Primates
## Primate Communication
- Communication: Process by which the behavior of one animal affects the behavior of another
- Olfactory, non-vocal, vocal
- Maintenance of social cohesion; better ability to effectively cope with environmental stresses
- Is the metal capacity to learn a language a unique human trait?
- Language:
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Gardner's: Taught ASL (American Sign Language) to Washoe in 1966 (Wild female captured at the age of 11 months)
- Created the environment where language learning is possible
- Created situations constantly where language was useful; emulated stimuli
- 7 months: Gardner's concluded she was using sentences with correct grammar
- If used word 3 times, went on a list of possible words; if then used correctly 15 days in a row, considered to be learned
- 36 months: 85 signs; 51 months: 132 signs
- Rumbaugh's Yerkes Primate Center
- Created computer based language
- Less flexible -> Limited ability to innovate
- Terrance and Nim Chimsky (Chimp)
- Concluded what was originally language was seen as subtle cueing
- 40% of the time Nim repeated what the observer signed
- Both felt that they did not construct true sentences
- Criticisms
- Rapid turnover of 60 different trainers
- Raised in a socially sterile environment
- 2 three hour training sessions 5 days per week; otherwise left alonee
- Positive Results (Washoe)
- 1. Examples where no subtle cueing
- Double blind tests
- Sign to herself after learning new sign
- Sign to herself while looking at magazines
- Sign to herself before she acted
- 2. Good understanding of word order
- 3. New words
- a) Swan = water bird
- b) Alka Seltzer = listen drink
- c) Brazil Nut = rock berry
- d) Cucumber = green banana
- 4. Loulis: Taught some signs; learned others on his own; 80 signs
- 5. Chimps at CWU regularly use sign language with humans and with each other
- 6. Sherman and Austin
- 7. Kanzi
- Left planum temporale: Larger in humans but not in chimps
- FOXP2 Gene Mutation
- Regulator gene
- 3 codon difference between humans and chimps due to a mutation 200,000 - 120,000 years ago
- Conclusions
- Chimps may have the ability to learn the rudimentary basics of language (maximum of a human 3 year old)
- Some capacity for language (minimally vocabulary) semes to part of primate heritage
### Savannah Baboons
- Dinural
- Troop under direction of alpha male;
- Lives in sleeping groves
- Moves between groves at an interval
- Sexual dimorphism in body and canine size
- Dominant males: Leadership, defense
- Alliances
- Very rare; only when a Baboon gets to the top, they may form alliances to maintain their high rank
- Males challenge each other on their way to become the alpha
- Female dominance hierarchy tends to be more stable: Males must join new troop at adulthood
- Strict dominance hierarchy; dominant more likely to mate with ovulating females
- Diet: Omnivorous but primarily consume vegetables; also eat fruits, insects, small game
- Disease Avoidance Behaviors
- Passes down information from generation to generation
- New beneficial behaviors learned in the past are passed down
- Observed in Amboseli National Park, Kenya
- Troops that follow certain behaviors prosper; others who don't will die out and thus the behavior will propagate
- Disease vectors:
- Intentional parasites and helminths (worms) which are passed from individual to individual by contact with feces
- Never defecate near water sources
- Defecate in sleeping groves but larvae do not hatch for 2-4 days and live only for about 9 days
- Each troop uses 15-20 sleeping groves
- Average f 2 days
- Average of 9 days before they return to the same sleeping grove
- Ticks and fleas
- More ticks and fleas -> Higher frequency of grooming
- Less dominant generally initiate grooming but the more dominant must reciprocate
- Higher grooming time -> Higher fitness
### Gorilla
- Subspecies
- Western lowland gorilla; = 100,000
- Eastern lowland gorilla; = 12,00
- Mountain gorilla = 250-300
- Shy; habituation
- Social groups of 2-30 animals: 1 silverback, adult females, younger adult males; young stable groups
- Minimal territoriality
- Strict dominance hierarchy
- Vegetarians; up to 70 pounds/day
- Takes a long time to eat and digest all the food
- Pronounced sexual dimorphism; males 300-400 pounds
- No tool use
- Grooming, vocal communication, and play are infrequent (relative to other hominoids)
- Morphology of brachiation but generally knucklewalk
- Humans are their own predator
### Orangutan
- Located in Indonesia
- Less than 20,00 but estimated 315,000 in 1900
- Relatively little tool use in the wild; tool use in captivity
### Bonobo
- Bonobo = Pan paniscus = Pygmy chimp
- Estimated 30,000-50,000 in Congo River Basin; Kano; extinct within 10 years at present rate of decrease
- Bonobo/chimp split about 2.0mya
- Males about 95lbs and females 75lbs
- Forage primarily in trees (spends most of their time there)
- Rarely hunt animals for meat
- Females leave birth troop and are troop leaders
- Seen by us to be much less violent than champs
- They spend most of their time in trees and thus they were hard to observe
- New studies show bonobos are 3 times as many aggressive interactions as chimps
- But
- Chimp males were very aggressive towards females while bonobos are not
- Chimp male aggression can result in death and that has never ben observed in bonobos
- Bonobo troops in neighboring territories interact peacefully; not so with chimps
### Pan Troglodytes/Chimpanzee
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