#More than 30,000 Miles of Roads Built in Amazon in 3 Years How long does it take to build a little more than 30000 miles (50000 kilometers) of new roads through the rain forest?
Certain types of monkeys also eat dirt for the same reason he added. The Top 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries Swabbing turtle eyeballs The butterflies also may be seeking other minerals in the turtles'tears
Although many vertebrates became extinct during this period mammals that are familiar to us today including apes cattle deer rabbits kangaroos wallabies bears
They also pay to visit the gorillas and to walk in the forest with Ba'Aka pygmies collecting medicinal herbs.
#Rare Baby African Monkey Makes Photo Debut A baby kipunji one of the rarest species of African monkey sticks close to its mother in a new photo that was released today (June 5) by wildlife conservationists.
Kipunji also known as the highland mangabey are considered a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
A WCS census of the monkey species has revealed that only 1100 are known to exist in the wild.
In 2006 genetic analyses revealed it to be an entirely new primate genus the first new African monkey species since 1984.
and two years after they were discovered the WCS helped create a protected forest on Mount Rungwe to promote the conservation of these rare primates.
The baby kipunji's mother is one of the monkeys being studied by the WCS. This dominant female nicknamed Trike is believed to have lost a hand and lower arm in a snare accident before the creation of the protected forest in the southern highlands of Tanzania.
Kipunji have two main characteristics that help distinguish it from other monkey species: A wide crest of hair on the tip of its head and a unique call that has been described by researchers as a honk-bark.
Eating Meat Made Us Human Study Suggests Our raw-vegan cousin the gorilla has three times the body size of humans but one-third the brain cells;
According to a study published in October 2012 the gorilla would have needed to eat raw plants for more than 12 hours a day to consume enough calories to evolve a humanlike brain.
and branches in chimpanzee nests which are viewed as a feasible comparison for what a primitive human home might have been like.
#Strange Ancient Ape Walked On all fours A bizarre ancient ape whose gait has stumped researchers for decades walked on all fours
Oreopithecus bambolii an ape that lived on an isolated island 7 million to 9 million years ago in
Their conclusion detailed online July 23 in the Journal of Human Evolution overturns an earlier hypothesis that the mysterious ape independently evolved bipedal or two-legged walking.
The ape went extinct after a land bridge connected their island to other land allowing large saber-toothed cats
whether it was an ape or a monkey. Apes have longer arms for swinging through trees
and monkeys often have tails that let them grab branches). O. bambolii had apelike arms odd teeth with ridges more like a monkey's
and feet that each had one backward-pointing toe similar to those found on birds.
Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor It's always been a kind of controversial beast. It's an ape that's not closely related to any living apes at all said William Jungers a physical anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New york who was involved not in the study.
In the 1990s one group of researchers took a second look at O. bambolii's pelvis
Because no other mammals aside from humans and their ancestors routinely walked upright anthropologists use bipedal adaptations to determine which fossil apes are in humans'direct evolutionary lineage said study co-author Liza Shapiro an anthropologist at the University
Prior research suggested this specimen had a wider pelvis compared with apes 'and a unique lower-back curvature called lordosis. Both of these features give humans better balance
That doesn't mean the ancient ape never walked on two legs just that it wasn't its dominant mode of transport.
A chimpanzee with an armful of bananas can stand up on two legs and run quite a distance Sanders told Livescience.
Lots of animals from sea slugs up to primates learn by copying she said and the researchers hope to learn
I'm fascinated with the primates in Madagascar and would love to get up there and join their troop for a few days.
but transferring fluids may be a form of social behavior in the ants scientists say. 4. Monkey baby killers Some animals head off motherhood before it starts to spare their babies undue hardship after they're born.
When a male gelada baboon takes over a breeding group from a previous male he usually kills any babies of the former union.
Before leaving the nest some of the ravenous babies cannibalize each other. 7. Bonobo wing-moms Unlike human males bonobo males hang out with mom
For low-to mid-ranking bonobos one of humans'closest relatives in the primate world have more opportunities to mate
Mother bonobos expose their sons to females in her social circle and scare off rival males.
which has imperiled rhinoceroses elephants and great apes. Black market Horns: Images from a Rhino Bust The Colorado ivory crush will be rescheduled
This wonderland of wildlife east of Africa is home to all of the world's lemurs a diverse group of primates most
whose males grew nearly as large as gorillas. But these die offs happened over the course of hundreds and thousands of years.
For instance just 1500 golden lion tamarin a magnificent primate covered in red fur are left in the wild the Smithsonian National Zoological Park reports.
and replacing them with big swathes of palm tree monocultures threatening the future existence of orangutans said Lee Hannah a senior fellow in climate change biology at Conservation International a global group devoted to saving endangered
There are only about 6000 wild orangutans left and about 1000 are being killed each year primarily from habitat destruction according to the Orangutan Project an environmental group
whose mission is to save the animals. Â The same is happening in Peru where forests are being cleared to make way for palm tree plantations said Clinton Jenkins a conservation scientist at North carolina State university.
These forests are home to 21 primates not found anywhere else such as the wooly spider monkey according to the group.
If materials such as rubber or palm oil could be manufactured in cities for example there would be less incentive to cut down pristine forests like the ones in Borneo where orangutans live for agriculture Weissburg said.
Studies with primates and rats however suggest that some of our closely related animal cousins can also avoid decisions based on their own uncertainty.
These results are similar to those found with primates. So it seems that bees have the ability to monitor their uncertainty right?
Thousands of miles away in Africa bamboo is also an important food for mountain gorillas. Its existence there though is a bit of a mystery hidden away as it is up African mountains a long way from where most varieties live in Asia.
A gray rhesus macaque made history yesterday (Jan 28) when the primate reportedly flew into space in an Iranian mission.
It also became part of a long line of animal astronauts. But since science has proved time and again that humans can survive the extraterrestrial trip why do countries bother sending monkeys and other living creatures up into space at all these days?
In the case of Iran the demonstration is more of a show said Kenneth Halberg a researcher at the University of Copenhagen who studies aquatic bugs'ability to survive spacelike conditions.
There's nothing new about sending a monkey in space. But sending other animals into space can provide valuable scientific lessons for interplanetary travel
10 Beastly Tales Front-line testers At the beginning of the space race countries sent chimpanzees dogs and rabbits into space as testers.
The lowland Mayan forests of northern Guatemala teem with wildlife toucans macaws howler monkeys and even the fabled jaguar.
and from primates called gelada baboons and found that bacteria fed with predigested grass produced a smaller amount of compounds called short-chain fatty acids
although the baboons mainly eat grass they seem to be producing more of these appetite-suppressing products on the potato diet as well Barraclough told Live Science.
To obtain the gut bacteria for the study the researchers took fecal bacterial samples from three human vegetarian volunteers and three gelada baboons
which are the only modern primates that eat mainly grasses. The researchers wanted to imitate the real-life digestion process
and the environment in the human and baboon guts as closely as possible so they fed the bacteria
#Wild Monkeys Learn to Puzzle out Banana Video The wild marmosets living in the Brazilian forest have seen never a television show
When scientists showed the newbies a short flick of a marmoset stranger opening a box to get a banana slice they were likely to copy
The study provides a glimpse into how these new world monkeys learn from each other in the wild said the study's lead researcher Tina Gunhold a cognitive biologist at the University of Vienna.
See Marmosets Watching a Video in the Brazilian Forest (Video) Marmosets are social by nature. They live in small family groups typically ranging from five to 15 monkeys
and they live and forage in a defined home range. But marmosets are territorial and may fight each other
if another group encroaches on their home range. Within the group however marmosets are social creatures.
The whole group will help raise a new infant. This social learning can help young marmosets understand what foods to eat
and how to recognize predators such as snakes birds and wildcats. Learning from watching a video
Marmosets as well as other monkeys in captivity can learn from watching their peers in videos research suggests.
whether common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) living in the wild could also learn from the silver screen.
The marmosets could reach the fruit either by opening a drawer or by pushing a lid upward a difficult feat she said.
and images of unfamiliar marmosets opening the box. The researchers took a miniature movie theater composed of a laptop screen in a box to the home ranges of 12 family groups.
In all 108 marmosets participated. Six of the groups simply watched a still image of a female marmoset opening the drawer
or a male marmoset pushing up the box's lid. The other six groups saw a 5-minute video of the marmosets doing the same thing.
The video presented a double whammy not only was the marmoset in the film a stranger
but the video itself was likely confusing as the marmosets had seen never one before said Lydia Hopper a research scientist at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago who was not involved with the study.
Even young human children take time and need experience with videos and 2d images to learn how to interpret them
and how to understand them Hopper said. However the marmosets that watched the videos tended to interact more with the box
and successfully open it to win the banana prize compared with marmosets that just saw the images.
In all just 13 percent of the marmosets 11 marmosets in the video group and one in the still-image group managed to open the box.
Those that watched the video tended to open it in the same way that the monkey in the video did the study found.
In Photos: Wild Marmosets Watch Videos of Banana Puzzle This emphasizes the importance of them receiving the video demonstration Hopper said adding that it was possible that those that were did successful really learn from the video
because it really was a hard task. The one marmoset that saw the still image and managed to accomplish the task on his own was just simply very excited about the box Gunhold said.
He was trying on his own and interacting with it and through trial and error he figured out how to open the drawer.
Younger monkeys tended to spend more time near the box than older monkeys did likely because of their increased curiosity Gunhold added.
The sex of the marmosets in the video and still image had no bearing on the results.
what the monkeys watching the video were thinking but say it seems unlikely they considered a real monkey was living in the screen.
If they really thought this was an unknown individual at least we would have seen more agonistic
The study paves the way for new research on cognition in wild marmosets Hopper said.
For instance do marmosets copy any monkey or do they tend to selectively copy other individuals that are dominant
#Drunken Monkeys: Does Alcoholism Have an Evolutionary Basis? As the child of an alcoholic father Robert Dudley long wondered what caused the destructive allure of alcohol.
Then while working in the Panamanian forest as a biologist Dudley saw monkeys eating ripe fruit
He named this concept the drunken monkey hypothesis. I thought it was too simple an idea not to have been thought of previously he told Live Science.
and biomechanics of flight at the University of California Berkeley has published a book The Drunken Monkey:
'and other animals'attraction to fruit and as a result alcohol. 10 Easy Paths to Self-destruction Introducing the drunken monkey The concept goes like this:
Fruit-eating animals everything from primates and other mammals to insects and reptiles began to use the scent of ethanol as a cue to find ripe fruit.
but found his drunken monkey hypothesis rather speculative and unsupported to say the least Miltontold Live Science in an email.
if anything the smell of ethanol is more likely to repulse fruit-eating primates than attract them.
and both humans and other primates avoid fruit in this state she writes. Dudley however points out that no one knows how much of the intoxicant fruit-eaters are consuming.
Unlike our primate relatives humans have no innate nutritional wisdom that tells us what to consume she said.
if you are a monkey in the wild is about 2%per bone per year. If engineers worked to that standard they would soon be looking for another job.
if the smartwatch's display were made of Gorilla Glass the material developed by New york-based manufacturer Corning that has been used in the display screens for most of Apple's other devices.
Gorilla Glass isn't an inferior product however. The chemically infused glass is much more durable than normal glass
However compared with sapphire Gorilla Glass isn't all that durable Tuller said. Sapphire is more expensive to make than chemically treated glass
#Zoo-Raised Gorillas Prefer Forest Sounds Over Chopin (ISNS)--The sounds of a gently babbling stream
These natural sounds may also influence the behavior of gorillas raised in zoos that have seen never a rainforest.
Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) exhibited fewer stress-related behaviors when a recording of rainforest sounds was played in their enclosure.
or regurgitating food in the three gorillas studied. Previous research on how music affects zoo-housed gorillas produced mixed results.
One study found adult gorillas were agitated more and aroused by rainforest sounds. Another paper found that the animals appeared more relaxed in response to music
whether classical or forest tunes than when no music was played to them. In this new study researchers Lindsey Robbins and Susan Margulis of Canisius College in Buffalo New york observed the effects of three kinds of music played to three adult gorillas.
A mix of compositions from classical composer Frã dã ric Chopin four songs from The english rock band Muse and a Sounds of the Rainforest#collection were played on hidden speakers housed in the gorillas enclosure
at the Buffalo Zoo. Each selection was played for two hours a day four times a week over a period of three weeks.
which are considered often signs of stress in captive gorillas. Koga the only adult male in the group plucked his hair approximately 8%of the time
Although to a smaller extent all three gorillas also vomited and re-ingested food less often when natural sounds were played to them.
#Though the researchers only observed three gorillas the study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests enriching soundscapes can help the wellbeing of captive animals.#
It s difficult to get large sample sizes when studying primate behavior. But it s a nicely done study.#
Earlier studies on primates suggested similar influences. Music was correlated with reduced aggression in lab-dwelling chimpanzees decreased abnormal behaviors in rhesus macaques and a lower heart rate in baboons.
However few studies so far have found conclusive differences in the effects of different music genres on nonhuman primates.
Though we often play music to enrich our own homes and workplaces auditory stimuli are used not often in zoos.
Owl Monkeys Are Caring Fathers, Too This Behind the Scenes article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
If there were a competition for best father#in the animal kingdom owl monkeys might very well win.
Because father owl monkeys provide most of the care needed by their young; they carry their young almost all the time even when chased by predators.
By contrast caregiving from owl monkey mothers to their young is limited almost exclusively to nursing.
Wright s insights on owl monkeys are largely based on her many years of researching them in the rainforests of South america.
A renowned primate researcher and conservationist Wright is the 2014 winner of the Indianapolis Prize
My Quest to Understand the Monkeys of the Night (Lantern Books: 2013). ) Wild for Monogamy Wright said that are owl monkeys are devoted not only fathers
but are also truly monogamous another rarity in the wild. An owl monkey is faithful to its mate until its mate dies.
The unflagging fidelity of owl monkeys has been verified by DNA fingerprinting similar to the type of DNA fingerprinting used in the courts to prove human paternity.
and staunchly faithful mates owl monkeys have another extraordinary trait: They are nocturnal even though they were once daytime creatures as indicated by certain characteristics of their eyes said Wright.
Wright s field research suggests several potential reasons why owl monkeys may have joined the night life.
For one thing Wright observed families of owl monkeys snuggle and sleep together in protected tangles of vines
Wright speculates that owl monkeys which are relatively small monkeys hide and sleep during the day
and snatch even large monkeys that dangle and jump through the tall forest canopy during the day.
Also by only searching for tree fruits during the night owl monkeys avoid competing with larger monkeys that spend their days hunting for the same foods.
So by time sharing#the canopy with larger monkeys in a day/night cycle owl monkeys increase their potential for collecting food while reducing their risk from predators.
Eventually the mammalian lineage evolved into primates then apes then hominids and finally the Homo lineage that produced human beings.
By about 5 million years ago certain apes in Africa had mastered the art of upright walking these were the hominids.
Smartphones tablets and chimps On the other side of the world the Jane Goodall Institute an ape-conservation organization founded by renowned chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall is leading a similar effort.
Video Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees The monitors look for signs of human activity that could endanger wildlife
The villagers also document the presence of more than 20 species with a focus on chimpanzees for instance
Then through Google earth Engine and Google maps Engine the institute's researchers can visualize the multiple layers of data to model the suitability of chimpanzee habitat
and to predict the potential distribution of chimpanzees. Whereas traditional maps are limited to two dimensions Google earth's 3d high-resolution imagery makes it easier for the villagers to recognize the topography
Through this data-collection process the JGI has identified previously unknown threats to chimpanzees. Even in the first few weeks of a forest villager getting his smartphone he reported this trap designed to capture a live primate we think either a baboon
or a chimp and this trap had never been recorded before in Tanzania Pintea said. In the future Pintea hopes to use imagery of the region gathered over the years to track changes in the forests over time.
Eyes on the Forest Other endangered species like the tiger are threatened also by poaching and habitat destruction.
ranges of animals such as the tiger elephant rhino and orangutan; and floral diversity according to a statement from Eyes on the Forest.
#Chimps Are Naturally Violent, Study Suggests For years anthropologists have watched wild chimpanzees go ape and attack each other in coordinated assaults.
But until now scientists were unsure whether interactions with humans had brought on this violent behavior or if it was part of the apes'basic nature.
A new 54-year study suggests this coordinated aggression is innate to chimpanzees and is linked not to human interference.
Violence is a natural part of life for chimpanzees Michael Wilson the study's lead researcher
and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis told Live Science in an email.
Lethal Aggression in Wild Chimpanzees As one of humanity's closest living relatives chimps can shed light on the evolution of people such as
Studies of chimpanzee violence have been especially influential in how people think about the origins of human warfare Wilson explained.
But observations of chimpanzees by legendary primatologist Jane Goodall and other researchers challenged the idea that warfare is a modern human development.
After all humans and chimpanzees are the only two species in the world known to attack each other in organized onslaughts.
Yet other scientists counter that human intrusions are to blame for the chimps'coordinated lethal aggression.
As populations in Africa grow people are infringing on chimpanzee habitats. Loggers cut down forests; farmers clear land for crops
and hunters kill chimps for food. People have argued that these increasing human impacts could also be putting more pressure on chimpanzee populations leading to more chimpanzee violence Wilson said.
He and his colleagues collaborated with researchers who are studying chimpanzees and bonobos another ape that shares a common ancestor with humans.
In all the scientists collected data on 18 chimpanzee groups and four bonobo groups living in Africa.
The chimpanzees exhibited 152 killings including 58 that the scientists observed 41 that were inferred and 53 suspected killings in 15 communities the researchers said.
The bonobos had suspected one killing the researchers said. The different acts of violence did not depend on human impacts Wilson said.
Instead attacks were more common at sites with many males and high population densities. Also chimpanzees in East Africa killed more frequently than did chimps in West Africa the study found.
Unsurprisingly the bonobos showed little violence. We didn't find any definite cases of killing by bonobos though there was one case of a male bonobo who was attacked severely by members of his own group
and never seen again Wilson said. Into the woods Many of the researchers including Dave Morgan a research fellow with the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study
and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago have followed the chimpanzees in the study for years.
When Morgan first arrived in 1999 the chimpanzees were not afraid of humans suggesting that this was the animals'first encounter with people he said.
Chimpanzees can live in groups made up of as many as 150 individuals but group size varies Wilson said.
Some study sites had about 55 chimpanzees living together he said. Grooming Gallery: Chimps Get Social This is a very important study
because it compiles evidence from many sites over many years and shows that the occurrence of lethal aggression in chimpanzees is not related to the level of human disturbance Joan Silk a professor in the school of Human Evolution
and Social Change at Arizona State university who was involved not in the study told Live Science in an email.
Because chimps and bonobos do not have the same levels of coordinated lethal aggression it's impossible to say how the common ancestor acted Silk said.
But we can learn something about circumstances that may favor the evolution of this type of aggression such as opportunities to encounter members of neighboring groups
Wilson and his colleagues followed the chimps and noted the apes'daily activities such as mating feeding grooming resting and fighting.
During the 14 years it spent following the apes Wilson's team saw two killings one
when a neighboring community killed an infant and another when a male chimpanzee consumed an infant.
But chimps an endangered species are not always warlike he said. Overall aggression makes up a small percentage of their daily lives Wilson said adding that our behavior affects them
but it's not affecting them as people have suggested in the past resulting in aggression. The study was published today (Sept. 17) in the journal Nature.
#Wild Chimps Prefer a Firm Bed Chimpanzees are quite choosy when it comes to their sleeping arrangements
and new research suggests the apes prefer a firm bed made from stiff resilient wood.
Like humans chimpanzees depend on a good night's sleep to function well the next day but chimps don't tuck themselves into the same bed each night.
Instead the primates build a new nest each evening from scratch. High up in the forest canopy the animals interlace strong stems
and foliage into a basketweave creating a thick springy mattress that sinks in the middle. Scientists have known that chimpanzees build these sleeping platforms
since Jane Goodall famously studied the apes in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National park in the 1960s.
There seem to be several advantages to snoozing high off the forest floor. In 2011 one intrepid Cambridge researcher who slept in wild chimpanzee nests for six nights reported that the nests kept her warm and relatively free of bug bites;
they also eased her worries about the hyenas she heard calling in the night. Sleep Soundly:
Images of Primate Nests And now another group of researchers has looked at whether chimpanzees are picky about the type of wood they use for their nests.
Anthropologists David Samson of the University of Nevada Las vegas and Kevin Hunt of Indiana University in Bloomington examined 1844 chimpanzee nests in western Uganda's Toro-Semliki Wildlife Reserve.
They found that 73.6 percent of the nests were built with the plant species Cynometra alexandri
Those same qualities seem to attract sleepy chimpanzees the researchers wrote in their report published April 16 in the journal PLOS ONE.
but also had the greatest bending strength of the seven trees most commonly used by the apes.
In a study published last year in the journal Primates Samson and Hunt found that mosquitos were less likely to congregate around C. alexandri
The results suggest that chimpanzees might consider several physical traits of trees when choosing their bedding including stiffness strength
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