Miller's Grizzled Langurs, thought to be extinct, have been rediscovered

More good news heading our way. Another primate who was thought to be extinct has now been rediscovered in the jungles of Borneo. Published in the latest edition of American Journal of Primatology, the Miller's Grizzled Langur (Presbytis hosei carnicrus) was rediscovered in Wehea Forest, an area outside of its known range. Thought to have gone extinct as early as 2004, subsequent expedition in 2008 in search of P.h. carnicrus was to no avail, supporting the hypothesis that this species had went extinct.

There was virtually no photographs of Miller's Grizzled Langurs except from museum sketches.
Illustration by Stephen Nash, from Mammals' Planet.

Call it the luck of the draw. The scientific team who photographed these langurs initially set up camera traps to take pictures of clouded leopards, orangutans and other critter that congregate on salt licks. Then they discovered that the camera traps had taken photos of langurs that they have never seen before. Until now, there was no photograph of this species ever in existence; only images from museum sketches. Based on these museum sketches, the team later confirmed that the langurs from the photos are indeed P. h. carnicrus.

Brent Loken, one of the lead researchers, was excited about this rediscovery, "We were all pretty ecstatic. The fact that, wow, this monkey still lives, and also that it's in Wehea ... While our finding confirms the monkey still exists in East Kalimantan, there is a good chance that it remains one of the world's most endangered primates".

A Miller's Grizzled Langur. Photo by Eric Fell, from EurekAlert!

A Miller's Grizzled Langur. Photo by Eric Fell, from EurekAlert!

 A video from Scientific American shows time-lapse photos of these langurs at the salt licks.

 For more, read:

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Borneo by new expedition on EurekAlert!

'Extinct' monkey rediscovered in Indonesia jungle on The Guardian

Extremely Rare Primate, Believed Nearly Extinct, Discovered in Remote Borneo Forest on Planet Save.
Nearly Extinct Primate Rediscovered in Borneo [Video] on Scientific American

The paper, titled "Discovery of Miller’s Grizzled Langur (Presbytis hosei canicrus) in Wehea Forest confirms the continued existence and extends known geographical range of an endangered primate" is supposed to have went live but I couldn't find it. I will update this page with a URL for the paper once it's available.

Contagious Yawning from Human to Domestic Dogs: Is It Possible? What Are The Implications?

Yawning is a phenomenon that occurs not only in human but also in other animals such as mammals, fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds (Heusner, 1946; Baenninger, 1987; Gallup et al., 2009). There are many proposed reasons and functions as to what elicit yawning behavior in an individual but little is known about the role of contagious yawning and how animals can catch yawns from other species. Even though yawning is widespread in the animal kingdom, contagious yawning has only been reported in humans, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) and recently in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) (Provine, 1986; Platek et al., 2003; Anderson et al., 2004; Paukner & Anderson 2006; Joly-Mascheroni et al., 2008; Harr et al., 2008). In addition, studies have shown that there is a positive correlation in the susceptibility of contagious yawning with empathy and theory of mind (Platek et al., 2003; Preston & de Waal, 2002), and that emotional closeness and relatedness between an individual is key to eliciting contagious yawning in human (Norscia & Palagi, 2011).

Contagious yawning has been reported in humans, chimpanzees, stumptail macaques and  domestic dogs.

There have been many suggestions on the roles of contagious yawning, especially in primates. Some literatures hypothesized that contagious yawning in primates plays potential roles in communication, social interaction, empathy and self-awareness (Deputte, 1994; Daquin et al., 2001; Platek et al., 2003; Gallese et al., 2004; Platek et al. 2005) while others thinks that it is a stereotyped action behavior and an innate releasing mechanism (Provine, 1986). In addition, Platek et al. (2003) showed a positive correlation in the susceptibility to contagious yawning with self-face recognition and theory of mind stories while children with autism spectrum disorder showed an absence in contagious yawning (Senju et al., 2007) suggests that contagious yawning may be related to empathy (Preston & de Waal, 2002). A recent study on yawn contagion in human shows that related individuals (r ≥ 0.25) were the ones that are more susceptible to contagious yawning, and concludes that emotional closeness between an individual is key to contagious yawning in human as opposed to other variable such as sex or country of origin (Norscia & Palagi, 2011).

Although yawning is widespread in the animal kingdom, contagious yawning has only been reported in humans (Provine, 1986; Platek et al., 2003), chimpanzees (Anderson et al., 2004), stumptail macaques (Paukner & Anderson 2006) and domestic dogs (Joly-Mascheroni et al., 2008; Harr et al., 2008). Contagious yawning from human to domestic dogs  is interesting because it could further elucidate if empathy was inadvertently selected for in domestic dogs as they evolve side by side with modern humans. If yawns can indeed be passed from human to domestic dogs, we can posit that domestic dogs are capable of empathy. Further experiment on contagious yawning from the owner (human) to domestic dogs could also elucidate whether yawns are more susceptible based on emotional closeness as per Norscia & Palagi's (2011) research, albeit their subjects are all humans.

Neonatal macaque imitation the expression of a researcher.

Gallese et al. (2004) contended to the fact that mirror neurons play an integral part on the theory of mind and empathy. Later experiment by Iacoboni et al. (2005) posits that mirror neurons are involved in understanding the intention of others. By using an FMRI, human subjects were exposed to 3 types of stimuli on 24 second video clips. These stimuli show grasping hand action without a context (Action), context-only (Context), and grasping hand with and without context (Intention). In the Action stimuli, a hand was shown grasping a cup in the absence of context and an objectless background. Two types of grasping actions were used: either precision grasping (hand grasping the cup handle) or whole-hand grasping (hand grasping the cup body). The Context stimuli showed three dimensional objects such as a teapot, a mug or a cookie just before or just after having tea to elicit a drinking or cleaning context. For the Intention stimuli, the subjects were presented with both grasping actions in both drinking and cleaning context. When presented with the Intention stimuli, there is a significant signal increase in the premotor cortex; the posterior part of the inferior frontal gyrus and the adjacent sector of the ventral premotor cortex where hand actions are represented. The authors argue that the premotor mirror neuron areas are involved in understanding the intention of others, evident from a spike of signal in the FMRI when humans were exposed to Intention stimuli in the experiment.

Other experiments have shown that in pigtailed macaques, Macaca nemestrina, mirror neurons are also found in the inferior frontal gyrus (the F5 region). This region responded when the macaques make an active movements and also when they observe an experimenter making meaningful movements. (di Pellegrino et al., 1992; Gallese et al., 1996; Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004; Hickok, 2009).

In a study by Platek et al. (2005), the authors found that the posterior cingulate and precuneus were activated during contagious yawning. These two regions are associated with the theory of mind and empathy. In another study from the same year, Schürmann et al. (2005) found that the superior temporal sulcus was the area that gets activated during contagious yawning. The superior temporal sulcus region is involved in the perception of eye gaze of others and are crucial in determining where others’ emotion are being directed through eye gaze (Campbell et al., 1990). Thus, neuroimaging results from Platek et al. (2005) and Schürmann et al. (2005) contradict each other in isolating the region of the brain that is activated during contagious yawning.

Two studies on contagious yawning from human to domestic dogs were published by Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008) and Harr et al. (2008) in the same year. Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008) were the first to demonstrate that human yawns are contagious to domestic dogs and that human yawns would elicit a yawning response from a non-primate species (domestic dog). In this ingenious experiment, Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008) had 29 domestic dogs observed human yawning and making control mouth movements (not yawns). Out of the 29 domestic dogs, 21 of them yawned after observing a human yawning but none when exposed to control mouth movements (the control in the study). The experiment yielded impressive result, where 72% of the domestic dogs yawned when exposed to a human yawning. This is a higher rate than contagious yawning between humans (45% – 60%) (Provine, 1986; Platek et al., 2003) and from human to chimpanzee (33%) (Anderson et al., 2004). Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008) posit from this experiment that domestic dogs possess a rudimentary empathic capability and that it helps in moderating human-dog interaction and communication.

A later study by Harr et al. (2008) in the same year also investigated whether human yawns are contagious to domestic dogs but used a different method than that of Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008). Harr et al. (2008) used 15 domestic dogs in their experiment; the domestic dogs were shown video clips of humans and domestic dogs displaying yawns and open mouth expressions (not yawns) to determine whether these two social stimuli would elicit yawning in these domestic dogs. Their results show that the domestic dogs yawned on both stimuli (yawn and open mouth expressions) with no significant difference as determined by paired t test. Citing methodological difference than that of Joly-Mascheroni et al. (2008), Harr et al. (2008) posit that their results were due to using video clips instead of using live human models. They also conclude that it is possible that domestic dogs, like humans, attended differently to video stimuli than that of a live model.

Järveläinen et al. (2001) showed that in humans, there is a stronger reactivity time in the mirror neuron system when viewing live motor act than that of an artificially presented act. It is possible that domestic dogs also pay less attention to an artificially presented act than that of a live motor act. Understanding the umwelt of domestic dogs is important when using them as experimental subjects and to answer species-specific questions. Domestic dogs are excellent at reading human communicative and visual cues (Joly-Mascheroni et al., 2008) but maybe only so on live model and not video clips as evident from Harr et al. (2008) experiment. Thus, experiment on contagious yawning from human to domestic dogs should considering using only live models and not video clips.

P/S - Sorry if I made you yawn ;)

References

Anderson, J. R., Myowa-Yamakoshi, M., & Matsuzawa, T. (2004). Contagious yawning in chimpanzees. Proc. R. Soc. B, 271(Suppl. 6), S468–S470.

Baenninger, R. (1987). Some comparative aspects of yawning in Betta splendens, Homo sapiens, Panthera leo, and Papio sphinx. J. Comp. Psychol. 101, 349–354.

Campbell, R., Heywood, C.A., Cowey, A., Regard, M., & Landis, T. (1990). Sensitivity to eye gaze in prosopagnosic patients and monkeys with superior temporal sulcus ablation. Neuropsychologia, 28(11), 1123-1142.

Daquin, G., Micallef, J. & Blin, O. (2001). Yawning. Sleep Med. Rev. 5, 299–312.

Deputte, B. L. (1994) Ethological study of yawning in primates. 1. Quantitative analysis and study of causation in 2 species of Old World monkeys (Cercocebus albigena and Macaca fascicularis). Ethology, 98, 221–245.

di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Experimental Brain Research, 91, 176–180.

Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain, 119, 593–609.

Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolati, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 396-403.

Gallup, A. C., Miller, M. L. & Clark, A. B. (2009). Yawning and thermoregulation in budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulates. Animal Behaviour, 77, 109e113.

Harr, A.L., Gilbert, V.R. & Phillips, K.A. (2008). Do dogs (Canis familiaris) show contagious yawning? Animal Cognition, 12, 833-837.

Hickok, G. (2008). Eight Problems for the Mirror Neuron Theory of Action Understanding in Monkeys and Humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27(7), 1229-1243.

Iacoboni, M., Molnar-Szakacs, I., Gallese, V., Buccino, G., Mazziotta, J.C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). Grasping the Intentions of Others with One's Own Mirror Neuron System. PLoS Biology, 3(3), e79. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030079.

Järveläinen, J., Schürmann, M., Avikainen, S., & Hari, R. (2001). Stronger reactivity of the human primary motor cortex during observation of live rather than video motor acts. Neuroreport, 12, 3493-3495.

Joly-Mascheroni R.M., Senju, A., & Shepherd, A.J. et al. (2008). Dogs Catch Human Yawns. Biology Letters, 4, 446-448.

Norscia, I. & Palagi, E. (2011). Yawn Contagion and Empathy in Homo sapiens. PLOS One, 6(12): e28472. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028472.

Paukner, A. & Anderson, J. R. (2006). Video-induced yawning in stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides). Biology Letters 2, 36–38.

Platek, M.S., Critton, S.R., Myers, T.E. & Gallup, G.G. (2003). Contagious yawning: the role of self-awareness and mental state Attribution. Cognitive Brain Research 17, 223–227.

Platek, S.M., Mohamed, F.B., & Gallup, G.G. (2005). Contagious yawning and the brain. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res, 23, 448–452.

Preston, S. D. & de Waal, F. B. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behav. Brain Sci. 25, 1–20.

Provine, R.R. (1986). Yawning as a Stereotyped Action Pattern and Releasing Stimulus. Ethology, 72(2), 109-122.

Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The Mirror-Neuron System. Annu. Rev. Neurosci, 27, 169 92.

Schürmann, M., Hesse, M.D., Stephan, K.E., Saarela, M., Zilles, K., Hari, R., & Fink, G.R. (2005). Yearning to yawn: the neural basis of contagious yawning. Neuroimage, 24, 1260 1264.

Senju, A., Maeda, M., Kikuchi, Y., Hasegawa, T., Tojo, Y. & Osanai, H. (2007). Absence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder. Biology Letters 3, 706 708.

20 million-year-old well preserved fossil skull: Ugandapithecus major

Map of Uganda showing the remote Karamoja region in the northeast of the country where a team of Ugandan and French paleontologists announced Tuesday they had found a 20-million-year-old ape skull, saying it could shed light on the region's evolutionary history. Illustration from PhysOrg.

A well preserved fossil skull of an ancient primate, Ugandapithecus major, has been excavated in the northeast region of Karamoja in Uganda (hence the genus name, Uganda monkey). The 20 million-year-old skull belongs to a male and probably died when it was about 10 years old, said researchers Pickford and Senut. The cranial size of Ugandapithecus major was about the same size as that of chimpanzees but its brain size is smaller. Ugandapithecus major is a tree-climbing catarrhine, an herbivore that lives around the Miocene. Although its genus name refers to it as a monkey, Ugandapithecus major is actually a hominoid (ape).

A well preserved skull of Ugandapithecus major. Photo from BBC News. 

The skull will be cleaned and prepared in France for about a year before returning it back to Uganda. Ugandapithecus major was described in 2000 by Senut et al. from a few dental and postcranial remains.

You can read Senut et al. (2000) A new genus of Early Miocene hominoid from East Africa: Ugandapithecus major (Le Gros Clark & Leakey, 1950) here (requires subscription).

The Semantics of Vervet Monkey Alarm Calls: Part II - The Experiment

Last week, I blogged about the semantics of alarm calls in vervet monkeys. This post will focus solely on the ingenious experiment by Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney and Peter Marler (1980) to test whether vervet monkey alarm calls convey information or if these calls were just an uncontrollable auditory response to predators. Their question was simple. Would vervet monkey alarm calls alone elicit different responses?

A vervet monkey. Photo from Wikipedia.

Here's what the researchers did in the field. They used playbacks of recorded vervet monkey (subjects) alarm calls from concealed speakers. Equal amount of alarm calls for leopard, eagle and snake were used. These alarm calls were recorded from known adult male, adult female and juvenile vervet monkeys in the field. Trials were done when subjects were on the ground and also when they were in the trees. These trials were conducted in the absence of predators to eliminate visual cues from the caller.

Alarm calls were broadcasted in different amplitudes to mimic natural alarm calls. In succession from loudest to lowest amplitudes are alarm calls for leopard, eagle and snake. Subsequently, leopard calls have the lowest pitch while snake calls have the highest pitch. To control for the possible effects of amplitude, the researchers broadcasted alarm calls that do not differ significantly in the amplitudes for all three predators.

Table from Seyfarth et al. (1980). Click on illustration for its original size.

The alarm call playbacks showed two types of responses. First, subjects of any sex and age looked at the direction of the speaker and spent more time scanning their environment once an alarm call was made for more than 10 seconds. The researchers believe that they might be scanning for additional cues from the "caller" and the subject's surrounding.

Second, each alarm calls seem to elicit a distinct response from the subjects. Remember the trials were done when the subjects were on the ground and on the trees? When subjects were on ground, leopard calls were more likely to make them run up into the trees and eagle calls made them look up and run into cover (bushes) Snake calls made them look down. When subjects were on the trees, leopard calls were more likely to make them run higher in trees and to look down. Eagle calls made them look up and sometimes run out of trees. Snake calls made them look down.

From the results, Seyfarth et al. (1980) posit that vervet monkey alarm calls alone do elicit different responses. It's hard to tease out whether these alarm calls symbolize the predator "leopard" or a command "run up tree". However, we can postulate that these alarm calls are rudimentary semantic signals used to warn other conspecific of impending danger. For those that are not familiar with semantics, it refers to the meaning of a symbol, sign, word or phrase. In this case, vervet monkey alarm calls are semantic signals because it conveys a specific meaning.

Here's an interesting video by Robert Seyfarth summarizing his research with the vervet monkeys.

Reference:
Seyfarth, RM. Cheney, DL. Marler, P. 1980. Monkey responses to Three Different Alarm Calls: Evidence of Predator Classification and Semantic Communication. Science 210(4471): 801-803.

The Semantics of Vervet Monkey Alarm Calls: Part I

Anti-predatory alarm calls are important  for social animals to alert others of approaching predators. Without the presence of "language", some non-human primates are known to give out different predator-specific alarm calls to alert conspecific. These non-human primates include ring-tailed lemurs (Zuberbühler et al., 1999), white-faced capuchin monkeys (Fichtel et al., 2005), Diana monkeys (Zuberbühler, 1999), Campbell's monkeys (Ouattara et al., 2009) and vervet monkeys (Seyfarth et al., 1980).

Alarm calls are typically high frequency sounds because these calls are hard to localized by predators. On the other hand, low frequency sounds are easier to localized by predators. Calls that are hard to localized by predators are selected for because conspecific can pick up on the warning but predators cannot identify the location of the caller. If an individual successfully alert its social group of approaching predator yet does not reveal its location, it will significantly decrease the chance of the caller to be detected and increase the chance of its social group to avoid predation.

Vervet monkeys. Photo from Wikipedia.

Here, I will focus on the study of predatory alarm calls in vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) by Seyfarth et al. (1980) in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Vervet monkeys are Old World monkeys that range between Eastern and Southern Africa. These monkeys are diurnal and live in closely-knit social groups. They are quadrupedal and are both terrestrial and arboreal. Like all Old World monkeys, vervet monkeys have the characteristic cheek pouches that enables them to forage and store food to be eaten later. Male vervet monkeys have blue scrotal area and a red penis. Males and females are sexually dimorphic, with males slightly larger than females.

Male vervet monkey with blue scrotal area and red penis. Photo from Something Up Her Sleeve.

Vervet monkeys are known to elicit predator-specific alarm calls. Three well-documented vervet monkey alarm calls are those for leopard, martial eagle and python. Leopard alarm calls are short tonal calls produced in a series of inhalations and exhalations. Eagle alarm calls are low pitched grunt while python alarm calls are high pitched "chutters". Different alarm calls seem to evoke different responses to individuals that heard the alarm calls. However, the first reaction of a vervet monkey upon hearing an alarm call is to look at the direction of the caller. Looking at the direction of the caller gives them clues as to why the alarm calls were made and also where the caller is facing reveals the direction of the approaching predator. You can listen to these different alarm calls on this site.

As we said before, different alarm calls evoke different responses. Leopard alarm calls would make the monkeys run up into the tree to avoid being ambushed by the leopard. Also, these monkeys would sit on the branches further away from the tree because, even though leopards can climb trees, the branches could not support the leopard's weight. When an eagle alarm call is given, vervet monkeys would make them look up, run for the nearest bush or both to avoid an approaching aerial attack. Python alarm calls would the monkeys stand bipedally and look down on the ground.

A martial eagle. Photo by Jacques S G from Flickr.

Adult vervet monkeys are more discriminatory when eliciting alarm calls. Infants and juveniles calls however, are less discriminating as they attribute most terrestrial mammals with leopard calls, flying birds with eagle calls and stick-like figures with snake calls (although, compared to infants, juveniles are more discriminant when making alarm calls). In spite of that, adult vervet monkeys seem to elicit eagle alarm calls to different species of raptors and non-raptors (see illustration below). We can infer that adult vervet monkeys attribute eagle alarm calls to birds with the same silhouette as martial eagles. As vervet monkeys get older, they seem to have a better association between predator species and types of alarm calls. Vervet monkeys generally pay more attention to adult alarm calls than those of juveniles or infants.

Alarm calls made by infant, juvenile and adult vervet monkeys in response to sightings of birds of prey (raptors) and non-raptors. The number of calls cited for each age group refers to the total number of calls that were analysed (Gould & Gould, 1999). Click on illustration for larger view of the image.

The study of vervet monkey alarm calls by Seyfarth et al. (1980) laid an important ground work to better understand the complexity of animal communications. By showing that vervet monkeys make different alarm calls to different predatory species, we can posit that vervet monkeys have the ability to categorize different species. The ability to discriminate between terrestrial mammal, flying birds and snake-like objects starts during infancy in vervet monkeys. As they get older, they are better at associating predators with specific alarm calls.

An infant vervet monkey with its mother. Photo by Lip Kee from Flickr.

The ability to over generalize during infancy is evident in both vervet monkeys and humans. For example, upon learning the word "dog", human infants would refer to quadruped mammals they see as "dog". As the infant grows, so does the ability to associate the semantic meaning of words they learned. However, the acquisition of alarm calls in vervet monkeys is different than the acquisition of speech (language) in humans. Alarm calls in vervet monkeys are instinctual and not learned. Humans, however, have to learn their language. Failing to do so during the "critical period" generally will result in the inability to learn language in later years. Feral child are examples of human infants that lack linguistic input during their critical period of language acquisition.

Most of us interpret animal alarm calls as an uncontrollable auditory response to fear or pain, akin to humans yelping if we had our finger caught in a door. While this is not entirely false, some animal calls actually convey information from the caller to the listener. Seyfarth et al. (1980) posit that vervet monkey alarm calls are actually basic semantic signals or symbolic signals because each alarm calls seem to mean something to these vervet monkeys. While we don't know if these alarm calls actually mean "leopard" or "run up to the tree", we do know that it conveys specific information to their conspecific about approaching predators.

I will be blogging Part II of this post later this week, where I will explain in details the experiments done by Seyfarth and Cheney on vervet monkey alarm calls.

References:
Cawthon Lang KA. 2006 January 3. Primate Factsheets: Vervet (Chlorocebus) Taxonomy, Morphology, & Ecology. http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/vervet. Accessed 2011 March 9.

Fichtel, C. Perry, S. Gros-Louis, J. 2005. Alarm calls of white-faced capuchin monkeys: an acoustic analysis. Animal Behaviour 70(1): 165-176. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.09.020.

Gould, JL. Gould, CG. 1999. The Animal Mind. Scientific American Library.

Ouattara, K. Lemasson, A. Zuberbühler, K. 2009. Campbell's Monkeys Use Affixation to Alter Call Meaning. PLoS ONE 4(11). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007808.

Seyfarth, RM. Cheney, DL. Marler, P. 1980. Monkey responses to Three Different Alarm Calls: Evidence of Predator Classification and Semantic Communication. Science 210(4471): 801-803.

Zuberbühler, K. Jenny, D. Bshary, R. 1999. The Predator Deterrence Function of Primate Alarm Calls. Ethology 105: 477–490. doi: 10.1046/j.1439-0310.1999.00396.x.

Zuberbuhler, K. 2000. Referential labelling in Diana monkeys. Animal Behaviour 59(5): 917-927. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1999.1317.

A Blond Baby Hamadryas Baboon!

The birth of a baby hamadryas baboon ten days ago was a joyous occasion for Scud and her male, Shapira, at the Safari Park in Ramat Gan, Israel. The arrival of the baby was extra special because she was born with a genetic mutation that made her fur blond (golden yellow). I have cautioned myself by not referring to the color of her fur as "ginger" or red. Instead, I describe it as blond-haired.

The baby carries within her a mutated gene that was passed down by her mother and can be traced back to her great grandparents. In the 1950s, the Yemenites went to Israel and brought with them their pets which were albino hamadryas baboon. These albino baboons late became part of the collection at the old Tel Aviv Zoo. Because of these albino individuals, the recessive gene are being passed down from one generation to another resulting in periodic births of albino and blond-haired offspring. It has been 20 years since a blond-haired baby was born in Safari Park. The baby hamadryas baboon has yet to be named but they totally should name her Barbie. Hah!

Somewhere around the 0:34 mark in the second video, Ms. Terkel (Safari Park curator) mumbled about how the Yemenites came to Israel with their flying carpets. What was she smoking? Also, she kept saying "gingy". Who says that! Anyway ... enjoy the videos below.

There are two videos, click on 1 and 2 to change them.

Normally, a baby hamadryas baboon is born with black fur. As they mature, the black fur will slowly turn into a grayish silver (males) and grayish brown (females) coloration.

EDIT: ZooBorns covered the story of this baby baboon as well. Click here to go to their site (they have photos of the baby).

These primates are busy!

I realized I have not updated my blog for almost a month now, so first and foremost, apologies to my avid readers. I know I have left you high and dry without any post! Since my last post, I have started volunteering at Prospect Park Zoo. The zoo has a special place in my heart (especially the hamadryas baboons) because it is there that I did my research for my Honors Thesis. I never thought I would enjoy working with kids but they DO ask the darndest things. Of all the kids that had asked me questions or talked to me, one really stood out. The kid asked if I know who Steve Irwin is and that he (the kid) enjoys his (Irwin's) work. Can you believe it? The kid even recited how primates are different than other mammals. I think he's gonna grow up to be me. I'm cereal.

Have you seen the new ASP website? It's quite spiffy. I actually contributed some photos to the site ... can you spot them?

The annual Monkey Day is fast approaching. Celebrated annually on December 14th, Monkey Day not only celebrates the simian that lend its name to the festival, it also celebrates anything primate (prosimians, monkeys and apes). Over at Serious Monkey Business, Ashlee is starting a Monkey Day Blog Carnival. If you are interested in contributing to the carnival, please contact her.

A friend of mine started a new blog, The Primate Chronicles. Kayley is a graduate student at University of Calgary and does her fieldwork in Belize. Check it out.

Call for submissions: The next edition of Four Stone Hearth will be hosted by Archive Fire on December 8th. If you have wrote or saw interesting Anthropology posts around the web, please send it to ambientdisorder at gmail dot com. Afarensis, current host of the blog carnival, needs hosts for future editions. If you are interested, please email Afarensis, afarensis1 at sbcglobal dot net.

All over the blogosphere and Twitter-land, Anthropological primates are choosing sides. Are you "Team Jacob" or "Team Edward"? Errr .... I mean, are you "for" or "against" removing the word "science" from  American Anthropological Association (AAA)'s mission statement. The controversy with removing the word "science" from mission statement even reached CNN. Some of the interesting blog posts on this subject matter includes:

• Why anthropology is ‘true’ even if it is not ‘science’ and Ethnography as a solution to #AAAfail by Savage Minds.
• Anthropology, Science, and Public Understanding by Neuroanthropology.
• What is a generous interpretation of the AAA mission statement change? by Context and Variation.
• Removing science from anthropology: Parallels with medicine by Respectful Insolence.
• No Science, Please. We're Anthropologists by Psychology Today.
• American Anthropological Association's Long-Range Plan, a rebuttal to the brouhaha.

What's your stand? I don't really have a strong reaction to this, probably because I am not an AAA member. I understand the initial shock of disbelieve or just a general WTF to the decision. But seriously, are they just fishing for publicity? Those damn non-science Anthropologist!

Last but not least, to my Jewish readers, Happy Hanukkah. Chag Sameach!

Wordless Wednesday

Rhinopithecus strykeri: Hunted and eaten by locals

With the announcement of the newly discovered Rhinopithecus strykeri yesterday, we were only given a glimpse of this new species through an illustration and a computer modified image (Photoshopped none the less). I bet everyone was wondering why aren't there any pictures of these snub-nosed monkeys.

Ponder no more. Here's a photo from National Geographic showing local hunters with a dead R. strykeri that's about to be dinner (photo by Ngwe Lwin). The researchers (Geissmann et al., 2010) were not able to procure a photo of any live R. strykeri. Supposedly, they captured some wild ones but they had escaped before pictures were taken. R. strykeri are threatened by hunting and habitat destruction due to logging.

Reference:
Geissmann. T, Lwin. G, Aung. S, Naing Aung. T, Aung. Z M, Hla. T, Grindley. M, Momber. F, “A new species of Snub-nosed monkey, Genus Rhinopithecus Milne-Edwards, 1872 (Primates, Colobianae), From Northern Kachin State, Northeastern Myanmar”, American Journal of Primatology, Wiley-Blackwell, October 2010, DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20894

Edit: To request a copy of the paper by Geissmann et al. (2010), click here.

New snub-nosed monkey from Northern Myanmar: Rhinopithecus strykeri

As if fate is testing me, I just had a Facebook conversation yesterday about new species "discoveries" and how ethnocentric they are. I mean, really ... do you really think that until these new species are "discovered" by scientists, no one (even people that lives in the area) knew of these animals? Probably not. Using the word "discovered" to formally acknowledge a species seems antediluvian.

While there are currently no images of living specimens of this new species available Fauna & Flora International has commissioned an artists impression of the new species in its habitat, based on field sightings and a carcass of the newly discovered species. Image from Martin Aveling/Fauna & Flora International.

Anyway, a team of primatologists supposed discovered a new species of snub-nosed monkey in Northern Myanmar during their Hoolock Gibbon Status Review early this year. The new species was formally named  Rhinopithecus strykeri, after the President and Founder of the Arcus Foundation Jon Stryker. The locals do have a name for these snub-nosed monkeys. They call them "mey nwoah" or "monkey with an upturned face".

This primate reported has an upturned nose which, according to the locals, made them sneeze when it rains. Locals observed that to avoid getting rain water into their nose, R. strykeri would sit with their heads tucked in between their legs. Their pelage is entirely black except for a white tuft on their ears, chin beard and the perineal end. It has a relatively long tail, about 140% of its body. R. strykeri is the first species of the Rhinopithecus genus to be found in Myanmar. The other four species (R. roxellana, R. bieti, R. brelichi and R. avunculus) are found in China and Vietnam. R. strykeri's range is limited only to the Maw River area. There are estimated about 260 to 330 individuals of R. strykeri left in the wild, making them Critically Endangered according to IUCN.

Read more at New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered in Northern Myanmar.

Reference:

Geissmann, T. Lwin, G. Aung, S. Naing Aung, T. Aung, ZM. Hla, T. Grindley, M. Momber, F. A new species of Snub-nosed monkey, Genus Rhinopithecus Milne-Edwards, 1872 (Primates, Colobianae), From Northern Kachin State, Northeastern Myanmar. American Journal of Primatology, Wiley-Blackwell, October 2010, DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20894

Interspecies grooming at The Bronx Zoo

Interspecies grooming between Bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata) and Gray langur (Semnopithecus entellus thersites) at Kalakkad and Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, India. Photo from TrekNature by Gopi.

Interspecies grooming is not unheard of and does occur naturally. While grooming can be dyadic and triadic (or even more), it can also be one-directional. Since grooming is central to primate sociality, there are reported instances of grooming between two different species of primates or even between a primate and non-primate. Grooming has many functions: hygiene, social bonding and even gaining favor.


I found this video yesterday (above) on Youtube by thekingchivas. I could not believe my eyes with what the camera caught. It shows a Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) being groomed by a White-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys). After doing a Google search, I realize that this is not an isolated incident. Apparently The Bronx Zoo is also aware of this behavior and had posted its own video, which seems to be a separate incident from the one caught by thekingchivas.


I'm not going to definitively say that the tapir will not reciprocate in this grooming but chances are highly unlikely. I wonder what makes these gibbons (there were two females in the exhibit, The Bronx Zoo currently has a mated pair) groom their fellow exhibit-mate. While this might not be an altruistic exchange, we can view it as a mutual symbiotic relationship. Neither animal had its fitness reduced, so it is not altruism. Instead, both individuals benefit from this interaction so it is symbiotic.

The gibbons meticulously groom the tapir to remove insects, which in turns become a tasty snack for these gibbons. The tapir on the other hand, benefits by having pesky insects removed off its body. Is it significant that both animals are female? Is this behavior natural? There are recorded accounts of interspecies grooming between primates and non-primates, so it is quite likely.

A macaque grooming a goat on the streets of Chilkur, India. An example of mutual symbiosis between a primate and a non-primate. Photo by Libran Lover from A Lover's Journal.

A langur grooming a pig in Jaipur, India. Somehow nature managed to put two animals that I have polar opposite feelings together (one I love, the other I hate). Another example of mutual symbiosis between a primate and a non-primate. Photo by Christa Kate Hyland from Laddus and Langis.

The range of both Malayan tapirs and White-cheeked gibbons does not overlap. Malayan tapirs occur in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar while White-cheeked gibbons are found in Vietnam, Laos and the Yunnan province of China. Therefore, interspecies grooming between Malayan tapir and White-cheeked gibbon is probably a novel behavior that cannot be observed in the wild.

Map shows the current and historic range of Malayan tapir, as of 2003. Notice that Malayan tapirs do not occur in Vietnam, Laos nor China (Yunnan province) where White-cheek gibbons occur. Illustration by Sasha Kopf from Wikipedia.

Prospect Park Zoo's Baby Hamadryas Named Azizi and Jabari

After more than a thousand suggestions submitted by the public, the two baby hamadryas baboons at Prospect Park Zoo are given the name "Azizi" and "Jabari" respectively. Their names are in Arabic, the language spoken in modern day Egypt (where these baboons can be found). "Azizi" means precious while "Jabari" means brave. Both Azizi (mother, Rebecca) and Jabari (mother, Kaia) are on exhibit daily from 10 AM to 2 PM inside the Animal Lifestyles building.

More at:
Azizi and Jabari, Prospect Park Zoo's newest baboons, get monikers inspired by their ancestry by Daily News.

The Vote Is In: Meet Jabari and Azizi from Prospect Park Zoo.

Help Name The Prospect Park Zoo Baby Baboons

Congratulations to Bole for being the father to two healthy and beautiful babies! Born on July 23rd and July 28th respectively, these two babies are a bundle of joy for mothers Kaia and Rebecca. The last time Prospect Park Zoo had a baboon birth was 6 years ago, a male baboon named Kito to mother Matara and father Simen.

Kaia and Rebecca (both 7 years old) were sent from Bucknell University to breed with Bole, a longtime resident of the hamadryas baboon exhibit at Prospect Park Zoo. For now, the babies are referred to #1 and #2 but that will change come September 24th. Prospect Park Zoo is asking you to submit names for these two fur balls no later than September 21st. Then, on September 24th, the zoo will announce the winning names. To suggest names, please visit Prospect Park Zoo's website here.

Photographs by Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS

Baby hamadryas baboons are born with black fur (pelage). As they mature, their fur changes from black to olive brown. Adult hamadryas baboons are grayish (males) or brownish (females). Hamadryas baboons were once considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians because these baboons were the attendant of the god Thoth.

Personally, the birth announcement was an exciting news because I've come to "know" Bole after spending almost a year observing him at Prospect Park Zoo. The 18 year-old Bole were especially closed to one of his three females, Zula. Together with Zula, Bole can been seen obsessively grooming each other up to the point where both of them had bare patches of skin. That, my friend, is one extreme PDA!

Without a doubt, the introduction of Kaia and Rebecca into Bole's group will change the troop's dynamics but I am very curious to see what the changes are to Bole's group. What will happen with the relationship between Bole and his three original females (Zula, Mekele and Kobo)? My recent observations suggest that Mekele and Kobo had moved from Bole's group into Simen's group. While I probably won't know the exact reasons why they would do so, I'm guessing that these lower ranking females are joining a much more dominant group for better access to food resources (higher ranking members get access to more preferable pieces of fruit, etc.).

Read more about the baby baboon here.

Macaques and Their "Pet" Kittens

Do you remember a post last month on pet keeping in animals? If you don't remember or never read it, here's the link (Do animals keep pets?). I just received a link from a friend of mine (Thanks Kristen!) about a long tailed macaque adopting a kitten in Ubud, a town in Bali, Indonesia. Below is a YouTube video of said macaque with his "pet" kitten taken in 2008. Read more about this story on Treehugger and on Telegraph.

There is also another "documented" incident of a macaque adopting a kitten in the city of Jhansi, India. This video was taken in 2007.

Do you think that these two incidents provide enough evidence that animals (primates) are capable of pet-keeping? Or is this merely nurturing instinct that is hardwired into some animals? Again, what is your take on pet-keeping and how would you define it? Are pet-keeping unique to humans? 
In a glance, I personally think that these two incidents merely shows a more nurturing side of the macaques than pet-keeping. Although, since this is not a longitudinal study, I can't extrapolate much from a few minutes of footage. What do you think? 
And to end this post, here's a gratuitous picture of a nurturing primate and his pet kitten.

Callicebus caquetensis: A New Species of Titi Monkey Discovered

An adult Caquetá titi monkey (Callicebus caquetensis)

A new species of titi monkey has been discovered in a Colombian Amazon expedition. Caquetá titi monkey or Callicebus caquetensis is about the size of a domestic cat with a bushy red beard. Totaling to only about 250 individuals, this newly discovered species is also critically endangered due to severe fragmentation of its habitat.

Along with the news of the discovery is the published paper by Defler et al. (2010), Callicebus caquetensis: A New and Critically Endangered Titi Monkey from Southern Caquetá, Colombia (free pdf). In it, they described the morphology and distribution of the Caquetá titi monkey.

When asked about the discovery, the spokesperson for the Caquetá titi monkey (above) said, "Oh noes, you found us! We can haz cookies now?". OK fine, maybe I made that up.

For more about the discovery, read Pictures: Bushy-Bearded Titi Monkey Discovered on National Geographic.

Photo of the day: Polymorphism in Ebony langurs

Silver leaf langurs (Trachypithecus cristatus cristatus) Ebony langurs (Trachypithecus auratus auratus) are endemic to the islands of Java but the red morph (like the one above) occurs only in the eastern part. Photo taken at Bronx Zoo's Jungle World.


Correction: Thanks to reader Vincent Nijman for pointing out that it is an Ebony langur, not Silver leaf langur. That oughta teach me to write notes, not use mental notes.

Global Warming Threatens Folivory Primates

Black and white colobus monkey, one of the folivory species threaten by global warming.

A paper by Korstjens et al. (2009) suggests that even an annual temperature rise of 2°C would threaten folivory primates because these species would be forced to spend more time resting than foraging for food. This paper, Resting time as an ecological constraint on primate biogeography, was published online on Animal Behaviour. Here's the abstract:

Time constraints can limit an animal's potential to survive in a given habitat and the maximum size of its group. Many studies have, therefore, investigated the ecological correlates of time allocated to travelling, foraging and vigilance. However, animals spend more time inactive than active, and understanding the determinants of this resting time may provide new insights into the habitat-specific time-budgeting problems that animals face. We analysed the environmental constraints that determine the minimum amount of daytime an average primate has to spend resting, using data from a wide range of ecologically different species. However, total resting time consists of two components: enforced resting time (imposed on the animal by ecological constraints) and free resting time (the time available for allocation to ecologically functional activities). We show that the ecologically important enforced resting time is determined by diet and annual temperature as well as by temperature variation. Our tests of the biological significance of this relationship show that enforced resting time distinguishes between locations that are suitable or unsuitable for particular genera. We show that an annual temperature increase of 2–4 °C would greatly increase enforced resting time, leading to serious time-budgeting problems for many species. The effect of changes to enforced resting time on the biogeographical distribution of species is especially strong for folivorous primates. This study shows that resting time is an important component of animal behaviour that can help us understand extinction risk and geographical distribution of taxa.

Read more about this paper on PhysOrg.com, African leaf-eating monkeys are 'likely to be wiped out' by climate change.

December 14th is Monkey Day!

For some of you who doesn't know, every year on December 14th (tomorrow) is Monkey Day. Learn more about this holiday on the Monkey Day official website. The folks responsible for Monkey Day is also behind the blog Monkeys In The News. Go check them out and follow them. Do you know what's the difference between a monkey and an ape?

What will you be doing on Monkey Day? Too bad I threw out my Halloween costume ... I was a sad, confused and wet monkey!

Effects Of Global Warming On Endangered Primate Species

A study was done by Penn State Graduate students Ruscena Wiederholt and Biology professor Eric Post on how the effects of global warming, such as El Niño and El Niña, on endangered primate species. Focusing on New World Monkeys, Wiederholt and Post studied the trend of abundance and population dynamics in four genera of Atelines: the muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus, formerly B. arachnoides) of Brazil, the woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha) in Colombia, Geoffroy's spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) of Barro Colorado Island in Panama, and the red howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus) in Venezuela.

The results of the team's analyses were spectacular. All four monkey species showed drops in abundance relating to large-scale climate fluctuations. Even though the monkey populations were separated by large distances, the three fruit-eating species had synchronous responses to large-scale warming. During El Niño warming events, trees produced more fruit than usual. Then, during the subsequent La Niña cooling events, the trees produced much less fruit, resulting in a local scarcity or even famine.


Some ecologists have speculated that high production of fruit during El Niño events may have been triggered by the increase in solar radiation, despite lower-than-usual rainfall. However, high productivity during an El Niño event might also use up the stored reserves of the trees, which would have difficulty recovering during the subsequent La Niña events, when weather was wet, cloudy, and cool. This mechanism would explain why the fruit-eating monkeys showed a delayed response to the El Niño events after a lag of one or two years.

Howler monkeys also showed declines with warm and dry El Niño events, but their population fall was out of sync with that of the fruit-eating species. The mechanism is not yet clear, but Wiederholt has some ideas. She notes, "Primate researchers have seen elevated adult female mortality and lowered birthrates among red howlers in drought years. Since leaf flush often occurs at the start of the wet season, a prolonged dry season might delay the availability of this resource for the howlers and perhaps cause them nutritional stress."


Warmer temperatures also may cause leaves -- the howlers' primary food -- to mature faster, which would accelerate the leaves' acquisition of toxins and other chemical defenses against monkeys. The factor that the scientists found was most influenced by changes in climate was the monthly maximum number of tree species that were fruiting. Climate changes also were highly correlated with the monthly maximum number of species that were flowering and with annual seed production. The length of the dry season also was highly correlated with annual flower production. Thus, vegetation responses to climatic conditions substantially altered the food resources available to primates, which in turn influenced the decline or rise in monkey abundance.

Read the rest of the article from EurekAlert!

The Uncanny Valley: Humans and Macaques

The uncanny valley hypothesis posits that when robots and other human facsimiles look and act almost like humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "uncanny valley" refers to the dip in the graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot and other human facsimiles's life-likeness (see below).

Hypothesized emotional response of human subjects is plotted against anthropomorphism of a robot, following Mori's statements. The uncanny valley is the region of negative emotional response towards robots that seem "almost human". Movement amplifies the emotional response. Photo from Wikipedia.

It is the reason why we prefer cartoon characters than CGI characters that look realistic. For example, you are more likely to like the Homer Simpson on the left than the one on the right.

Read about the uncanny valley hypothesis here.

Now this is the interesting part. Using long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) as test subjects, Steckenfinger and Ghazanfar (2009) found that these monkeys' visual behavior actually fell into the uncanny valley, which mirrors the behavior of humans. These macaques looked longer at real faces and unrealistic synthetic faces than realistic synthetic faces.

The unrealistic synthetic faces, realistic synthetic faces and real faces. Actual images used in Steckenfinger and Ghazanfar's experiment.

The authors did not conclude why the visual cues of these macaques fall into the uncanny valley, though they did suggest that it has an evolutionary basis.

Remember the picture above? If not, read my blog entry on Contagious Yawning in Chimpanzees. I see you yawn. I wonder if those chimpanzees will yawn if given more realistic synthetic faces.

Reference:
Steckenfinger, SA. Ghazanfar, AA. 2009. Monkey Visual Behaviors Falls Into The Uncanny Valley. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/10/07/0910063106.full.pdf+html [10.1073/pnas.091006310]