By Gillian Murdoch Mon May 28, 12:08 AM ET

PALANGKARAYA, Central Kalimantan (Reuters) - Bound hand and foot, disheveled orangutans caught raiding Borneo's oil palm crops silently await their fate as a small crowd of plantation workers gather to watch.
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Lacking only hand-cuffs and finger-printing to complete the atmosphere of a criminal bust, such "ape evictions" have become part of life for Asia's endangered red apes.

Thousands have strayed into the path of international commerce as Indonesia and Malaysia, their last remaining habitats, race to convert their forests to profitable palm crops.

Branded pests for venturing out from their diminishing forest habitats into plantations where they eat young palm shoots, orangutans could be extinct in the wild in ten years time, the
United Nations said in March.

Fighting against this grim prediction is the Nyaru Menteng Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) centre in Central Kalimantan, which rescues orangutans and returns them to the wild at the cost of US$3,000 per ape.

"They will kill the animals if we don't go ... It's cheaper to kill the orangutan than put up a fence or snares," said Lone Droscher-Nielsen, the Danish-born founder of the centre.

While harming the apes is illegal, her centre has amassed a slew of photographs of the grisly fates of some plantation trespassers: Apes with their hands cut off and slashed to death with machetes, and others with bullets through their foreheads.

With dozens captured this year, cages are full, and finding secure land for releases is a constant challenge for the centre.

"It's not just orangutans -- bears, gibbons -- everybody is losing their home," said Droscher-Nielsen.

"If it was only the orangutan, people just say: 'Well it's only one species that's going to go extinct'. But it's not just one species. Those forests have millions of animals in them that are all going to go extinct if we continue."

SQUEEZED OUT

Indonesia and Malaysia together produce 83 percent of the world's palm oil. Made by crushing fresh fruit, the reddish-brown oil is riding high in the commodities charts, with crude prices up over 15 percent this year after rising 40 percent in 2006.

Used in cookies, toothpaste, ice cream and breads it is the world's second most popular edible oil after soy.

Demand is also soaring for palm oil-derived biofuel, despite objections from critics who slam the "green" alternative to pricey crude oil as "deforestation diesel" because of the destruction wreaked on forests to make way for palm plantations.

Of 6.5 million hectares cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2004, almost four million hectares was previously forest, environment group Friends of the Earth calculated.

For orangutan, the clearances are a matter of life and death.

"You can see how desperate the situation is," said forestry department official Sugianto, 43, as he gestured at row after row of palms in the ape's last stronghold, Central Kalimantan.

"The company knows the orangutan has a protected status ... if they have a permit to clear 60,000 hectares they clear 60,000 hectares, orangutan or not. They only care about their profit."

Caught and reported to the Borneo Orangutan Survival centre by plantations who say they are trying to be responsible stakeholders, healthy animals are re-released deep in the forest. Those too injured or too young to survive alone join 600 others at the rehabilitation centre.

Forty local Dayak women look after the current crop of 18 palm oil "orphans," whose mothers have been killed; bottle-feeding them milk, administering medicine and supervising their climbing and nest-building.

"Some people still think it is a strange job, but others think it is normal now," said 31-year old Sukawati.

After "forest school," the apes graduate to eventual release.

"They are cute and funny," said Sukawati. "They make me laugh."

BALANCING ACT

Orangutans once ranged across Southeast Asia. Now an estimated 7,300 remain on Indonesia's Sumatra island and 50,000 on Borneo island. An estimated 5,000 disappear every year.

Decades of habitat loss through rampant illegal logging, lethal annual forest fires, and poachers who earn hundreds of dollars for capturing orangutans for the illegal pet trade have all taken their toll.

But this latest threat is the worst, experts said.

"The orangutans can withstand a certain degree of logging, as most loggers don't take the orangutan food trees," said Bhayu Pamungkas of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

"But they have no chance with oil palm -& there's no chance for the orangutan if they clear-cut all the forest."

To rescue the industry's green credentials, several Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil companies have joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), whose voluntary criteria include a ban on clearing primary forests and areas of high conservation value, such as forests containing orangutan.

Its more than 150 members also include major European end-users like Cadbury-Schweppes, Unilever and the Body Shop, that together take 40 percent of Asian exports, and who want to buy non-destructive palm oil.

But securing private sector support is a balancing act, said Fitrian Ardiansyah, 32, an RSPO board member.

"There is some genuine intention from progressive companies to distinguish between them and the bad guys," he said.

"But if the push is too hard for them it's not going to be too difficult to switch the market to China and India, and emerging markets like the Middle East and Africa."

TREES AND PRIORITIES

Like whales, pandas, polar bears, and tigers, shaggy orange orangutan are classed "charismatic megafauna" by academics - endangered animals whose plight provokes compassion and concern.

Cute as they may be, their supporters need to keep perspective, said Derom Bangun, executive chairman of Gapki, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, and an RSPO member.

"We should see the whole picture, not only the orangutan. They try to manipulate emotional side of orangutans so that housewives in Europe find it very pitiful," he said.

The country's clearance of almost 1.9 million hectares of forest a year between 2000 and 2005, Asia's worst deforestation rate, also needs to be seen in its economic context, Bangun said.

While the government does need to better define which forest areas are to be preserved, not all will be kept, he said.

"Other countries chopped down their forests when they were developing their countries. If they would like us to preserve more than we can, they should do something to help us."

But while plantation workers have some choice whether they want to buy into the motorbikes and mobile phones offered by palm's economic opportunities, orangutans have no such choice, those on the front-line point out.

"I'm not against palm oil," said Droscher-Nielsen. "(But) if there's not proper protection of the forest the orangutans are not going to make it."

(Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem in Jakarta)

El parque nacional de Ozdala, en el corazón del Congo, es una extensión de bosque tropical que cubre más de 13.200 kilómetros cuadrados y que constituye uno de los ecosistemas más misteriosos e impenetrables. Cincuenta kilómetros al suroeste del parque se localiza una región llamada Lossi. Con una extensión de unos 320 kilómetros cuadrados, el lugar acumula una concentración tan excepcional de gorilas que no se da en ningún otro lugar del mundo.

En este mundo de penumbra donde el equipo del que forma parte José Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro,catedrático de biología de la Universidad de Barcelona, liderado por la antropóloga Magdalena Bermejo, viene denunciando una matanza sin precedentes: más de 5.000 gorilas de llanura (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) podrían haber sucumbido ya al zarpazo del virus Ébola, el organismo más letal que se conoce, según afirman en el estudio más reciente publicado en la revista Science.

Se calcula que quedan unos 94.000 de estos animales. De acuerdo con otras estimaciones procedentes del Instituto Max Planck, el Ébola y la caza furtiva podría haber acabado ya con el 25 % de los ejemplares. "Lo que está haciendo el virus es atacar a las poblaciones grandes", explica Peter Walsh, antropólogo del Instituto Max Planck. "La mayor parte de todos los que hay en el mundo se concentran en una zona donde la gente los mata para comer, por lo que el virus y la caza pueden colocarlos en un estado de extinción ecológica". Un escenario plausible en las siguientes décadas, que presenta a los gorilas en poblaciones de unos pocos individuos, que requerirían de vigilancia y continuas intervenciones médicas para que no desaparecieran: un parque zoológico en plena selva.

Bermejo lleva observando a los gorilas desde 1994, acostumbrándolos a la presencia humana, dentro de un proyecto del programa ECOFAC (Conservación y Utilización Racional de los Ecosistemas Forestales de África Central), para incentivar el turismo ecológico en la región. Es un trabajo lento y difícil. "Hay que tener paciencia, y estar quieto, sobre todo al principio", explica Rodríguez-Teijeiro, describiendo las experiencias de su colega. "Ella ha tenido la valentía de aguantar el ataque de un espalda plateada, 200 kilos de musculatura, a medio metro, mientras el macho produce unos alaridos espantosos y muestra sus grandes incisivos. De ahí el apodo de dama de hierro con que se la conoce". Este tipo de ataques pone a prueba los nervios del observador, hasta que los animales se habitúan a su presencia.

El Ébola ha irrumpido en el proyecto de forma desastrosa. Los gorilas a los que Bermejo se ha ido aproximando con lentitud para ganarse finalmente su confianza se han desvanecido casi de la noche a la mañana. En el otoño de 2002, la epidemia se propagó hasta el límite este del santuario, y pareció detenerse en los márgenes del río. El equipo español observó entonces que varios grupos de gorilas habían sobrevivido, quizá por algún tipo de inmunidad natural, lo que alimentó las esperanzas para reemprender el programa. Fue un respiro pasajero. El virus continuó su expansión, esta vez hacia el sur, y en enero de 2004 eliminó a 91 de los 95 individuos reconocibles por el grupo de españoles. Los dos años siguientes cuentan una historia pesimista; el equipo de Bermejo cree que el virus ha limpiado de gorilas una zona de 2.700 kilómetros cuadrados.

El Ébola ha matado en África a más de 1.200 personas en un cuarto de siglo, de acuerdo con la OMS (Organización Mundial de la Salud); una cifra que, estadísticamente, es una gota en la mortalidad ocasionada por otras enfermedades tropicales, como la malaria (entre uno y cinco millones de muertes anuales), las infecciones respiratorias (más de cuatro millones), la diarrea (2,2 millones) y el sida (3 millones). Lo cierto es que, al tratarse de un "virus caliente", con una letalidad muy alta en los humanos entre el 41 % y el 100 % , la atención que despiertan los brotes de Ébola desplaza a menudo a los otros grandes matadores, menos espectaculares, aunque siniestramente más eficaces.

Las reacciones que causa el Ébola cuando irrumpe en las pobres aldeas africanas cristalizan en una palabra: terror. Al principio sólo es un dolor de cabeza que no desaparece con los analgésicos. Luego, tras una incubación extraordinariamente variable, entre 2 y 21 días, sobrevienen las fiebres y hemorragias, y la irrupción de la enfermedad es rápida y mortífera.

El patrón suele ser el mismo. Una partida de caza termina con el hallazgo de una carcasa de gorila o chimpancé infectado. Alguien lo toca, se pone enfermo y queda bajo el cuidado de la mujer en su casa. Más miembros de la familia mueren, cunde el pánico y se produce una desbandada. Si el virus ya no tiene a quien matar, el brote queda extinguido. Si alguno de los familiares llega al hospital local, contagia el virus a otras personas en la sala de espera, que retornan a sus aldeas recorriendo decenas de kilómetros a pie, extendiendo la epidemia. En las fases más virulentas de ésta, la gente simplemente abandonaba aterrorizada a sus familiares que agonizaban, o dejaban cartas en los hospitales con instrucciones de quemar sus casas y los cuerpos de sus seres queridos.

Lo que sigue trayendo de cabeza a los investigadores es el misterioso reservorio natural del virus, qué animal lo porta sin sufrir la enfermedad. La alta mortandad que ocasiona en los grandes primates los descarta de un plumazo. Algunos estudios apuntan a ciertas especies de murciélagos frugívoros y sus cuevas como los focos iniciales de transmisión, aunque no existe certeza de este hecho.

Fuente: EL PAIS. Luis Miguel Ariza

Science Daily — Researchers observing wild chimpanzees in Uganda have discovered repeated instances of a mysterious and poorly understood behavior: female-led infanticide. The findings, reported by Simon Townsend, Katie Slocombe and colleagues of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and the Budongo Forest Project, Uganda, appear in the journal Current Biology.

Infanticide is known to occur in many primate species, but is generally thought of as a male trait. An exception in the realm of chimpanzee behavior was famously noted in the 1970s by Jane Goodall in her observations of Passion and Pom, a mother-daughter duo who cooperated in the killing and cannibalization of at least two infant offspring of other females. In the absence of significant additional evidence for such behavior among female chimpanzees, speculation had been that female-led infanticide represented pathological behavior, or was a means of obtaining nutritional advantage under some circumstances.

As the result of new field work involving the Sonso chimpanzee community in Budongo Forest in Uganda, the St. Andrews researchers now report instances of three female-led infanticidal attacks. Alerted to the killings by sounds of chimpanzee screams, the researchers directly observed one infanticide, and found strong circumstantial evidence for two others. Evidence suggested that in two of the cases, the killings were perpetrated by groups of resident females against "stranger" females from outside the resident group. Infants were taken from the mothers, who were injured in at least two of the attacks; in at least one case, adult males in the area exhibited displaying behavior, with one old male unsuccessfully attempting to separate the females.

The authors point out that these new observations indicate that such female-led infanticides are neither the result of isolated, pathological behaviors nor the by-product of male aggression, but instead appear to represent part of the female behavior repertoire in chimpanzees.

What drives the behavior is not yet clear, but may stem from demographic shifts that alter sex ratios and put increased pressure on females competing for foraging areas. In their report, the authors note that the Sonso community had experienced a significant population increase in the ten years prior to the infanticide observations (42 individuals in 1996 to 75 in 2006), and that there had been an influx of at least 13 females with dependent offspring since 2001. The population changes resulted in a highly skewed male:female sex ratio of 1:3, with relatively few males available to increase the home range.

According to the authors, the new findings indicate that although low-level aggression between female chimpanzees is more commonly seen, the observed instances of infanticide indicate that deadly aggression is not a gender-specific trait in this species.

Townsend et al.: "Female-led Infanticide in Wild Chimpanzees." Publishing in Current Biology, 15 May 2007, R355-356.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Cell Press.

The original meta-analysis of research on relative primate mental ability which is discussed in James Lee's paper was carried out by a team led by Robert Deaner, assistant psychology professor at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan. Further research on primate intelligence by Deaner and his colleagues is appearing in the journal Brain, Behavior and Evolution.

ORANG-UTANS have been named as the world’s most intelligent animal in a study that places them above chimpanzees and gorillas, the species traditionally considered closest to humans.

The study found that out of 25 species of primate, orang-utans had developed the greatest power to learn and to solve problems.

The controversial findings challenge the widespread belief that chimpanzees are the closest to humans in brainpower. They also suggest that the ancestry of orang-utans and humans may be more closely entwined than had been thought.

“It appears the orang-utan may possess a privileged status among human kindred,” said James Lee, the Harvard University psychologist behind the research. “It is even possible that an orang-utan-like forager occupied a pivotal link in the chain of descent leading to man.”

Both orang-utans and chimpanzees share about 96% of their DNA with humans, although molecular studies suggest that chimpanzees are more closely related.

The study comes at a time when orang-utans are endangered as never before. Once widespread throughout the forests of Asia, they are now confined to just two islands, Sumatra and Borneo, and are highly endangered as a result of habitat loss and poaching.

Lee’s work involved collating a series of separate studies into the intelligence of different primate species. However, his research first had to overcome a much greater hurdle: would it be possible to compare different species of primates at all?

Spider monkeys, for example, have developed brains to cope with a fast-moving life in the tree tops, while slow lorises are small and leisurely nocturnal hunters.

The conventional belief is that comparing the intelligence of different species is meaningless because separate evolution over millions of years will have given them very different brains.

Lee, a junior psychology researcher at Harvard, found that in primates, at least, different rules seem to apply — the development of one set of mental skills seems to prompt the primate brain to develop other mental abilities as well.

“A primate genus with a high rank in an experiment testing particular mental abilities appears to have high ranks in all of them,” said Lee.

He also found that the single most important factor in deciding a species’ intelligence was simply the size of its brain: “The correlation of brain size with mental ability found in humans appears to extend throughout the primate order.”

This “remarkable finding” suggests, he said, that all primate brains work in much the same way, however they have evolved, allowing comparisons between species.

Lee’s research threw up some other surprises, too. Gorillas, for example, emerged as less intelligent than spider monkeys while baboons, often considered relatively bright, were ranked 14th.

Recent field work by Carel van Schaik, a Dutch primatologist who is now at Duke University, North Carolina, appears to bear out Lee’s findings.

Studying orang-utans in Borneo, he found them capable of tasks well beyond chimpanzees’ abilities — such as using leaves to make rain hats and leakproof roofs over their sleeping nests. He also found that in some food-rich areas the creatures had developed a complex culture in which adults would teach youngsters how to make tools and find food.

He and Lee both suggest that the key factor in such developments is the orang-utans’ life-style, spent mostly in the tops of trees where there is little risk from predators. This has allowed them to establish long and settled lives similar to humans’ and also to develop culture and intelligence.

In his own research papers, Van Schaik has suggested that since the ancestors of modern orang-utans split from the human lineage about 15m years ago, the seeds of human culture must go back at least as far.

Chris Stringer, professor of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London, agrees that the sociable lifestyles of primates are the driving force behind the development of intelligence. “Primates and early humans had not got the claws and teeth of predators so they had to rely on brainpower to communicate and protect themselves,” he said. “They are sociable creatures and living in small groups seems to have driven brain development.”

The idea that sociability and intelligence are linked is borne out by research into the relative brain power of diverse animal groups including cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and birds.

Dr Vincent Janik, of the sea mammal research unit at St Andrews University, said that some dolphin species had developed the ability to communicate far beyond that of great apes. “Dolphins have some abilities that great apes don’t have, such as copying new sounds. No primate apart from humans can do that,” he said.

Additional reporting: Max Colchester

Non-human primates in order of intelligence

1 Orang-utan

2 Chimpanzee

3 Spider monkey

4 Langur

5 Macaque

6 Mandrill

7 Guenon

8 Mangabey

9 Capuchin

10 Gibbon

11 Baboon

12 Woolly monkey

Science Daily — The largest study to date of genetic variation among chimpanzees has found that the traditional, geography-based sorting of chimps into three populations--western, central and eastern--is underpinned by significant genetic differences, two to three times greater than the variation between the most different human populations.

In the April 2007 issue of the journal PLOS Genetics, researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard, the Broad Institute and Arizona State show that there has been very little detectable admixture between the different populations and that chimps from the central and eastern populations are more closely related to each other than they are to the western "subspecies."

They also devised a simplified set of about 30 DNA markers that zookeepers or primatologists could use to determine the origins of a chimpanzee with uncertain heritage.

"Finding such a marked difference between the three groups has important implications for conservation," said Molly Przeworski, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago and a senior author of the study. "It means we have to protect three separate habitats, all threatened, instead of just one."

To unravel the evolutionary history to chimpanzees, the research team collected DNA from 78 common chimpanzees and six bonobos, a separate species of chimpanzee, and examined 310 DNA markers from each.

They found four "discontinuous populations," three of common chimps plus the bonobos. Hybrids, those with at least five percent of their DNA from more than one common chimpanzee population were rare, with most of the hybrid chimps born in captivity.

"We saw little evidence of migration between groups in the wild," said Celine Becquet, first author of the paper and a graduate student in Przeworski's laboratory. "Part of that could stem from the gaps in our samples, but we think most of this separation is genuine, a long-term consequence of geographic isolation."

The original boundaries between groups may have been the emergence and growth of rivers, such as the Congo River, which is thought to be about 1.5 million years old. "Chimps don't swim," Becquet said. "For them, water provides a very effective border." The ongoing loss of habitat has increased the physical separation between the three groups.

The extent of accumulated genetic difference enabled the researchers to speculate about when the different populations separated. They estimate that bonobos, which live south of the Congo River, split off from the ancestors of modern chimpanzees about 800,000 years ago. Western chimps appear to have separated from central and eastern chimpanzees about 500,000 years ago and central and eastern chimps divided about 250,000 years ago.

"Even though the chimp genome has been sequenced, it's amazing how little we know about their evolution and the level of variation within chimpanzees," said Przeworski. "These are our nearest relatives, closer to humans than they are to gorillas, yet we know so little about them, and even less about gorillas and orangutans."

The chimpanzee genome differs from the bonobo genome by about 0.3 percent, which is one-fourth the distance between humans and chimps. Yet chimps and bonobos have radically different social systems, cultures, diets and mating systems.

On the other hand, in this study, looking at three "subspecies" of common chimpanzees, "we found significant genetic variation," said Przeworski, "but there's very little detectable difference between the populations in terms of appearance or behavior."

The National Institutes of Health, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the National Science Foundation funded this study. Additional authors include Nick Patterson and David Reich of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Anne Stone of Arizona State.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Chicago Medical Center.

Una parella d'orangutans i la seva cria, en una reserva d'animals a Indonèsia. Foto: ARXIU / AP

Les illes de Borneo i Sumatra són l'últim lloc del món on queden orangutans en llibertat, però aquesta espècie es podria extingir d'aquí a 10 anys si continua el ritme actual desaparició, segons els experts.

Les últimes dades aportades pels centres de conservació d'orangutans a Indonèsia indiquen que només queden al país uns 5.000 exemplars de l'espècie de Sumatra i entre 15.000 o 20.000 de la de Borneo. Aquesta xifra és molt inferior als 60.000 que recollia l'últim cens oficial, elaborat a finals dels anys 90.

"Es considera que l'orangutan estarà mort genèticament d'aquí a entre cinc i deu anys. Això significa que no quedaran suficients animals perquè l'espècie sigui viable genèticament", ha explicat Karmele Pla, veterinària espanyola que treballa a Indonèsia en la conservació d'aquests i d'altres primats.

Transcorregut aquest període encara quedaran alguns orangutans però seran "poblacions inviables", es produirà endogàmia, augmentarà la mortaldat i els animals patiran noves malalties que els mataran o que impediran la seva vida en llibertat, ha afegit.

Desforestació per produir biocombustible

Per Pla, la principal amenaça que pateixen avui dia els orangutans és la desforestació (legal i il·legal) per deixar lloc a plantacions destinades a produir oli de palma, que després és utilitzat per fabricar biocombustible, amb una demanda que no fa més que créixer en el primer món.

Cada any cremen a Indonèsia centenars d'hectàrees de bosc tropical per deixar pas a les plantacions de palmeres, cosa que segons Pla està tenint un "efecte devastador" en les poblacions d'orangutans i altres animals, a més de fer el biocombustible més perjudicial per al medi ambient que la gasolina.

Tumbo is the first chimpanzee to be seen making and using a tool to hunt for meat. Details of her spearing her prey are revealed for the first time today in the journal Current Biology. Such behaviour has never been seen before, and it represents an important leap forward in our understanding of just how sophisticated chimpanzees - humankind's closest relatives - really are.

There was a time when scientists believed that one of the major differences between us (humans) and them (animals) was tool use. But those days are long gone. Last year, chimps in the Congo were captured by hidden video cameras using stick tools to dig and dangle for termites. Earlier this month, a crop of ancient stone tools dating back 4,300 years were unearthed and identified as having been used by chimps, fuelling a debate about a chimpanzee Stone Age and the chance that both chimps and early humans inherited tool use from a common ancestor. Now there's Tumbo using a spear.

We have certainly come a long way since a young Jane Goodall began her inspirational research into chimpanzee behaviour at Gombe in Tanzania in the 1960s, back in the days when chimps were seen as innocent, peace-loving creatures (since then, they have been observed hunting down monkeys in coordinated groups, not to mention murdering each other). Increasingly, chimp behaviour is being found to be so human-like that it is giving scientists invaluable insights into the evolution of early humans.

"Technology is one of the most important aspects of the human condition. It's the reason we've conquered the planet, but it had to come from somewhere," says William McGrew, a primatologist and expert on the evolution of material culture at Cambridge University. "Short of inventing a time machine, the next best thing is to look at our nearest living relations and their technology." According to McGrew, evidence from the archeological record suggests that our hominid ancestors started using tools in hunting around 400,000 years ago in Europe. "And what do you think [they used]?" he asks. "Sharpened wooden sticks. It is essentially the same weapon that's being used by these apes, except it's bigger."

But why has spear-making by chimpanzees never been seen elsewhere, despite decades of research? The reason could be that chimp behaviour in this particular habitat - the hot, dry savanna of Fongoli in Senegal - has not been studied in detail before. Chimps adopt different strategies in different environments: complex cultural differences have emerged between populations. And the Fongoli chimps do seem to be quite an unusual population. As well as using spears, they have taken up residence in a number of caves, worn from rock by millennia of flowing water. It seems they like to use them for picnics and siestas, or to shelter from the heat during the day.

Bertolani, of Cambridge University, who is collecting data for his PhD, once spent the day with Fongoli chimps in one of their more open caves and witnessed events not out of place in a soap opera. He says some rested and groomed, others quarrelled, while males showed off, running in and out of the cave for the benefit of a female. Others did their best to ignore the spectacle and carried on sleeping in the dark recesses. Researchers have also witnessed the chimp equivalent of a pool party - with no little astonishment, because chimps usually have a strong aversion to water. "Chimps are reckoned to be hydrophobic, because they sink like stones," says McGrew. "Then along come the Fongoli chimps, who, when the rains come in May and fill up the depressions in the plateaus, jump in and sit there up to their chests, all crammed in together."

"They run through and splash each other and display," says Jill Pruetz, director of the Fongoli project at Iowa State University.

One of the most intriguing things about the Fongoli spear use is that it is females who do the hunting. Monkey hunts by chimps are well documented, but they are dominated by the big males. Although females occasionally take part in hunts, it's normally a back-seat role. Charging through the trees is dangerous, especially with a small infant, and even if a female catches the quarry, there's a good chance she will have to surrender it to a larger male.

Pruetz says females and youngsters are forced to innovate to get protein for their diets; her point is that it is females who are driving the adoption of new technology. "The females and maybe the young males too are basically having to solve problems in a creative way because of competition with adult males," she says. "That may be by technology, and not by brute strength or force."

"Basically, you can spot that tree hole and you can creep up and take a good look," says McGrew. "You can do that even if you're encumbered with an infant, and because it's a solitary activity, you don't have to coordinate with others."

The researchers say spear use in Fongoli is performed almost exclusively by females and youngsters. In spite of the fact that the researchers were concentrating on male behaviour during their study, they saw only one attempt at spear-making by an adult male out of a total of 22 episodes.

"[This] strengthens the case that in all likelihood the origins of technology [in humans] were with females," says McGrew.

The chimpanzees at Fongoli have been habituated to humans for less than two years. In that short time researchers have discovered a wealth of new chimpanzee behaviour. What else are these apes going to surprise us with? Pruetz says she is learning to expect the unexpected and is hoping that it will be possible to keep the research going at Fongoli far into the future. So we know now that chimps are skilled and cooperative hunters. We know they are capable of terrible violence, but also empathy and, according to some observers, even primitive morality. We see the roots of human behaviour in wild chimpanzees today: they are on a behavioural continuum with us. But how far, if anywhere, will their technology go? Humans achieved great leaps in technology only after millions of years of environmental pressure gave rise to more complex brains.

"Chimps do a pretty good job of tackling their problems without developing technology. What's instructive is when they need it," says McGrew. Chimps have the advantage of big, strong jaws and teeth, he says, so they can accomplish many of their jobs without tools. But, he says, "even after human technology took off, it took millions of years to get notable changes, so for us primatologists to be lucky enough to see anything in a couple of decades is highly unlikely. Every one of us would love to be on the scene when there's an important advance in chimp technology. It hasn't happened yet, but we live in hope."

La duración estimada del curso es de 15 horas (8,5 de teoría y 6,5 de práctica) distribuidas en dos días (viernes y sábado), y se llevará a cabo el tercer fin de semana de cada mes. El horario de desarrollo del curso es de 10:oo a 18.30 horas.

El precio de la inscripción incluye carpeta con libreta de campo, material en CD-ROM y certificado de aprovechamiento del curso.

Próximas convocatorias primer semestre de 2007 (Nivel Básico):

Días 16 y 17 de marzo 

Días 20 y 21 de abril

Días 18 y 19 de mayo

Días 15 y 16 de junio

Para más información en relación a los cursos:

Persona de contacto: Miquel Llorente

tel: 972 477 618

e-mail: recerca@fundacionmona.org

By JACK STRIPLING

Sun staff writer

Font: El Periódico de Catalunya

Una nena observa els participants del Zoo Humà, a Adelaide. Foto: REUTERS / MATT TURNER

Un grup de sis homes i dones han reemplaçat avui els orangutans al tancat d'un zoo australià per participar en un projecte d'un mes batejat com el Zoo Humà.

Els nous espècimens del zoo d'Adelaida s'exhibeixen darrere de llargs panells de plexiglàs i són filmats per càmeres. Instal·lats en un recinte que anteriorment estava ocupat per orangutans, els participants faran rotacions d'una setmana en grups de sis, encara que tindran el dret de tornar a casa seva a la nit, quan el zoo tanqui al públic.

Els visitants del zoo són convidats a triar el seu humà preferit i els experts estudiaran el seu comportament, amb l'objectiu de millorar les condicions de vida en captivitat dels grans simis.

Observats per milers de visitants

Carla Litchfield, experta en psicologia animal de la Universitat d'Austràlia Meridional, serà l'única persona que passarà el mes sencer al Zoo Humà.

"Mai he sabut el que era [la captivitat]. Passar un mes en el tancat em donarà una bona idea de les olors, els sons i del que significa ser observada per milers de persones cada dia", ha explicat Litchfield a la ràdio ABC.

L'experiència pretén a més reunir fons per a un nou tancat per a ximpanzés.

Malgrat que el zoo d'Adelaida afirma que es tracta d'una primícia mundial, no es tracta d'un fet inèdit. L'agost del 2005, al zoo de Londres, vuit voluntaris també es van tancar durant alguns dies en una gàbia.

AWEN CONFERENCE - ATOP IV
Date: February 9, 2007
Sponsor: The AWEN Group, Inc.
Location: Millennium Bostonian Hotel in Boston, MA
Web Site: http://www.theawengroup.com/

25TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE AUSTRALASIAN PRIMATE SOCIETY
Dates: March 9, 2007 - March 11, 2007
Sponsor: Australasian Primate Society
Location: University of Queensland St. Lucia Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Web Site: http://www.primates.on.net/apsconf.htm

THE MIND OF THE CHIMPANZEE
Dates: March 22, 2007 - March 25, 2007
Sponsor: Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes
Location: Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, Illinois
Web Site: http://www.chimpmindconference.org/

ANNUAL IACUC CONFERENCE
Dates: March 26, 2007 - March 27, 2007
Sponsor: Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R)
Location: Town and Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle North San Diego, CA 92108
Web Site: http://www.primr.org/education/2007_IACUC/overview_IACUC07.html

76TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Dates: March 27, 2007 - April 1, 2007
Sponsor: American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Web Site: http://www.physanth.org/annmeet/

CALLITRICHID WORKSHOP 2007
Dates: May 12, 2007 - May 13, 2007
Sponsor: Roger Williams Park Zoo
Location: Providence, RI
Web Site: http://www.rwpzoo.org/calendar/callitrichid.cfm

30TH MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF PRIMATOLOGISTS
Dates: June 20, 2007 - June 23, 2007
Sponsor: Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Location: Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC
Web Site: http://www.asp.org/asp2007/index.htm

44TH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ANIMAL BEHAVIOR SOCIETY
Date: July 21, 2007
Sponsor: ABS
Location: Burlington Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont
Web Site: http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABS/Program/

6TH WORLD CONGRESS ON ALTERNATIVES & ANIMAL USE IN THE LIFE SCIENCES (WC6)
Dates: August 21, 2007 - August 25, 2007
Sponsor: the Japanese Society of Alternatives to Animal Experiments (JSAAE), the Alternative Congress Trust (ACT), and the Science Council of Japan (SCJ)
Location: Hotel East 21 Tokyo, Japan
Web Site: http://www.ech.co.jp/wc6/index.html

2ND CONGRESS OF THE EUROPEAN FEDERATION FOR PRIMATOLOGY
Dates: September 3, 2007 - September 7, 2007
Sponsor: the Czech Group of Primatologists at the Faculty of Education in Prague
Location: Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Web Site: http://www.unipv.it/webbio/efp/efp_prague2007.pdf

XXIIND IPS CONGRESS
Dates: August 3, 2008 - August 8, 2008
Sponsor: Primate Society of Great Britain
Location: Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland
Web Site: http://www.ips2008.co.uk/index.html

Hiring Organization:
University of Portsmouth

Date Posted:
2007-01-10

Position Description:
The Centre for the Study of Emotion, Psychology Department, University of Portsmouth, UK seeks to hire a Post-doctoral Research Fellow to work on FEELIX GROWING, a newly funded European grant,. The Portsmouth portion of the collaboration focuses on the roles played by emotion in the development of social referencing, of joint attention, and of attachment relationships.

The position is for 36 months, half-time (starting salary GBP14,000-15,000), and duties include developing a set of scenarios, methods, and evaluation metrics for key problems in socio-emotional development, working collaboratively with Dr. Bard, European, and International scientists, conducting studies in human and chimpanzees, and writing.

Qualifications/Experience:
The ideal candidate will have a PhD in Developmental Psychology, with a research focus on emotion and infancy. Knowledge of FACS, ChimpFACS, or BabyFACS, and chimpanzee behaviour would be an advantage.

Salary/funding:
The post is for 36 months with half-time salary of GBP 14,000 to 15,000

Term of Appointment:
36 months, fixed term contract, half-time

Application Deadline:
Applications due by 26th January 2007, interviews 16 Feb 2007

Comments:
Please note that only names of referees are required at application. Reference letters will be required prior to interview (~16th February 2007) only for short-listed candidates.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Bard for further information

Contact Information:
Dr. Kim A. Bard
Psychology- King Henry Building
Portsmouth PO1 2DY
United Kingdom

Telephone Number:
+44 23 92 846 332

Fax Number:
+44 23 92 846 300

Website:
http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/services/personnel/jobvacancies/researchstaff

E-mail Address:
kim.bard@port.ac.uk

Hiring Organization:
Sue Boinski -- University of Florida

Date Posted:
2007-01-09

Position Description:
Field assistants are needed for an ongoing field study of brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) in Raleighvallen Nature Preserve, Suriname. Please see the listed website for more details.

Qualifications/Experience:
Though previous experience is not necessary, priority will be given to applicants with successful experience collecting detailed social and ecological data from individually recognized mammals, especially primates. Experience in situations demanding rigorous physical exercise in tropical conditions will be useful. Assistants must be able to work well as a team in isolated conditions. Both leadership and the ability to follow are necessary characteristics of field assistants, as well as the desire to learn, flexibility and the ability to cope with confined social situations.

Support provided for internship/volunteer positions (travel, meals, lodging):
Roundtrip airfare from Miami to Suriname, food and lodging at field site provided

Term of Appointment:
Starting in March/April 2007 for a minimum of 11 months

Comments:
Email CV, cover letter and 3 references to ufmonkeys@gmail.com

For additional information about Dr. Boinski's research please refer to the website listed below.

Contact Information:
Sue Boinski
1112 Turlington Hall, PO Box 117305
Gainesville, FL 32611
USA

Website:
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/~boinski/research/field.html

E-mail Address:
ufmonkeys@gmail.com

Hiring Organization:
Roehampton University

Date Posted:
2007-01-09

Position Description:
A volunteer field assistant is needed for a 9-month study of the relationships between social behaviour, stress and reproduction in female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). The study is led by Lauren Brent (PhD student, Roehampton University) and will carried out on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Responsibilities include the collection of faecal samples for hormone analyses, as well as some behavioural data collection and data entry.

Qualifications/Experience:
Experience working with free-ranging non-human primates is highly desirable. Applicants must be in good physical fitness and fluent in English. The ability to work well with other researchers is critical.

Salary/funding:
None

Support provided for internship/volunteer positions (travel, meals, lodging):
Return airfare to Puerto Rico will be provided following completion of the 9 month position. Part of the subsistence costs in Puerto Rico might also be covered, but this is dependent on the outcome of pending grant applications.

Term of Appointment:
April 2007 – December 2007

Application Deadline:
ASAP

Comments:
Application via email: please submit 2-page CV along with contact information for 2 references.

Contact Information:
Lauren Brent
Whitelands College
London SW15 4JD
United Kingdom

E-mail Address:
L.Brent@roehampton.ac.uk

Human-chimp genetic difference is as big as 6 percent

Approximately six per cent of human and chimp genes are unique to those species, report scientists from the University of Bristol and three other institutions.

The new estimate takes into account something that other measures of genetic difference do not – the genes that are no longer there. The research is reported in the inaugural issue of Public Library of Science ONE (Dec. 2006). The team studied "gene families" that are shared by humans, common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), mice, rats and dogs. Gene families are sets of genes in every organism's genome that are similar (or identical) because they share a common origin.

"After surveying gene families that are common to both humans and chimps, we observed in the human genome a significant increase in the duplication of various genes, including some that influence brain functions. This may provide new information about what it means to be human," says Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Bristol University, who statistically analysed the data with specially created software tools.

The results support mounting evidence that the simple duplication and loss of genes has played a bigger role in our evolution than changes within single genes.

Cristianini and his research partners examined 110,000 genes in 9,990 gene families that are shared by humans, common chimpanzees, mice, rats and dogs. They found that 5,622, or 56 per cent, of the gene families they studied from these five species have grown or shrunk in the number of genes per gene family.

The researchers paid special attention to gene number changes between humans and chimps. Using a new statistical method developed by Tijl De Bie, University of Bristol, and Cristianini, the international team inferred humans have gained 689 genes (through the duplication of existing genes) and lost 86 genes since diverging from their most recent common ancestor with chimps. Including the 729 genes chimps appear to have lost since their divergence, the total gene differences between humans and chimps was estimated to be about 6 percent. The team included computational biologists from the University of Indiana and University of California, Berkeley.

The results do not negate the commonly reported 1.5 percent nucleotide-by-nucleotide difference between humans and chimps. But they do illustrate there isn't a single, standard estimate of variation that incorporates all the ways humans, chimps and other animals can be genetically different from each other.

Any measure of genetic difference between humans and chimps must therefore incorporate both variation at the nucleotide level among coding genes and large-scale differences in the structure of human and chimp genomes. Cristianini commented, "So the question biologists now face is not which measure is correct but rather which sets of differences have been more important in human evolution."

The finding complements reports by University of Colorado and University of Michigan researchers in the journals Science and PLoS Biology earlier this year, in which researchers showed that both gains and losses of individual genes have contributed to human divergence from chimpanzees and other primates.

Contact: Nello Cristianini
nello.cristianini@gmail.com
44-117-331-7782
University of Bristol 

Per als que no l'hagueu vist / Para los que no lo habeis visto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEk_uEJh9fs

La utilització de primats en publicitat i altres medis similars té un impacte negatiu sobre els esforços de conservació d’aquesta espècie que es troba en un greu perill d’extinció (Butynski y Members of the Primates Specialist Group, 2000), fomentant el tràfil il·legal d’aquestes espècies i contribuint a empitjorar lamentablement la situació en la que es troben els primats en els seus llocs d’origen (Feliu y Llorente, 2005).

 Els primats són éssers socials per naturalesa. Avui dia, existeix el consens general que els primats necessiten de la companyia social d’altres individus de la seva espècie (Reinhardt y Reinhardt, 2000). Des del punt de vista del benestar animal, és molt important mantenir a aquests animals socials en unes condicions que els hi permeti desenvolupar un gran repertori de conductes pròpies de la seva espècie. D’aquesta manera, el benestar animal és directament proporcional a la integració que té en un grup (Feliu y Llorente, 2005). Fins ara, la resocialització és l’únic camí per tal de proporcionar a qualsevol ximpanzé captiu l’oportunitat de convertir-se en un individu normal i social (Fritz, 1986), però resulta molt complicada, llarga, costosa i moltes vegades impossible (Brent, Kessel, y Barrera, 1997). Un cop retirats del món de l’espectacle i la publicitat quan arriben a l’etapa adulta, aquests animals acostumen a trobar-se en un estat físic i condicions psicològiques molt pobres amb la conseqüent necessitat de rehabilitació i resocialització (Nash, Fritz, Alford, y Brent, 1999).

Els individus que han viscut en una situació de deprivació psicosocial mostren estar infraequipats física i psicològicament per a enfrontar-se o superar situacions estressants (Sackett, Novak, y Kroeker, 1999; Turner, Davenport, y Rogers, 1969; Vandenbergh, 1989) com la que implica l’enregistrament d’un anunci publicitari, o la seva participació en d’altre tipus d’espectacle. De la mateixa manera, alguns autors han proposat quatre possibles mecanismes a tenir en compte a causa dels efectes de les primeres experiències d’aquests animals durant la seva etapa infantil i adolescent (Sackett, 1970):

-         Degeneració: la privació durant la infantesa pot produir una degeneració estructural i bioquímica irreversible en els sistemes cerebrals.

-         Fracàs en el desenvolupament: no pot haver-hi un correcte desenvolupament fisiològic i estructural del cervell, o aquest pot no ésser complet, si no es produeix en un ambient ric en estimulació propi o similar al de l’espècie de l’individu.

-         Dèficits d’aprenentatge: La privació durant la infantesa pot dificultar l’aprenentatge de les respostes perceptives i motores per tal de fer front durant l’etapa adulta a la solució de problemes que impliquin l’adaptació de l’individu al seu entorn.

-         Trauma emocional: es pot produir un estrès emocional que afavoreixi conductes com la por, angoixa, desorientació, inatenció, evitació o conducta escapatòria.

Com hem vist, aquests entorns de deprivació social en primats poden tenir efectes de per vida sobre el desenvolupament psico-socio-emocional dels individus: conductes patològiques, excessiva humanització o incapacitat per a establir vincles amb els individus de la seva espècie (Lilly, 1994), i efectes sobre la bioquímica cerebral i la funció inmunitària davant d’estímuls estressors (Coe, 1993).

Els ximpanzés utilitzats per a la publicitat són separats de les seves mares quan són cries. Aquest fet és extremadament greu ja que en llibertat aquest individus romanen amb la seva família fins a l’edat de vuit anys (Goodall, 1986). D’aquesta manera, s’està produint un mal psicològic irreparable, ja que la separació traumàtica d’un primat superior del seu grup natural, o de la seva mare, provoca estrès e inseguretat que poden ocasionar dificultats en el seu desenvolupament posterior com a adult (Abelló, 1999), o simplement com a membre de la seva espècie. D’igual manera, els entrenaments als que estan sotmesos aquests animals requereixen de subjectes obedients, amb el que en moltes ocasions es poden produir situacions d’abús físic i psicològic, ja que els mètodes d’entrenament acostumen a estar basats en la por i la domimanció.

A l’igual que els nens i nenes humans, els ximpanzés aprenen a través de l’observació dels adults e imiten el seu comportament. Ells aprenen en un context social i els individus que no tenen oportunitat de créixer en un grup normal no podran aprendre els comportaments propis de la seva espècie, amb el que probablement acabaran mostrant tota una gamma de conductes anormals. Aquest fet, podria dificultar enormement la seva capacitat de reintroducció a grups socials establerts, que al cap i a la fi és l’única alternativa de recuperació d’aquests individus.

Abelló, M. T. (1999). Coco. Revista del Parc Zoològic de Barcelona, 1, 33-35.

Brent, L., Kessel, A. L., y Barrera, H. (1997). Evaluation of introduction procedures in captive chimpanzees. Zoo Biology, 16, 335-342.

Butynski, T., y Members of the Primates Specialist Group. (2000). Pan troglodytes. En 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. (www.iucnredlist.org). Recuperado el 18 de Julio de 2006.

Coe, J. C. (1993). Psychosocial factors and inmunity in nonhuman primates: A review. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 289-308.

Feliu, O., y Llorente, M. (2005). Chimpanzees and other state-owned primates in Spain: past, present and future. Folia Primatologica, 76(1), 51-52.

Fritz, J. (1986). Resocializacion of asocial chimpanzees. En K. Benirschke (Ed.), The Road to Self-Sustaining Populations (pp. 351–359). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Goodall, J. (1986). The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns fo behavior. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Lilly, A. A. (1994). External Stressor in Captivity. En V. Landau (Ed.), ChimpanZoo: 1994 Conference (Proceedings): The Jane Goodall Institute.

Nash, L. T., Fritz, J., Alford, P. A., y Brent, L. (1999). Variables influencing the origins of diverse abnormal behaviors in a large sample of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). American Journal of Primatology, 48, 15–29.

Reinhardt, V., y Reinhardt, A. (2000). Social enhancement for adult nonhuman primates in research laboratories: a review. Lab Animal, 29(1), 34-41.

Sackett, G. P. (1970). Isolation mechanisms, rearing condicions and theory of early experience effects in primates. En M. R. Jones (Ed.), Miami symposium on prediction of behavior: Early experience. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press.

Sackett, G. P., Novak, M. F. S. X., y Kroeker, R. (1999). Early experience effects on adaptative behavior: theory revisited. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Research Reviews, 5, 30-40.

Turner, C. H., Davenport, R. K., y Rogers, C. M. (1969). The effect of early deprivation on the social behavior of adolescent chimpanzees. American Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 1531-1536.

Vandenbergh, J. G. (1989). Issues related to "psychological well-being" in nonhuman primates. American Journal of Primatology, Supplement 1, 9-15.

Això és el que contesta TV3 quan et queixes a títol individual per l'anunci de La Marató,

Sense comentaris,

Salut!

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=57516

PhD Studentship in Social Learning

Hiring Organization:
University of St Andrews

Date Posted:
2006-11-23

Position Description:
Applications are invited for an EU-funded postgraduate studentship (fees plus stipend) to study social learning processes in capuchin monkeys. The successful applicant will work under the supervision of Professor Kevin Laland and Dr Rachel Kendal to conduct experimental investigations evaluating social learning strategies in zoo-based populations of monkeys. The project is part of an EU NEST-Pathfinder initiative on cultural dynamics, and involves collaboration with a network of European researchers.

Qualifications/Experience:
The ideal candidate would have a degree in behavioural biology, and knowledge of social learning and cultural evolution.

Salary/funding:
Tuition fees plus stipend are provided.

Term of Appointment:
3 years, commencing 1 January 2007 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Application Deadline:
December 13th

Comments:
Applicants should submit a cover letter and CV detailing their qualifications and interest in the topic to Rachel Kendal from whom further information may be obtained.

Contact Information:
Dr Rachel Kendal
School of Psychology, University of St Andrews
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP
United Kingdom

E-mail Address:
RachelKendal2003@yahoo.co.uk

PhD positions

Hiring Organization:
Leipzig School of Human Origins

Date Posted:
2006-11-23

Position Description:
We invite applications for the Leipzig School of Human Origins, a joint graduate program of the University of Leipzig (Germany) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

This program provides interdisciplinary training and research opportunities for university graduates who wish to work towards a PhD in anthropology, biology, evolutionary genetics, primatology, paleoanthropology and related fields. Each student will apply for - and be accepted to - one of the following disciplines:

1) Comparative primatology -- focusing on the evolution of social and cultural systems in the great apes, as well as other relevant mammals.

2) Evolutionary and Functional Genomics / Ancient DNA / Molecular Anthropology

a. Evolutionary genomics / Ancient DNA -- focusing on the evolutionary and functional genomics of humans and the great apes, as well as the retrieval of DNA from palaeontological remains.

b. Molecular Anthropology - focusing on the origin, relationships, history, and migration patterns of human populations.

3) Human Paleontology, Prehistoric Archaeology and Archaeological Science -- focusing on the study of hominid fossils and archaeological sites. This includes comparative morphological as well as chemical (isotopic) analyses.

Graduate students will be accepted to one of these areas but will have the opportunity to take part in courses and seminars in all of them. Our PhD program is open for international students and is designed as a 3-year-program.

Qualifications/Experience:
We invite applications from all countries. Applicants must hold a Masters degree, a Diploma or equivalent in biology, biochemistry, anthropology, or related fields.

It is not necessary to hold the degree at the point of application. However, you must have been awarded your degree prior to the start of the program in September.

Candidates have to be fluent in written and spoken English. German is not required but international students will be offered opportunities to take German courses.

Salary/funding:
PhD students are supported by pre-doctoral fellowships which are provided either by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology or the University of Leipzig; or have been obtained by the student.

Term of Appointment:
Fall 2007

Application Deadline:
January 31, 2007

Comments:
Leipzig is a highly livable city in the center of Europe (www.leipzig.de).

Contact Information:
Sandra Jacob
Deutscher Platz 6
Leipzig, Saxony 04103
Germany

Telephone Number:
++493413550122

Fax Number:
++493413550119

Website:
http://www.leipzig-school.eva.mpg.de

E-mail Address:
leipzig-school@eva.mpg.de

Field Assistant Position for Primate Research in Peru

Hiring Organization:
Inés Nole

Date Posted:
2006-11-23

Position Description:
I am looking for volunteers to assist with the data collection for my investigation “Intestinal parasite loads of a Neotropical Primate measured in disturbed and undisturbed forests”.

The aim of this project is to understand the human influence on parasite infection in a wild species of a Neotropical Monkey.

Fieldwork will take place at the Los Amigos Research Center (CICRA) – Madre de Dios – Perú, Check out the website: http://www.amazonconservation.org/home/LosAmigos/cicra.htm for more information about the station. Fieldwork will take place around the station and will involve mainly behavioural observations of titi monkeys (Callicebus brunneus) and collection of fecal samples for the diagnosis of intestinal parasites. Volunteers should be prepared to work long hours and under hot weather.

Qualifications/Experience:
I am looking for enthusiastic, hard-working and reliable individuals who possess a strong interest in primates to assist me for a period of one to four months between February and May 2007.

Salary/funding:
Accommodation, transportation and food expenses to the field site must be provided by the volunteer. Volunteers will also have to fund their own travel to Perú.

Support provided for internship/volunteer positions (travel, meals, lodging):
Estimated costs are as follows:
TRANSPORTATION
Roundtrip airfare US to Lima, Peru: $1,000-$2,000
Roundtrip airfare Lima to Puerto Maldonado, Peru: $200
Roundtrip bus fare Puerto Maldonado to Laberinto, Peru: $20
Roundtrip boat fare Laberinto to the Field Station (CICRA): $50-$245

Station Fees at CICRA:
- Room, board, and food: $20/person/day

Application Deadline:
December 10th 2006

Comments:
APPLICATIONS
Applications should include:
- Current CV or resume
- A brief description of yourself including your interest in primates and any relevant experience (i.e. field/laboratory experience, outdoor experience, etc.)

APPLICANTS SHOULD:
- Be enthusiastic and genuinely interested in primates.

Contact Information:
Inés Nole Bazán
Jr. Cornelio Borda 278 dep 202
Lima, NA 01
Peru

Telephone Number:
4251447

E-mail Address:
inesnole@hotmail.com

Hiring Organization:
State University of New York, Oneonta and DANTA: Association for Conservation of the Tropics

Date Posted:
2006-11-15

Position Description:
The State University of New York at Oneonta and Danta: Association for Conservation of the Tropics are pleased to announce a Primate Behavior and Conservation Field Course to be held in Costa Rica from June 12, to July 11, 2007. This program is open to people of all academic backgrounds. Participants may enroll on either a credit or non-credit basis. Also, an optional ecotravel experience will be provided for those who wish to stay longer for travel after the course.
The course will be held at El Zota Biological Field Station in North-eastern Costa Rica. The course is designed to provide students with training in primate behavior, ecology and conservation in a field setting. During the first half of the course, students will learn how to (1) collect data on the behavior of free-ranging primates, (2) measure environmental variables, including assessment of resource availability, (3) measure population size, and (4) map the field site. In the second half of the course, in consultation with the instructor, each student carries out an independent research project. Students in the past have investigated such topics as feeding ecology, positional behavior, and habitat use in the mantled howler monkey, white-faced capuchin and black-handed spider monkey. Students will be involved in applied conservation during a 6 day field trip to Puerto Viejo and Punta Mona.

The cost of the course is $1850, and includes all within-country transportation, room and board, and expenses for a 6 day field trip. It does NOT include your international flight, airport taxes ($25), accommodation and meals for the first and last nights in San Jose. The deadline for registration is May 1, 2007. Enrollment is limited to 25 participants.

To learn more about the Primate Behavior and Conservation field course, please visit our website (www.danta.info), or email us at dingeska@oneonta.edu.

Qualifications/Experience:
The course is intended for undergraduates or early graduate level students who are very interested in tropical biology, but have little or no experience of working in a tropical environment.

Application Deadline:
May 1, 2007

Contact Information:
Kimberly Dingess
31 Pine Street
Oneonta, NY 13820
USA

Telephone Number:
607-432-0315

Website:
http://www.danta.info

E-mail Address:
dingeska@oneonta.edu

Follow the leader?
Chimps in captivity follow the leader and place orange plastic token in a container to receive a reward.

Credit: Yerkes National Primate Research Center

By Gretchen Vogel
ScienceNOW Daily News
3 November 2006

The behaviour in question involved objects that chimps would normally deem useless. Graduate student Kristin Bonnie of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and her colleagues provided two groups of chimpanzees with either a bucket with a hole cut in the side or a container with a large tube sticking out of the top. Out of sight of the other group members, the researchers trained one high-ranking female from each group to deposit tokens into either the bucket or the tube. The team then sat back and watched to see if that trained behavior would spread.

Indeed, the other animals quickly realized that the trained group member was receiving treats--apple or banana slices--for picking up the tokens and placing them in a container. Although treats were available for chimps that used either receptacle, each group followed their leader and used just one of the two options. There was only one exception: A low-ranking female in one group figured out she could get rewards for using the second container, but none of her group members followed her lead.

Bonnie and her colleagues say the results, reported online this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that the evolutionary roots of humans’ tendency to follow convention are also present in our chimpanzee cousins. While other studies have shown that different chimp groups use similar tools in different ways (ScienceNOW, 22 August 2005), this is the first controlled study that shows chimps can follow conventions that don’t involve tools, Bonnie says.

The experiment is "getting closer to the heart of cultural phenomena where you’re only doing something because it’s the local way of doing it," says study co-author Andrew Whiten of the University of St. Andrews in Fife, United Kingdom. But psychologist Michael Tomasello of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, says the experiment doesn’t cleanly demonstrate that chimps can pick up a completely arbitrary custom. Learning that performing a certain action results in a reward is not the same as doing something just because everyone else is doing it, he says.

Fuente: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/1103/4?etoc

By Paul Raffaele

A un 3% del hombre

The Associated Press

ORT PIERCE - Chimps in tutus - it's enough to start Carol Noon on a tirade.

"It's degrading," she says. "It's hard to engender respect for a species when they're sitting there in a tutu."

Noon is gruff, her words are clipped and it's clear she's not fond of human interaction. She refuses to pose for a picture with a baby chimp, saying it's wrong to take one from it's mother for a prop.

But put her around the chimps, her 93 children, and her whole demeanor softens. Her life's work reflects that.

She's managed to do what no one else has done for the endangered species, building what she says will be the largest chimpanzee refuge in the world. When it's complete in 2008, 291 chimps will roam virtually free on 12 islands, dotted with jungle gyms, hammocks, tire swings - and no cages.

They've had enough of cages in their lives, says Noon, who sued the Air Force in 2000 to get custody of 21 chimps. Though she was successful, most of the damage had already been done.

The chimps were poked, injected with diseases and operated on for experiments after the Air Force sold them to The Coulston Foundation, a now-closed biomedical research facility in Alamogordo, N.M.

Noon calls it "the dungeon."
Spitting her words, she says Coulston's lab had the worst history of abuse in the country. It was the only one charged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act four times.

"These chimps have had so many experiments done on them," she says with a sigh.

She says one of the chimps, Dana, donated a kidney to a baboon. Others were fitted in space suits and strapped into centrifuges to see how long it took them to black out. All were isolated - torture for such social beings - and left in cold, tiny cages, too small for them to stand up.

Noon bought the facility when it bankrupted in 2002 and got custody of an additional 266 chimps. Almost immediately, she gutted the place, widening the cages, replacing the bars with mesh to bring in sunlight and giving the chimps blankets, toys and fresh food.

"When I gave out blankets for the first time in New Mexico, a lot of people were afraid of them," she says.

Eventually, Noon started what has become the great American chimp migration as she transports 10 at a time in a custom-built 38-foot trailer, where each animal has its own air-conditioned window seat.

Forming families
She didn't start out wanting to dedicate her life to primates. She watched some in a zoo and was fascinated by their behavior. It sort of snowballed from there.

An anthropologist who got her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, Noon specializes in resocialization and carefully chooses which chimps will go together to form "families" on the islands. But it was her training in 1989 at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage in Zambia - where the animals were kept in 14-acre enclosures - that Noon says changed everything.

She wanted to bring the same idea back to the U.S.

"It took someone like Carole Noon to rescue the chimpanzees at Coulston," said Jane Goodall, the famed primatologist. "I was absolutely thrilled to see them on the island at the Florida sanctuary. The individual stories of their rehabilitation are truly moving."

On a recent afternoon, Noon tools around the 200-acre compound in a golf cart, a walkie-talkie clipped to her dirty pants and her dog Esther riding in the front seat.

"That's the old lady running for the first time in 40 years," she says proudly, pointing to Lisa, a shiny, black 45-year-old who spent 43 years in labs after she was captured from Africa as a baby.

All around the facility, construction workers are pounding away, hurrying to finish another feeding room or jungle gym. Four of the 12 islands remain unoccupied.

When she bought the land in 1999, her construction company dug the 17-foot deep moats, built the feeding houses and erected the jungle gyms. Almost two years later, the first batch of chimps moved in.

An estimated 200,000 chimps still live in Africa, a rapid decrease from a few million just 50 years ago. The U.S. is home to 2,400 captive chimps, a few hundred of them live in zoos and work in Hollywood. About 1,700 are used in biomedical testing.

Most of the chimps on the island are in their 40s and maybe have another decade left to live. Because Noon doesn't believe in captive breeding, the males have had vasectomies. The animals weigh about 200 pounds and are three times stronger than humans.

Progress, hard work
Since arriving on the islands, the chimps' progress is both subtle and extraordinary.

Tami and Henrietta refused to gain weight, despite the number of high-calorie nutrition drinks they were fed in New Mexico. Here, they developed a bit of a belly. Ebony, who was almost hairless from the waist down, suddenly has hair. Shy, insecure Alice transformed on the ride over, banging on her window to draw the attention of passersby.

Yes, Noon knows them all by name. And they clearly recognize her voice, about 11 congregate at the food house, clamoring for her attention.

"That's Marissa, you can tell by the attitude. That's Ted on the right and Spudnut" she says.

"They're so complicated. If they fight, they pick sides and they make up. They play, they fight, they steal food and share food, they're exactly like a family."

Sarah refuses to share her plastic toy mirror, hiding it in her belly when she isn't gazing at it. Roxy carries around her two stuffed animals - a chimp and a monkey - on her hip and lately has been teaching them to climb.

It takes a staff of 69 to run the two facilities. On Wednesday, about six are busy in the spacious kitchen cutting apples, lettuce, carrots, oranges and of course bananas into large plastic bins. The chimps also eat granola bars, smoothies and juice boxes, but their favorite meal is dinner, when they feast on organic meal replacement bars donated by a local company.

The chimps eat about $160,000 worth of food a year and drink nearly 20,000 gallons of water a day, Noon says.

It takes a small fortune to run the two facilities - though she will close the one in New Mexico once the chimps are all in Florida. Save the Chimps receives no government money, relying solely on donations to fund the $2.5 million a year operation. For $120 a year donors can click on www.savethechimps.org and adopt an animal.

But it's the least we can do for them, says Noon. She recalls the first day she brought the chimps to the islands, how she watched their thick bodies embrace each other, romp on the jungle gyms together and feel grass under their feet for the first time.

"I said to the staff, 'Do you think we'll ever get tired of this?' Four years later, I feel the same way I felt that first day."

Article published Sep 5, 2006
Sep 4, 2006

Fuente: www.gainesville.com

In a finding that challenges a long-held belief regarding the cultural spread of tool use among chimpanzees, researchers report that chimpanzees in the Ebo forest, Cameroon, use stone hammers to crack open hard-shelled nuts to access the nutrient-rich seeds. The findings are significant because this nut-cracking behavior was previously known only in a distant chimpanzee population in extreme western Africa and was thought to be restricted by geographical boundaries that prevented cultural spread of the technique from animal to animal. The findings, which involve the most endangered and least-understood subspecies of chimpanzee, are reported by Dr. Bethan Morgan and Ekwoge Abwe of the Zoological Society of San Diego's Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES) and appear in the August 22nd issue of the journal Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Prior to this discovery, it was thought that chimpanzee nut-cracking behavior was confined to the region west of the N'Zo-Sassandra River in Cote d'Ivoire. Because there are no relevant ecological or genetic differences between populations on either side of this "information barrier," explain the researchers of the new study, the implication had been that nut-cracking is a behavioral tradition constrained in its spread by a physical barrier: It was absent to the east of the river because it had not been invented there. The new finding that chimpanzees crack open nuts more than 1700 km east of the supposed barrier challenges this long-accepted model. According to the authors of the study, the discontinuous distribution of the nut-cracking behavior may indicate that the original "culture zone" was larger, and nut-cracking behavior has become extinct between the N'Zo-Sassandra and Ebo. Alternatively, it may indicate that nut-cracking has been invented on more than one occasion in widely separated populations.

This is one of the first reports of tool use for Pan troglodytes vellerosus, the most endangered and understudied chimpanzee subspecies. It highlights the necessity to preserve the rich array of cultures found across chimpanzee populations and communities, which represent our best model for understanding the evolution of hominid cultural diversity. As such, the new finding promises to both benefit research and inform the conservation of our closest living relative.

The researchers include Bethan J. Morgan of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES), Zoological Society of San Diego in Escondido, CA and WCS/CRES in Yaoundé, Cameroon; Ekwoge E. Abwe of WCS/CRES in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

They are grateful to the Government of Cameroon for research authorisation, to WWF and WCS in Cameroon for technical support, to the Zoological Society of San Diego, United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Great Ape Conservation Fund, Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and the Of field Family Foundation for continued financial support.

Morgan et al.: "Chimpanzees use stone hammers in Cameroon." Publishing in Current Biology Vol 16 No 16 R632-3, August 22, 2006, www.current-biology.com

Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:48am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Language centers in the brains of rhesus macaques light up when the monkeys hear calls and screams from fellow monkeys, researchers said in a study that suggests language skills evolved early in primates.

Researchers who scanned the brains of monkeys while playing them various sounds found the animals used the same areas of the brain when they heard monkey calls as humans do when listening to speech.

Writing in this week's issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience , the international team of researchers said this finding suggests that early ancestors of humans possessed the brain structures needed for language before they developed language itself.

"This intriguing finding brings us closer to understanding the point at which the building blocks of language appeared on the evolutionary timeline," said Dr. James Battey, director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, which helped conduct the study.

"While the fossil record cannot answer this question for us, we can turn to the here and now -- through brain imaging of living nonhuman primates -- for a glimpse into how language, or at least the neural circuitry required for language, came to be."

The NIDCD's Allen Braun and colleagues trained rhesus monkeys to sit quietly in PET scanners. Positron emission tomography detects active cells and can be used to see which parts of the brain are working.

They played coos and screams made by rhesus monkeys that the test animals did not know, as well as "nonbiological sounds" such as music and computer-generated noises.

The monkey sounds activated areas of the brain corresponding to those used by humans in processing language -- known as Broca's area, and Wernicke's area, the researchers said.

In contrast, music and computer sounds mostly activated the brain's primary auditory areas.

"This finding suggests the possibility that the last common ancestor of macaques and humans, which lived 25 to 30 million years ago, possessed key neural mechanisms (that may have been used) ... during the evolution of language," the researchers wrote.

"Although monkeys do not have language, they do possess a repertoire of species-specific vocalizations that -- like human speech -- seem to encode meaning in arbitrary sound patterns."

For instance, many species of monkeys have calls to warn of danger from above, such as an eagle, calls referring specifically to leopards and also have various sounds used while socializing.

Publicado en: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-07-25T144823Z_01_N25143557_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-LANGUAGE.xml

Una investigación del primatólogo catalán Josep Call publicada recientemente en la revista Science demuestra que los simios pueden planificar su futuro.

Acceso al artículo publicado en "El Periódico de Catalunya " sobre la noticia: http://faada.org/phpnuke/modules/Principal/images/portada/Lossimiosplanifican.pdf

(en la foto, Josep Call)

El próximo curso académico 2006-2007 se iniciará el nuevo PROGRAMA OFICIAL DE MASTER EN PRIMATOLOGIA de la Universitat de Barcelona, que tendrá una duración mínima de 1 año y una duración máxima de 2 años. Posteriormente a la realización del Master se podrá optar a realizar la Tesis Doctoral, ya que esta formación teórica sustituye a los antiguos programas de doctorado.