti Ragan, founder and director of the Center for Great Apes, the private sanctuary that hosts those four CareerBuilder chimps as well as Bubbles. But to work on an ad, movie or TV program, a chimp or orangutan needs to be under the age of 8. When they pass that age, she said, "they are too dangerous and strong to work around humans" and are therefore retired. Caring for the animals after they can no longer work on shoots can require something in the neighborhood of $20,000 a year, she estimated.
Heartstring-plucking details such as these are likely not immediately clear to the consumers who thrill to monkeyshines in TV pitches. And even those who protect the chimps admit that there has been no consumer outrage. If it did, the animals wouldn't show up year after year in the Super Bowl, the nation's broadest advertising showcase.
Great apes have appeared in 10 different ads tailored for the Big Game since 2000, according to research from students of Chuck Tomkovick, a professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who has studied Super Bowl ads for years. There's good reason: Mr. Tomkovick's recent research suggests that placing any sort of an animal in an ad increases its likability.
The ad industry's eagerness to distance itself from chimps and their cousins comes even though capturing consumer attention with TV ads has become increasingly difficult. And it arrives despite the fact consumers are more likely to stop and notice chimps and apes when spotted on the TV screen. Chimps and apes have particular appeal, said Barbara J. King, an anthropology professor at the College of William and Mary, who has studied apes and monkeys in the wild and in U.S. zoos for 30 years.
"They are like us, but they're not like us," she said. "It's exactly that strange paradox that grabs people."
Further, when it comes to convincing consumers that apes need protecting, there is a perception problem. "It looks to me like these commercials are making these animals seem cute and perfectly well-cared for," said Ms. King, the anthropology professor. "It's not clear to me from the surface of it why consumers would necessarily be concerned unless someone tells them the back story."
And PETA has been relaying that story to ad-agency executives to some effect. "The cruelty of separating baby apes from their mothers, the brutal training, and the tragic 'retirement' provide a real incentive not to use them," said Andrew Robertson, president-CEO of BBDO Worldwide.
"They are cute. They behave like humans. They are cuddly," said Tony Granger, global chief creative officer at Young & Rubicam. "But what really does it for me is understanding that the apes are taken away from their mothers. We honestly didn't know any of this."
PETA expects to press its case, Ms. Galluci said. The organization is in early talks with BBDO to create an ad campaign aimed at ad-industry employees and make them aware of the problems with using live apes in ad shoots. "It's the agencies that are writing the stories, writing the scripts for these ads," she said. Once agency executives hear the details about the simians, she added, "they are really quick to agree" not to use them any longer. Whether the entire industry apes the move remains to be seen.
http://adage.com/superbowl/article?article_id=148714
By Brian Steinberg
Published: February 06, 2011
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- They were once stars. After a rough start in life -- taken from their mothers during infancy -- they found themselves on the national stage, making millions laugh during the Super Bowl. Their careers were short, two or three years at most, and now they've been shunted aside. But they're the lucky ones. Sent to finish out their lives in Florida, the four chimpanzees from the original CareerBuilder Super Bowl ads share a home with Michael Jackson's former pet, Bubbles, at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula. They could have ended up in cages in roadside attractions, or on the nightly news, put down after going on a rampage.
Before this year's Super Bowl, it had likely been years since most Americans had seen a national TV spot featuring an ape. That's because chimpus commercialus and its kin, thanks to pressure put on marketers and ad agencies by animal-rights groups, are on the verge of extinction.
But there are still reminders. After moving away from the use of chimpanzees in its Big Game commercials, CareerBuilder has sparked a minor controversy by reviving interest in the animals that have long been a staple of big-budget TV advertising. CareerBuilder ads in last night's game returned to the theme from the company's memorable efforts in 2005 and 2006: chimpanzees as obstinate, time-wasting cubicle-mates who demonstrate the need for CareerBuilder's online job listings.
Last night's spot could mark the last for this close relative of the monkey that has ridden on Madison Avenue's back for decades.
Eighteen different ad agencies have agreed in the last few years to stop using great apes in the commercials they produce, the result of an ongoing effort started in 2008 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Among the big firms involved are Omnicom Group's BBDO, GSD&M and Merkley & Partners; Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann Erickson, DraftFCB and RPA; Havas' Arnold and Euro RSCG; WPP's Grey Group, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam and JWT; and Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett.
"The list is only going to grow," said Julia Galluci, a primatologist with PETA who studies the use of apes in commercials.
Indeed, Omnicom's DDB and TBWA/Chiat/Day, two agencies that work for marketers that have made memorable ads with chimps in the past -- Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo -- are not yet on the list.
PETA also successfully lobbied several major advertisers to modify or pull ads in 2010 when apes were featured. Pfizer edited out an orangutan used in a commercial crafted by Grey Group for its Robitussin, and decided instead to incorporate a digital image of a chimp. Dodge, AT&T and Travelers Insurance made similar moves after PETA's approach.
For its part, CareerBuilder, which created its ad in-house, said it has treated the animals involved in this year's Super Bowl plans well. "During the production of our ad, we followed the strictest guidelines to ensure our chimpanzee stars were treated well and not harmed in any way. We hired top trainers known to provide the highest standard of care for their animals. We also had a member of an animal rights group, the American Humane Association, on set during the entire filming to ensure the chimpanzees were treated with respect," the company said in a statement. "This was very important to us."
But it's not the treatment of the animals on set that is the main concern from animal-rights groups. Rather, it's the procurement and disposal of apes for acting.
Apes in the wild stay with their mothers for nearly the first decade of life, and typically nurse for the first five or six years, said Patti Ragan, founder and director of the Center for Great Apes, the private sanctuary that hosts those four CareerBuilder chimps as well as Bubbles. But to work on an ad, movie or TV program, a chimp or orangutan needs to be under the age of 8. When they pass that age, she said, "they are too dangerous and strong to work around humans" and are therefore retired. Caring for the animals after they can no longer work on shoots can require something in the neighborhood of $20,000 a year, she estimated.
Heartstring-plucking details such as these are likely not immediately clear to the consumers who thrill to monkeyshines in TV pitches. And even those who protect the chimps admit that there has been no consumer outrage. If it did, the animals wouldn't show up year after year in the Super Bowl, the nation's broadest advertising showcase.
Great apes have appeared in 10 different ads tailored for the Big Game since 2000, according to research from students of Chuck Tomkovick, a professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, who has studied Super Bowl ads for years. There's good reason: Mr. Tomkovick's recent research suggests that placing any sort of an animal in an ad increases its likability.
The ad industry's eagerness to distance itself from chimps and their cousins comes even though capturing consumer attention with TV ads has become increasingly difficult. And it arrives despite the fact consumers are more likely to stop and notice chimps and apes when spotted on the TV screen. Chimps and apes have particular appeal, said Barbara J. King, an anthropology professor at the College of William and Mary, who has studied apes and monkeys in the wild and in U.S. zoos for 30 years.
"They are like us, but they're not like us," she said. "It's exactly that strange paradox that grabs people."
Further, when it comes to convincing consumers that apes need protecting, there is a perception problem. "It looks to me like these commercials are making these animals seem cute and perfectly well-cared for," said Ms. King, the anthropology professor. "It's not clear to me from the surface of it why consumers would necessarily be concerned unless someone tells them the back story."
And PETA has been relaying that story to ad-agency executives to some effect. "The cruelty of separating baby apes from their mothers, the brutal training, and the tragic 'retirement' provide a real incentive not to use them," said Andrew Robertson, president-CEO of BBDO Worldwide.
"They are cute. They behave like humans. They are cuddly," said Tony Granger, global chief creative officer at Young & Rubicam. "But what really does it for me is understanding that the apes are taken away from their mothers. We honestly didn't know any of this."
PETA expects to press its case, Ms. Galluci said. The organization is in early talks with BBDO to create an ad campaign aimed at ad-industry employees and make them aware of the problems with using live apes in ad shoots. "It's the agencies that are writing the stories, writing the scripts for these ads," she said. Once agency executives hear the details about the simians, she added, "they are really quick to agree" not to use them any longer. Whether the entire industry apes the move remains to be seen.
http://adage.com/superbowl/article?article_id=148714
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Gorillas may be key to malaria mystery
2010/10/01
MALARIA appears to have jumped to humans from gorillas, and the parasite may have spread globally from a single gorilla to a single human, researchers report.
DNA from the droppings of nearly 3000 apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos – shows the strain of malaria parasite most common in humans is virtually identical to one of many strains that infects gorillas.
Beatrice Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues used ape droppings collected to study the origins of the Aids virus for their study, published in the journal Nature.
Hahn’s team looked for DNA from malaria parasites, including the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes most human cases.
“Wild apes, in particular the common chimps and the western gorillas, are naturally infected with at least eight or nine different Plasmodium species,” Hahn said. For years chimps were the chief suspects. But Hahn’s data shows only gorillas are infected by a Plasmodium species virtually identical on the genetic level to the type that infects humans. The findings could have implications for efforts to get rid of malaria, said Dr Larry Slutsker, who heads the malaria programme at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we were trying to rid the planet of every last parasite and there was a reservoir in western gorillas, that would have implications for eradication. I don’t think we are there, obviously,” he said. — BY MAGGIE FOX Reuters
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=437111
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
MALARIA appears to have jumped to humans from gorillas, and the parasite may have spread globally from a single gorilla to a single human, researchers report.
DNA from the droppings of nearly 3000 apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos – shows the strain of malaria parasite most common in humans is virtually identical to one of many strains that infects gorillas.
Beatrice Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues used ape droppings collected to study the origins of the Aids virus for their study, published in the journal Nature.
Hahn’s team looked for DNA from malaria parasites, including the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes most human cases.
“Wild apes, in particular the common chimps and the western gorillas, are naturally infected with at least eight or nine different Plasmodium species,” Hahn said. For years chimps were the chief suspects. But Hahn’s data shows only gorillas are infected by a Plasmodium species virtually identical on the genetic level to the type that infects humans. The findings could have implications for efforts to get rid of malaria, said Dr Larry Slutsker, who heads the malaria programme at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we were trying to rid the planet of every last parasite and there was a reservoir in western gorillas, that would have implications for eradication. I don’t think we are there, obviously,” he said. — BY MAGGIE FOX Reuters
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=437111
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Gorillas may be key to malaria mystery
2010/10/01
MALARIA appears to have jumped to humans from gorillas, and the parasite may have spread globally from a single gorilla to a single human, researchers report.
DNA from the droppings of nearly 3000 apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos – shows the strain of malaria parasite most common in humans is virtually identical to one of many strains that infects gorillas.
Beatrice Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues used ape droppings collected to study the origins of the Aids virus for their study, published in the journal Nature.
Hahn’s team looked for DNA from malaria parasites, including the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes most human cases.
“Wild apes, in particular the common chimps and the western gorillas, are naturally infected with at least eight or nine different Plasmodium species,” Hahn said. For years chimps were the chief suspects. But Hahn’s data shows only gorillas are infected by a Plasmodium species virtually identical on the genetic level to the type that infects humans. The findings could have implications for efforts to get rid of malaria, said Dr Larry Slutsker, who heads the malaria programme at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we were trying to rid the planet of every last parasite and there was a reservoir in western gorillas, that would have implications for eradication. I don’t think we are there, obviously,” he said. — BY MAGGIE FOX Reuters
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=437111
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
MALARIA appears to have jumped to humans from gorillas, and the parasite may have spread globally from a single gorilla to a single human, researchers report.
DNA from the droppings of nearly 3000 apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos – shows the strain of malaria parasite most common in humans is virtually identical to one of many strains that infects gorillas.
Beatrice Hahn, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues used ape droppings collected to study the origins of the Aids virus for their study, published in the journal Nature.
Hahn’s team looked for DNA from malaria parasites, including the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes most human cases.
“Wild apes, in particular the common chimps and the western gorillas, are naturally infected with at least eight or nine different Plasmodium species,” Hahn said. For years chimps were the chief suspects. But Hahn’s data shows only gorillas are infected by a Plasmodium species virtually identical on the genetic level to the type that infects humans. The findings could have implications for efforts to get rid of malaria, said Dr Larry Slutsker, who heads the malaria programme at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If we were trying to rid the planet of every last parasite and there was a reservoir in western gorillas, that would have implications for eradication. I don’t think we are there, obviously,” he said. — BY MAGGIE FOX Reuters
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=437111
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Study: Monkeys Show Self-Awareness
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9/29/10
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video are available at
http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/macaque-mirror.html
EDITOR'S NOTE: The study, with several videos of the monkeys, appears in today's PLoS One at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012865
FOR FIRST TIME, MONKEYS RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR, INDICATING SELF-AWARENESS
MADISON - Typically, monkeys don't know what to make of a mirror. They may ignore it or interpret their reflection as another, invading monkey, but they don't recognize the reflection as their own image. Chimpanzees and people pass this "mark" test - they obviously recognize their own reflection and make funny faces, look at a temporary mark that the scientists have placed on their face or wonder how they got so old and grey.
For 40 years, scientists have concluded from this type of behavior that a few species are self-aware - they recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world.
Because chimps, our closest relatives, pass the test, while almost all other primate species fail it, scientists began to discuss a "cognitive divide" between the highest primates and the rest.
But a study published today (Sept. 29) by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the mark test can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.
The finding casts doubt on both the relevance of the mark test and on the existence of a definitive cognitive divide between higher and lower primates.
Populin, who studies the neural basis of perception and behavior, had placed head implants on two rhesus macaque monkeys, while preparing to study attention deficit disorder. Then Abigail Rajala, an experienced animal technician who is in the university's Neuroscience Training Program, mentioned that one of the monkeys could recognize himself in a small mirror. "I told her the scientific literature says they can't do this," says Populin, "so we decided to do a simple study."
Much to his delight, it turned out that the graduate student was right.
In the standard mark test, a harmless mark is put on the animal's face, where it can only be seen in a mirror. If the animal stares at the mirror and touches the mark, it is said to be self-aware: It knows that the mirror shows its own reflection, not that of another animal. (Animals that lack self-awareness may, for example, search for the "invading" animal behind the mirror.)
Rhesus macaques, a mainstay of medical and psychological research, have long failed the mark test.
But in Populin's lab, the monkeys that got the implants were clearly looking in the mirror while examining and grooming their foreheads, near the implant. Tellingly, they were also examining areas on their body, particularly the genitals, that they had never seen before. In some cases, the monkeys even turned themselves upside down during these examinations. In other cases, they grasped and adjusted the mirror to get a better view of themselves.
When the researchers covered the mirror glass with black plastic, these behaviors disappeared, and the monkeys ignored what had been a subject of fascination.
Furthermore, although a macaque will often interpret its reflection as representing an intruding monkey and adopt either an aggressive or submissive response, the implanted monkeys showed dramatically fewer of those "social" behaviors compared to the behaviors, such as exploring hidden body parts, that indicate self-awareness, Populin says.
"This report makes a unique contribution to our views about primate self-awareness because the 'mirror test' has been the traditional gold standard for determining if a person and/or animal met a criterion for having a sense of self," says Christopher Coe, a primatologist and professor of psychology at UW-Madison. "If a young child, brain-damaged adult or animal was able to recognize and appreciate that the image in the reflection was really them, then it was interpreted as proof of being aware."
Thus, Coe says, "If we follow that logic through with the belief that mirror recognition is proof of a sense of self, then we need to extend that attribute at least to rhesus monkeys."
Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species.
The study may refine how the mark test is used, Populin says. "We clearly have data showing that these animals recognize themselves in the mirror, but fail the mark test."
The mounting data on self-awareness has undermined the concept of a cognitive divide in the primate lineage, Populin says. "There is another idea in primatology, and Charles Snowdon of UW-Madison has contributed to this, that instead of a divide, self-awareness has evolved along a continuum, so we will find it in different forms in different locations on the tree of evolution. I think the mark test may not be sensitive enough to detect self-awareness in the lower species; they may have it, but in a different form, and it may show up in different situations, using different tests."
(Source not given)
9/29/10
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video are available at
http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/macaque-mirror.html
EDITOR'S NOTE: The study, with several videos of the monkeys, appears in today's PLoS One at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012865
FOR FIRST TIME, MONKEYS RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR, INDICATING SELF-AWARENESS
MADISON - Typically, monkeys don't know what to make of a mirror. They may ignore it or interpret their reflection as another, invading monkey, but they don't recognize the reflection as their own image. Chimpanzees and people pass this "mark" test - they obviously recognize their own reflection and make funny faces, look at a temporary mark that the scientists have placed on their face or wonder how they got so old and grey.
For 40 years, scientists have concluded from this type of behavior that a few species are self-aware - they recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world.
Because chimps, our closest relatives, pass the test, while almost all other primate species fail it, scientists began to discuss a "cognitive divide" between the highest primates and the rest.
But a study published today (Sept. 29) by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the mark test can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.
The finding casts doubt on both the relevance of the mark test and on the existence of a definitive cognitive divide between higher and lower primates.
Populin, who studies the neural basis of perception and behavior, had placed head implants on two rhesus macaque monkeys, while preparing to study attention deficit disorder. Then Abigail Rajala, an experienced animal technician who is in the university's Neuroscience Training Program, mentioned that one of the monkeys could recognize himself in a small mirror. "I told her the scientific literature says they can't do this," says Populin, "so we decided to do a simple study."
Much to his delight, it turned out that the graduate student was right.
In the standard mark test, a harmless mark is put on the animal's face, where it can only be seen in a mirror. If the animal stares at the mirror and touches the mark, it is said to be self-aware: It knows that the mirror shows its own reflection, not that of another animal. (Animals that lack self-awareness may, for example, search for the "invading" animal behind the mirror.)
Rhesus macaques, a mainstay of medical and psychological research, have long failed the mark test.
But in Populin's lab, the monkeys that got the implants were clearly looking in the mirror while examining and grooming their foreheads, near the implant. Tellingly, they were also examining areas on their body, particularly the genitals, that they had never seen before. In some cases, the monkeys even turned themselves upside down during these examinations. In other cases, they grasped and adjusted the mirror to get a better view of themselves.
When the researchers covered the mirror glass with black plastic, these behaviors disappeared, and the monkeys ignored what had been a subject of fascination.
Furthermore, although a macaque will often interpret its reflection as representing an intruding monkey and adopt either an aggressive or submissive response, the implanted monkeys showed dramatically fewer of those "social" behaviors compared to the behaviors, such as exploring hidden body parts, that indicate self-awareness, Populin says.
"This report makes a unique contribution to our views about primate self-awareness because the 'mirror test' has been the traditional gold standard for determining if a person and/or animal met a criterion for having a sense of self," says Christopher Coe, a primatologist and professor of psychology at UW-Madison. "If a young child, brain-damaged adult or animal was able to recognize and appreciate that the image in the reflection was really them, then it was interpreted as proof of being aware."
Thus, Coe says, "If we follow that logic through with the belief that mirror recognition is proof of a sense of self, then we need to extend that attribute at least to rhesus monkeys."
Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species.
The study may refine how the mark test is used, Populin says. "We clearly have data showing that these animals recognize themselves in the mirror, but fail the mark test."
The mounting data on self-awareness has undermined the concept of a cognitive divide in the primate lineage, Populin says. "There is another idea in primatology, and Charles Snowdon of UW-Madison has contributed to this, that instead of a divide, self-awareness has evolved along a continuum, so we will find it in different forms in different locations on the tree of evolution. I think the mark test may not be sensitive enough to detect self-awareness in the lower species; they may have it, but in a different form, and it may show up in different situations, using different tests."
(Source not given)
Study: Monkeys Show Self-Awareness
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9/29/10
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video are available at
http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/macaque-mirror.html
EDITOR'S NOTE: The study, with several videos of the monkeys, appears in today's PLoS One at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012865
FOR FIRST TIME, MONKEYS RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR, INDICATING SELF-AWARENESS
MADISON - Typically, monkeys don't know what to make of a mirror. They may ignore it or interpret their reflection as another, invading monkey, but they don't recognize the reflection as their own image. Chimpanzees and people pass this "mark" test - they obviously recognize their own reflection and make funny faces, look at a temporary mark that the scientists have placed on their face or wonder how they got so old and grey.
For 40 years, scientists have concluded from this type of behavior that a few species are self-aware - they recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world.
Because chimps, our closest relatives, pass the test, while almost all other primate species fail it, scientists began to discuss a "cognitive divide" between the highest primates and the rest.
But a study published today (Sept. 29) by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the mark test can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.
The finding casts doubt on both the relevance of the mark test and on the existence of a definitive cognitive divide between higher and lower primates.
Populin, who studies the neural basis of perception and behavior, had placed head implants on two rhesus macaque monkeys, while preparing to study attention deficit disorder. Then Abigail Rajala, an experienced animal technician who is in the university's Neuroscience Training Program, mentioned that one of the monkeys could recognize himself in a small mirror. "I told her the scientific literature says they can't do this," says Populin, "so we decided to do a simple study."
Much to his delight, it turned out that the graduate student was right.
In the standard mark test, a harmless mark is put on the animal's face, where it can only be seen in a mirror. If the animal stares at the mirror and touches the mark, it is said to be self-aware: It knows that the mirror shows its own reflection, not that of another animal. (Animals that lack self-awareness may, for example, search for the "invading" animal behind the mirror.)
Rhesus macaques, a mainstay of medical and psychological research, have long failed the mark test.
But in Populin's lab, the monkeys that got the implants were clearly looking in the mirror while examining and grooming their foreheads, near the implant. Tellingly, they were also examining areas on their body, particularly the genitals, that they had never seen before. In some cases, the monkeys even turned themselves upside down during these examinations. In other cases, they grasped and adjusted the mirror to get a better view of themselves.
When the researchers covered the mirror glass with black plastic, these behaviors disappeared, and the monkeys ignored what had been a subject of fascination.
Furthermore, although a macaque will often interpret its reflection as representing an intruding monkey and adopt either an aggressive or submissive response, the implanted monkeys showed dramatically fewer of those "social" behaviors compared to the behaviors, such as exploring hidden body parts, that indicate self-awareness, Populin says.
"This report makes a unique contribution to our views about primate self-awareness because the 'mirror test' has been the traditional gold standard for determining if a person and/or animal met a criterion for having a sense of self," says Christopher Coe, a primatologist and professor of psychology at UW-Madison. "If a young child, brain-damaged adult or animal was able to recognize and appreciate that the image in the reflection was really them, then it was interpreted as proof of being aware."
Thus, Coe says, "If we follow that logic through with the belief that mirror recognition is proof of a sense of self, then we need to extend that attribute at least to rhesus monkeys."
Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species.
The study may refine how the mark test is used, Populin says. "We clearly have data showing that these animals recognize themselves in the mirror, but fail the mark test."
The mounting data on self-awareness has undermined the concept of a cognitive divide in the primate lineage, Populin says. "There is another idea in primatology, and Charles Snowdon of UW-Madison has contributed to this, that instead of a divide, self-awareness has evolved along a continuum, so we will find it in different forms in different locations on the tree of evolution. I think the mark test may not be sensitive enough to detect self-awareness in the lower species; they may have it, but in a different form, and it may show up in different situations, using different tests."
(Source not given)
9/29/10
EDITOR'S NOTE: An image and video are available at
http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/macaque-mirror.html
EDITOR'S NOTE: The study, with several videos of the monkeys, appears in today's PLoS One at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012865
FOR FIRST TIME, MONKEYS RECOGNIZE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR, INDICATING SELF-AWARENESS
MADISON - Typically, monkeys don't know what to make of a mirror. They may ignore it or interpret their reflection as another, invading monkey, but they don't recognize the reflection as their own image. Chimpanzees and people pass this "mark" test - they obviously recognize their own reflection and make funny faces, look at a temporary mark that the scientists have placed on their face or wonder how they got so old and grey.
For 40 years, scientists have concluded from this type of behavior that a few species are self-aware - they recognize the boundaries between themselves and the physical world.
Because chimps, our closest relatives, pass the test, while almost all other primate species fail it, scientists began to discuss a "cognitive divide" between the highest primates and the rest.
But a study published today (Sept. 29) by Luis Populin, a professor of anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that under specific conditions, a rhesus macaque monkey that normally would fail the mark test can still recognize itself in the mirror and perform actions that scientists would expect from animals that are self-aware.
The finding casts doubt on both the relevance of the mark test and on the existence of a definitive cognitive divide between higher and lower primates.
Populin, who studies the neural basis of perception and behavior, had placed head implants on two rhesus macaque monkeys, while preparing to study attention deficit disorder. Then Abigail Rajala, an experienced animal technician who is in the university's Neuroscience Training Program, mentioned that one of the monkeys could recognize himself in a small mirror. "I told her the scientific literature says they can't do this," says Populin, "so we decided to do a simple study."
Much to his delight, it turned out that the graduate student was right.
In the standard mark test, a harmless mark is put on the animal's face, where it can only be seen in a mirror. If the animal stares at the mirror and touches the mark, it is said to be self-aware: It knows that the mirror shows its own reflection, not that of another animal. (Animals that lack self-awareness may, for example, search for the "invading" animal behind the mirror.)
Rhesus macaques, a mainstay of medical and psychological research, have long failed the mark test.
But in Populin's lab, the monkeys that got the implants were clearly looking in the mirror while examining and grooming their foreheads, near the implant. Tellingly, they were also examining areas on their body, particularly the genitals, that they had never seen before. In some cases, the monkeys even turned themselves upside down during these examinations. In other cases, they grasped and adjusted the mirror to get a better view of themselves.
When the researchers covered the mirror glass with black plastic, these behaviors disappeared, and the monkeys ignored what had been a subject of fascination.
Furthermore, although a macaque will often interpret its reflection as representing an intruding monkey and adopt either an aggressive or submissive response, the implanted monkeys showed dramatically fewer of those "social" behaviors compared to the behaviors, such as exploring hidden body parts, that indicate self-awareness, Populin says.
"This report makes a unique contribution to our views about primate self-awareness because the 'mirror test' has been the traditional gold standard for determining if a person and/or animal met a criterion for having a sense of self," says Christopher Coe, a primatologist and professor of psychology at UW-Madison. "If a young child, brain-damaged adult or animal was able to recognize and appreciate that the image in the reflection was really them, then it was interpreted as proof of being aware."
Thus, Coe says, "If we follow that logic through with the belief that mirror recognition is proof of a sense of self, then we need to extend that attribute at least to rhesus monkeys."
Scientists who have used the mark test to explore self-awareness have found the quality in one species of bird, in one individual elephant, and in dolphins and orangutans. And so instead of asking how self-awareness evolved only among primates, they face the larger question of how it evolved multiple times in distantly related species.
The study may refine how the mark test is used, Populin says. "We clearly have data showing that these animals recognize themselves in the mirror, but fail the mark test."
The mounting data on self-awareness has undermined the concept of a cognitive divide in the primate lineage, Populin says. "There is another idea in primatology, and Charles Snowdon of UW-Madison has contributed to this, that instead of a divide, self-awareness has evolved along a continuum, so we will find it in different forms in different locations on the tree of evolution. I think the mark test may not be sensitive enough to detect self-awareness in the lower species; they may have it, but in a different form, and it may show up in different situations, using different tests."
(Source not given)
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
German scientists discover rare ape species in Asia
RIGHT: Crested gibbons are found only in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China(AFP) – 21 September 2010
BERLIN — German scientists said on Tuesday they had discovered a new rare and endangered ape species in the tropical rainforests between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by its distinctive song.
The new type of crested gibbon, one of the most endangered primate species in the world, is called the northern buffed-cheeked gibbon or Nomascus annamensis, a statement from the German Primate Centre (DPZ) said.
"The discovery of a new species of ape is a minor sensation," said Christian Roos from the DPZ.
"An analysis of the frequency and tempo of their calls, along with genetic research, show that this is, in fact, a new species."
The distinctive song "serves to defend territory or might even be a precursor of the music humans make," the statement added.
The male of the new species is covered with black fur that appears silver in sunlight. His chest is brownish and his cheeks deep orange-golden in colour. The females are orange-beige in colour.
Crested gibbons are found only in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China. Scientists had assumed there were six different species but the recent discovery takes the number to seven.
Gibbons have become endangered due to illegal hunting. "Gibbons are kept as cute pets, or they are eaten, or they are processed into traditional medicines," said the DPZ.
Many species number only around 100 individuals, said Roos. Scientists currently have "absolutely no idea" how many of the new species might be alive, but are conducting further study to determine this, he told AFP.
Like orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, gibbons belong to the apes, man's closest relative.
"Only if we know where which species is found and how many individuals there are can we start with serious conservation actions," added the scientist.
News of the discovery was published in the Vietnamese Journal of Primatology.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hSpTbYVsBKTdtRRf6OG4WS1TLuDg
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)
German scientists discover rare ape species in Asia
RIGHT: Crested gibbons are found only in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China(AFP) – 21 September 2010
BERLIN — German scientists said on Tuesday they had discovered a new rare and endangered ape species in the tropical rainforests between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by its distinctive song.
The new type of crested gibbon, one of the most endangered primate species in the world, is called the northern buffed-cheeked gibbon or Nomascus annamensis, a statement from the German Primate Centre (DPZ) said.
"The discovery of a new species of ape is a minor sensation," said Christian Roos from the DPZ.
"An analysis of the frequency and tempo of their calls, along with genetic research, show that this is, in fact, a new species."
The distinctive song "serves to defend territory or might even be a precursor of the music humans make," the statement added.
The male of the new species is covered with black fur that appears silver in sunlight. His chest is brownish and his cheeks deep orange-golden in colour. The females are orange-beige in colour.
Crested gibbons are found only in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China. Scientists had assumed there were six different species but the recent discovery takes the number to seven.
Gibbons have become endangered due to illegal hunting. "Gibbons are kept as cute pets, or they are eaten, or they are processed into traditional medicines," said the DPZ.
Many species number only around 100 individuals, said Roos. Scientists currently have "absolutely no idea" how many of the new species might be alive, but are conducting further study to determine this, he told AFP.
Like orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, gibbons belong to the apes, man's closest relative.
"Only if we know where which species is found and how many individuals there are can we start with serious conservation actions," added the scientist.
News of the discovery was published in the Vietnamese Journal of Primatology.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hSpTbYVsBKTdtRRf6OG4WS1TLuDg
(Submitted by T. Peter Park)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
'The Cezanne of the simians'
Roched Seba and Jimmy /PA21 September 2010, 8:30
A retired circus chimpanzee has become known as the "Cezanne of simians" after drawing crowds to watch him paint.
Jimmy, 26, has been producing paintings each day for three weeks at the Niteroi Zoo in Brazil.
And plans are now afoot for an exhibition of his works, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Roched Seba, the animal's trainer, said Jimmy had shown no interest in the toys and other diversions that chimpanzees typically enjoy.
In an effort to entertain the chimp, Mr Seba brought some paints to the enclosure three weeks ago - and Jimmy took to them straight away.
For at least 30 minutes a day, so long as he is not distracted by too many onlookers, Jimmy dips his brush into plastic paint containers and uses broad, bold strokes to create his art.
The chimp is not the first animal to wield a paintbrush. An African elephant called Brittany decorates canvases sold at the Milwaukee County Zoo's gift shop to raise revenue.
And three abstract paintings by a chimp named Congo in the 1950s sold for about £17,000 at a 2005 auction in London where works by Renoir and Warhol were unsold.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/The_Cezanne_of_the_simians
(Submitted by Rachel Carthy)
'The Cezanne of the simians'
Roched Seba and Jimmy /PA21 September 2010, 8:30
A retired circus chimpanzee has become known as the "Cezanne of simians" after drawing crowds to watch him paint.
Jimmy, 26, has been producing paintings each day for three weeks at the Niteroi Zoo in Brazil.
And plans are now afoot for an exhibition of his works, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Roched Seba, the animal's trainer, said Jimmy had shown no interest in the toys and other diversions that chimpanzees typically enjoy.
In an effort to entertain the chimp, Mr Seba brought some paints to the enclosure three weeks ago - and Jimmy took to them straight away.
For at least 30 minutes a day, so long as he is not distracted by too many onlookers, Jimmy dips his brush into plastic paint containers and uses broad, bold strokes to create his art.
The chimp is not the first animal to wield a paintbrush. An African elephant called Brittany decorates canvases sold at the Milwaukee County Zoo's gift shop to raise revenue.
And three abstract paintings by a chimp named Congo in the 1950s sold for about £17,000 at a 2005 auction in London where works by Renoir and Warhol were unsold.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/The_Cezanne_of_the_simians
(Submitted by Rachel Carthy)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Baboon on the loose? Girl starts false frenzy
Aug 21, 4:39 PM EDT
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant spent a big part of the day looking for a baboon on the loose. A grade school went into lockdown. A woman scattered potato chips on the ground and made monkey sounds to try and lure the primate. But in the end, a 14-year-old girl admitted it was all a hoax after the picture she claimed to have snapped proved to be one she actually found on the Internet.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the girl set off the frenzy Thursday by claiming she took a picture of the primate in her backyard. It was hours later that she told police she actually found the picture on the Internet and took a photo of it with her cell phone.
Police Chief William Karabas said the girl was sorry but she did not offer any explanation for the stunt.
"She was remorseful," Karabas said. "But the total emotional aspect of all this and the why is: who knows?"
The case will be referred to St. Louis County Family Court for review.
The girl's mother went to city officials and news media with the photo, prompting the search. It was after an identical photo was found in an Internet search that the story began to unravel.
Before that, schools took precautions, including keeping children in during recess. Chaos led to rumors. One woman in the neighborhood being searched said she owned a monkey. She made baboon-like noises and scattered Lays potato chips and Cheetos to try and lure the animal. Yet another woman who claimed to own a monkey walked around with a net.
Karabas said at least six extra officers were called in to help with the search.
Despite the trouble, the chief seemed more relived that no one was hurt than annoyed.
"You don't judge the people that do stuff like this, you just deal with it and move on to the next thing," Karabas said.
Adding to the confusion of the day was a statement released late Thursday by the girl's family, maintaining that such an animal was, in fact, on the loose in Florissant, and that the girl's story was not a hoax.
"While that particular animal was not that one, there is in fact something out in the area," the statement read, in part.
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_MONKEY_HOAX
FLORISSANT, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant spent a big part of the day looking for a baboon on the loose. A grade school went into lockdown. A woman scattered potato chips on the ground and made monkey sounds to try and lure the primate. But in the end, a 14-year-old girl admitted it was all a hoax after the picture she claimed to have snapped proved to be one she actually found on the Internet.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the girl set off the frenzy Thursday by claiming she took a picture of the primate in her backyard. It was hours later that she told police she actually found the picture on the Internet and took a photo of it with her cell phone.
Police Chief William Karabas said the girl was sorry but she did not offer any explanation for the stunt.
"She was remorseful," Karabas said. "But the total emotional aspect of all this and the why is: who knows?"
The case will be referred to St. Louis County Family Court for review.
The girl's mother went to city officials and news media with the photo, prompting the search. It was after an identical photo was found in an Internet search that the story began to unravel.
Before that, schools took precautions, including keeping children in during recess. Chaos led to rumors. One woman in the neighborhood being searched said she owned a monkey. She made baboon-like noises and scattered Lays potato chips and Cheetos to try and lure the animal. Yet another woman who claimed to own a monkey walked around with a net.
Karabas said at least six extra officers were called in to help with the search.
Despite the trouble, the chief seemed more relived that no one was hurt than annoyed.
"You don't judge the people that do stuff like this, you just deal with it and move on to the next thing," Karabas said.
Adding to the confusion of the day was a statement released late Thursday by the girl's family, maintaining that such an animal was, in fact, on the loose in Florissant, and that the girl's story was not a hoax.
"While that particular animal was not that one, there is in fact something out in the area," the statement read, in part.
Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_MONKEY_HOAX
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