This Week In Primatology

While I was away at the AAA meeting in Philadelphia, my inbox was flooded with articles on primates from behavioral to molecular level. Here's whats happening this week in primatology:

Primate study halted by US university: Administrators at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater have abruptly cancelled an anthrax vaccine study that would have killed dozens of baboons. Can I tell you how happy I am about this? No animals should suffer for science, not even to find a vaccine for humans.

Did Social Climbing Give Us Bigger Brain? by Urban Ethology. It takes a big brain to scheme and plan, so maybe we can thank Machiavellian Intelligence and our complex social system for that big brain of ours.

Monkeys Recognize Their Pals In Photos.Tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were tested to see if they have facial recognition using photographs. Pokorny and de Waal (2009) published their findings in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Monkeys recognize the faces of group mates in photographs (free abstract).

Social Conformity Not Unique To Humans. Another study on capuchin monkeys (talk about conforming, LOL). Dr. Marietta Dindo and Professor Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews show that capuchin monkeys would copy behaviors of other individuals. Not only do they copy other individual's behavior, they would copy behaviors that are the most popular in the group.

Why Some Monkeys Don't Get AIDS. Yea, why? It's not fair! Two studies reveal why some monkeys don't get AIDS and possibly identifying genes that are related to the progression or resistance to AIDS. Nonpathogenic SIV infection of African green monkeys induces a strong but rapidly controlled type I IFN response (Jacquelin et al., 2009) and Global genomic analysis reveals rapid control of a robust innate response in SIV-infected sooty mangabeys (Bosinger et al., 2009). Both are free access articles in pdf.

And finally, Scent Signals Stop Incest In Lemurs. Chemical identifiers secreted from genital glands by both males and females ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) allow them to avoid incest and engage in nepotism. Decoding an olfactory mechanism of kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance in a primate (Boulet et al., 2009).

AAA's Student (Or Lack Thereof) Saturday

I was planning on tweeting about Student Saturday yesterday but I've decided against it, not because I was lazy, but I was generally underwhelmed by it. Fully acknowledging that this is the first Student Saturday organized by AAA, I still think that they should have planned a session where all the students can mingle (with a cash bar of course). For a first timer like me, it seems that the convention has too much going on at one time but I soon realized I should have dropped by the day before to pick up the itinerary and plan my day. By the time I walked in to the convention, I had missed both sessions (one about how to sell yourself with your CV and one about getting published) that actually made me want to go to Student Saturday. Bummer!

The graduate school fair was lack luster but this is also due to the fact that my interest lies in primatology, not the other "prominent" anthropology fields that AAA seems to represent. Most of the graduate schools that are present did not have any primatology program or their primatologists are not at the convention. But still, an opportunity to network is still an opportunity to network. Next to the graduate school fair was the book fair, which was more exciting for me to peruse. Surprisingly enough, I manage to find a book about Bigfoot! I also met a nice older lady who was wo-manning the "Gerontology" table (sorry I forgot your name!). We strike up a conversation about gerontology in primates and I told her about the newly published paper by Nakamichi, et al. (2009), which I also blogged last week. I realized that of all the people I spoke with at the convention, she was the only person I had an interesting conversation with.

All in all, Student Saturday was just another day at the AAA convention where they let us, lowly students, pay a small fee to join the festivities and mingle with the anthropological gods. I wish that they had planned sessions specifically for students or at least a reception or a meet-and-greet. Although to their credits, the itinerary does indicate sessions that might be interesting for students. But seriously, where are all the students? Maybe it's just that this is our first time at the convention and once we get a flow of it, things will be much more interesting. Maybe.

Philadelphia's Baby Sumatran Orangutan Gets A Name!

After two months of being born, the female baby Sumatran orangutan from Philadelphia Zoo finally gets a name! The baby is given the name Batu, named after a group of islands of the coast of Sumatra. The other two choices were Kadoa (small gift) and Anoano (blessing). Over half of the 3.400 online votes favor the name Batu, myself included. Batu was born in October 2nd, 2009 to father Sugi and mother Tua.

Batu, in the embrace of her mother Tua. Photo from Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"PECO is sponsoring an Orangutan Baby Naming Weekend from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday which will include special activities at the PECO Primate Reserve and giveaways to first 200 people to arrive at the zoo each day."

 So, go on down to Philadelphia Zoo and celebrate the merriment! Unfortunately I'll be at the American Anthropological Association (AAA)'s Student Saturday today and will be going to Mutter Museum with my friends on Sunday (though I might be able to persuade them to go to the zoo instead).

Read more about Batu: Baby Sumatran Orangutan Born In Philadelphia Zoo & Name The Female Baby Sumatran Orangutan.

American Anthropological Association (AAA): Student Saturday and Nonja, The Orangutan

Packing and getting ready for AAA's Student Saturday in Philadelphia this Saturday. Will blog about the event so stay tune!

Nonja and her camera.

In the mean time, I'm gonna leave you with Nonja, a female orangutan from Schönbrunn Zoo, Vienna. Nonja made headlines and became a sensation on Facebook for using a camera to take photo of herself and her enclosure. She probably doesn't know what a camera is but she knows that every snap of the camera dispenses a raisin as a treat. So you can say she's camera happy because she's raisin happy.

Nonja and her Facebook pose.

This is the "info" on Nonja's Facebook profile, in German.

"Nonja ist ein 33-jähriges Orang-Utan Weibchen. Die Fotos auf dieser Website sind von ihr fotografiert und zeigen das neue Gehege mit 750qm Freianlage im Tiergarten Schönbrunn. Die passende Kamera wurde von der Firma Samsung zur Verfügung gestellt."

"Nonja is a 33-year-old female orangutan. The photos on this website are photographs taken by her and shows the new enclosure with 750qm open area in the Schönbrunn Zoo. The camera was provided by the company Samsung."

Read the full story from Reuters here. Also, check out Nonja's Facebook profile!

Humans Were Born With The Urge To Help

The New York Times Science section has an interesting article about humans and their proneness to help each other, "We May Be Born With an Urge to Help".

Their [biologists] conclusions are derived in part from testing very young children, and partly from comparing human children with those of chimpanzees, hoping that the differences will point to what is distinctively human. The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help ... “That’s why we have moral dilemmas,” Dr. Tomasello said, “because we are both selfish and altruistic at the same time.”

Read more about the news article, here.