Primate Behaviour Flashcards
Louis Leakey
found stone tools and the earliest human ancestor fossils in east africa
recruited the “trimates” to study wild primate behaviour
who were the trimates
jane goodall
diane Fossey
Birute Galdikas
Jane Goodall
studied chimps beginning in the 1960s
diane fossey
studied gorillas beginning in 1966
Birute Galdikas
studied orangutans beginning in 1971
what monkeys did anne zeller work with
macaques
anne zellers work
recognizing that primates have emotions- the same emotions as humans
facial gesture, deception, grief, infant socialization, object use, art
when captive primates are given paint…
many of them will paint art similar to young preverbal humans
anne zeller recognized that _________ are important to primates and __________ between then
facial gestures
interpreted
macaques use objects to make noise for..
entertainment and to dominate
primates are models for
hominoid behaviour
non human primates provide the only living model for early humans and their ancestors
types of monkey models
experimental- controlling specific variables in an artificial environment
natural observation in wild- better but $$ and time consuming
darwin was not the first to study primates, but he was the first to
link them to humans
he recognized similarities between animal and human facial expressions
how did darwin compare primates to humans
went from examining structure to behavioural comparisons
behavioural ecology
what we’re looking at when studying primates in their natural environment
8 things were looking at when studying primates in their natural environment
quantitiy and quality of food distribution of food resources dustribution of water distribution and types of predators distribution of sleeping sites activity patterns relationship with non predator species impact of human activities
distribution of food resources
how widely do they have to travel to be fed- has implications in pre agricultural humans
distribution and types of predators
is it every man for themselves? do they protect eachother? would they die for eachother?
distribution of sleeping sites
do they have a home base?
primate society structure
all ranked societies with some individuals having more dominance than others
more complex primates means
more complex dominance systems
dominance is expressed through
grooming, birth status, fighting, submission
grooming
submissive animal will offer to groom a more dominant animal, if the dominant one agrees thats the beginning of a relationship
grooming is important in
courting and mother and infant bonds
birth status
infants born to higher status females will be born at a higher level in the dominance hierarchy
can also climb the ranks but thats much harder
fighting
used by younger males to beat up older males to get dominance
submission
expressing submission to a dominant animal by mooning them
sound in monkeys
vocalization, use calls in different ways, have different accents within the same species
how do monkeys communicate
sound, odor, body movement
odor in monkeys
associated with mating and fear, a lot going on with scent since they have large olfactory bulbs
body movement communication
facial expressions
no teeth= friendly, open palm= friendly, teeth= angry
Nim Chimpskey
attempt to try to teach apes to sign- experiment was a failure as the main goal was to try to have it communicate a full sentence not just communicate via words
teaching primates to speak experiment
raised chimps as infants
after 5 years they could only make approximations of the words “cup” and “papa”
roger and debbie fouts
raised the chimp “washoe” like a human- taught her how to sign and washoe used ASL in very creative ways
washoe raised an orphan chimp and taught him to sign- even seen shaping his hands
kanzi the bonobo
used a board of symbols and using combos to make new words- engaging in complex answers
cooked food over fire
bonobos
extremely intelligent, capacities beyond many other chimp species
are there varying levels of intelligence in primates
yes
penny patterson
did studies with gorillas- koko
koko
gorilla that learned sign language and used signing in very sophisticated ways- made up words and also lied
characteristics of primate and human language
productivity- creative sentences
displacement- past, present and future
arbitrariness- sounds not connected with concrete objects
in all primates excepts for humans…
females are cyclically reproductive
pair bonding in primates
rare- except among gibbons who are monogamous
chimps and bonobos partnership
consortships where the couple spends a lot of time together and mates repeatedly during that time
mother-infant bonding
shapes the learned behaviour in the non human primates
importance of mother infant bonding
critical in terms of infants learning learned behaviour0 thus is a provlem in captive primate whose parents have been killed
matrolines
female offspring stay with their mothers and stay with the groups- males disperse into other groups to breed
consequences of matrolines
good for genetics
often have a group of females that can dominate any male
dependancy in primates
social relationships begin with mother and have a long dependency period
smaller bodied have smaller dependency periods
dependancy periods is proportional to
brain to body ratio
primates learning
play is an important part of learning, offspring learn many things in social groups
while some species survive mainly off of instinctive behaviour…
primates have a huge dependency on learned behaviour and cannot survive on instinct alone
tool
detached object that can be manipulated to perform a function
jane goodall tool observation
termite fishing sticks in chimps- chimps getting specific sticks from other areas to carry to a mound
west african chimp tool use
stone hammers and anvils to break open nuts- will seek out good stones and carry them to the right place, leave them there for the next season
orangutan nest building is argued as
tool use
anne zeller argument that macaques use tools
banged crabs and coconuts on hard surfaces- made noise just because they enjoyed it
same with rubbing sticks against rocks
captive chimps have long been recognized as
tool users
gorillas are less adept
at tool use, though one was seen using a stick to measure water depth
goodall chimp water observation
chewing up leaves into a mass of wet green cellulose and putting it in hollow tree trunks to get water out
is monket art intentional
yes
chimp art
multiple colours lightest colour first, darkest last straight line pattern paint edges leave negative space
orangutan art
one colour, almost complete circles
gorilla art
linear brush strokes, use fingers, hand, tondue etc
proof art is intentional
o Other signing chimps can view these abstract paintings, and when asked what it was they can identify what it is
ie. o Tatu painted ice cream, said it was ice cream, other chimp identified it as ice cream
black and white painting mimicing human writing
