Primatología / Primatology

Efectes de la utilització de primats en l'espectacle i la publicitat

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.

 

Queixa anunci TV3 / Queja anuncio TV3

Hola a tots i totes,

Us adjunto un correu de Fundació Mona (www.fundacionmona.org) en què podreu trobar un model de carta de queixa contra l'anunci de la Marató de TV3 en què s'utilitzen a dos ximpanzés. Potser algú de vosaltres ja ha rebut el correu directament de Mona. Trobareu adjunt dos fitxers, un amb el model de carta en castellà i un altre en català. Gràcies per tot.

**************

Hola a todos y todas,

Os adjunto un correo de Fundación Mona (www.fundacionmona.org) en el que podreis encontrar un modelo de carta de queja contra el anuncio de la Maratón de TV3 en el que se utiliza a dos chimpancés. Quizá alguno de vosotros ya haya recibido el correo directamente de Mona. Encontrareis dos ficheros adjuntos, uno con el modelo de carta en castellano y otro en catalán. Siento que el mail que os adjunto tan solo esté en catalán. Gracias por todo,

Miquel

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LA MARATÓ DE TV3

Ens costa entendre com és que la Marató de TV3, que aquest any està destinada als malalts amb dolor crònic, faci servir a dos ximpanzés pel seu anunci. I és que TV3 ha estat d'alguna manera involucrada, o si més no  al corrent de la feina que fem aquí a la Fundació Mona (www.fundacionmona.org), ja que hem sortit en diversos programes, com ara Veterinaris, Entre Línies, L'info K, Telenotícies...

Si també esteu en desacord amb l'anunci de la Marató, podeu enviar les vostres queixes a:

Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya

Entença 321

08029 Barcelona

Tel: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

   [e-mail],

Fundació La Marató de TV3

Ganduxer, 117

08022 Barcelona

Telèfon: 93 444 48 30

FAX: [phone]

  [e-mail],

Televisió de Catalunya, SA

Carrer de la TV3, s/n

08970 - Sant Joan Despí

Telèfon: 93 499 93 33

Fax: [phone]

o a l'apartat "queixes" de la web www.5430.cat

També a la productora que ha fet l'anunci:

Bassat Ogilvy Publicidad

934955555

Josep Tarradellas, 123, 2º

08029 BARCELONA

[e-mail]

Feu sentir les vostres veus i el vostre rebuig. A la llarga potser hi haurà un canvi, però està clar que no ens podem quedar de braços creuats. Aquí us adjuntem una carta model perquè la feu servir si us sembla bé.

 

 

 

CATALÀ:

 

Benvolguts senyors,

 

Els vull fer arribar la meva disconformitat i rebuig per l’anunci que s’està emeten per la Marató d’enguany amb dos ximpanzés. En aquest anunci, i a qualsevol que empra ximpanzés, la crueltat potser no està en el moment del rodatge, però rotundament sí que ho està en el dia a dia de les seves vides i sobretot en el seu futur, que sol ser incert un cop passen dels 10 anys. Són animals socials molt intel·ligents, sensibles i longeus (poden sobrepassar els 60 anys) i viure tancats en petites gàbies, privats de tota relació social amb els seus congèneres, i sotmesos a uns ensinistraments que solen ser brutals, està ben lluny del que es pot entendre com una bona vida.

 

Anuncis com aquest, per molt bona intenció que tinguin, maleduquen al públic, i això fomenta la demanda d'espècies exòtiques, i sovint en perill d'extinció, com a animals de companyia. Això, evidentment, també impulsa el tràfic il·legal d'espècies. Segons la primatòloga i premi d’Astúries, Dra. Jane Goodall, per cada ximpanzé capturat pel tràfic il·legal d'espècies, en moren entre 10 i 30 individus. Crec que és una dada a tenir en compte, tractant-se d'un primat  que ja està en greu perill d'extinció, abans de fomentar actuacions errònies amb anuncis com aquest. 

 

S'ha de pensar més enllà del plató. I pensar que la televisió,a més d'entretenir, ha d'educar. Tots els esforços d’anys que s’estan duent a terme per conscienciar a la gent a ser més respectuosos amb el medi ambient i els animals es poden veure truncats amb un simple anunci de poc més d’un minut. Demano així que es deixi d'emetre aquest anunci i es canviï per un altre.

 

Nom:

Cognoms:

 

 

CASTELLÀ:

 

Apreciados señores/as,

 

Les quiero hacer llegar mi disconformidad y rechazo por el anuncio que se está emitiendo para la Marató de TV3 de 2006 en el que se utiliza a dos chimpancés. En este anuncio, y en cualquier otro que recurra a chimpancés, quizá la crueldad no esté en el momento del rodaje pero rotundamente sí que lo está en el día a día de sus vidas y sobre todo en su futuro, que suele ser incierto una vez pasan de los 10 años.  Los chimpancés son animales sociales muy inteligentes, sensibles y longevos (pueden llegar a sobrepasar los 60 años) y vivir encerrados en pequeñas jaulas privados de toda relación social con sus congéneres y sometidos a entrenamientos que suelen ser brutales, está muy lejos de lo que se puede considerar una buena vida.

 

Anuncios como este, por muy buena intención que se tengan, maleducan al público y ello fomenta la demanda de especies exóticas, y a menudo en peligro de extinción, como animales de compañía. Ésto, evidentemente, también impulsa el tráfico ilegal de especies. Según la Dra. Jane Goodall, reputada primatóloga y premio Príncipe de Asturias,  por cada chimpancé capturado para el tráfico ilegal de especies, mueren entre 10 y 30 individuos. Creo que se trata de un dato a tener en cuenta antes de fomentar actuaciones erróneas con anuncios como éste, considerando que los chimpancés son primates en un grave peligro de extinción.

 

Se tiene que pensar más allá del plató. Y pensar que la televisión, además de entretener tiene que educar. Todos los esfuerzos de años que se están llevando a cabo para concienciar a las personas a ser más respetuosos con el medio ambiente y el mundo animal puede verse truncado con un simple anuncio de poco más de un minuto. Les solicito de esta manera que se deje de emitir el anuncio y se cambie por otro.

 

Atentamente,

 

Nombre:

Apellidos:

 

Anunci La Marató de TV3

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

Sense comentaris,

Salut!

 

Resposta del Servei d'Atenció 5430:

Aquest anunci no ha causat patiment a cap ésser viu, sinó que ha estat realitzat amb les màximes condicions de protecció per als animals que hi han intervingut. Tampoc se'ls sotmet a cap tractament degradant ni se'ls presenta de manera no coherent amb la seva condició (l'experimentació científica en psicologia i etologia amb ximpanzés és una pràctica legítima i acceptada). La simple visió de l'anunci mostra, al contrari, la gran tranquil·litat i bon grat en què els animals s'hi troben. Atentament, Televisió de Catalunya

 

Humans And Chimpanzees, How Similar Are We?

27 Nov 2006  

The DNA sequences of humans and chimpanzees are 98.5 percent identical, but now Uppsala University researchers can show that parts of the genetic material are missing in one species or the other. This means in some cases that humans can produce a protein that the chimpanzee lacks and vice versa. The study, being published in the November issue of the Journal of Molecular Evolution, estimates that the total variation between humans and chimpanzees is rather 6-7 percent.

The chimpanzee, together with the pygmy chimpanzee (the bonobo), is the closest relative to humans still in existence. Even though the similarities between chimpanzees and human are obvious, there are clear differences in body structure, intellect, and behavior, etc. In the more than five million years that have passed since the developmental lines of humans and chimpanzees parted, mutations have altered the genes. A key issue for researchers studying the evolutionary history of humans and chimpanzees is to understand which of these differences have been crucial to the development of the species and their unique characteristics.

Tomas Bergström and his research team at the Department of Genetics and Pathology have compared the DNA sequence from chromosome 21 in humans and chimpanzees to map where the genetic differences are found and what significance this might have. The findings corroborate other studies that indicate that in 1.5 percent of the genetic material a nucleotide (genetic letter) has been replaced by another nucleotide. But the findings also show that more than 5 percent of the genetic material occurs in only one of the species. In both species, DNA has been added or lost. In other words, the total difference is estimated at 6.5 percent. Even though most of the differences occur, as expected, in parts of the genetic material that do not contain genes, the research team has found that pieces of DNA have been added or lost in 13 percent of the genes. Some genes (5 percent) have undergone such major changes that certain proteins can probably not be produced by one of the species.

"It is probable that a species can compensate for this by producing a similar protein from another part of the gene, but some of these differences have clearly been crucial to the development of the species," says Tomas Bergström.

About the UPPSALA UNIVERSITET

Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is the oldest university in Sweden with venerable traditions from Linnaeus, Celsius, Angstrom and at the same time the newest. The university rests on the stable ground of scientific and educational experience within the eight faculties of Theology, Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, History-Philosophy, Languages, Social Sciences, and Science and Technology. There is also a new virtual IT Faculty for research and education. Uppsala University has one of Sweden's largest faculties of science and technology and the only faculty of pharmacy. Today Uppsala University has 37 000 students and 5 500 employees.

UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
P.O. Box 256,
SE-751 05 Uppsala
http://www.uu.se/

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

Nuevas plazas de doctorado y trabajo de campo

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:
[e-mail]

 

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:
[e-mail]

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:
[e-mail]

Male Chimps Prefer Older Females

Males prefer older females, at least in the chimp world, scientists now report.

These findings, reported in the Nov. 21 issue of the journal Current Biology, could shed light on how the more chimp-like ancestors of humans might have behaved, said researcher Martin Muller, a biological anthropologist at Boston University.

Human men often prefer young women. One reason for this, scientists propose, lies in the human proclivity to form unusually long-term mating pairs. When combined with the natural urge to beget as many children as possible, since a woman's fertility is limited by age, men would find young women more sexually attractive.

Chimpanzees, unlike humans, do not form mating partnerships for long, and are instead promiscuous. Moreover, female chimps show no evidence of menopause, which means their fertility is not limited by age. This suggested male chimps might not care about the age of a mate as humans do.

Older is better

To test this prediction, Muller and his colleagues at Harvard investigated chimpanzees [image] at Kibale National Park in Uganda for eight years.

"It takes a lot of effort to find them in the forest and to follow them through a lot of thick vegetation and to try and record all this," Muller recalled.

Surprisingly, the scientists found male chimps preferred older females. Males approached older females more often for sex, and preferred clustering around older females that were in heat. Older females also had sex more frequently with high-ranking males and more regularly triggered male-on-male aggression during mating contests.

"The stereotypical view of human mating involves males wanting to be  promiscuous and females being coy, but in chimps you see young females being very interested in mating with all the males, maybe going male to male and presenting their sexual swellings, sometimes grabbing their penis and playing with them, and the males just ignore them," Muller told LiveScience.

By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
posted: 20 November 2006
12:01 pm ET
 

Reasons unclear

It remains uncertain as to why male chimps would prefer older females, as opposed to not caring about age at all.

"Hormonal data collected noninvasively from urine samples suggest older females are more fecund. Perhaps this is a matter of their higher rank— older females tend to be dominant over younger ones, which gives them preferred access to the best foods, so they may be more likely to conceive," Muller said.

In addition, the older females get, the more fit they might show themselves to be against the hardships of life, and thus could lead to equally robust children, which males could find attractive. Alternatively, older females might have accumulated mothering experience, leading to increased infant survivorship. "Or it might be any combination of these, or all of them," Muller said.

To tease out why exactly human men favor young women and chimp males prefer older females, Muller suggested researching what other primate males look for, such as gibbons, who like humans form long-term mating pairs but like chimps do not have menopause.

 

Fuente: LiveScience  

Primate Behavior and Conservation Field Course in Costa Rica

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 [e-mail].

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:
[e-mail]

Funding opportunity

Primate Conservation, Incorporated (PCI) is a nonprofit foundation founded to fund field research that supports conservation programs for wild populations of primates. Priority will be given to projects that study, in their natural habitat, the least known and most endangered species. The involvement of citizens from the country in which the primates are found will be a plus. The intent is to provide support for original research that can be used to formulate and to implement conservation plans for the species studied.

PCI will grant seed monies or provide matching grants for graduate students, qualified conservationists, and primatologists to study rare and endangered primates and their conservation in their natural habitat. All appropriate projects will be considered, but the regions of current interest are Asia and West Africa.

http://fundingopps.cos.com/alerts/61631?id=61631&if=alert
http://www.primate.org/grant_in.htm

Ray Hamel
Wisconsin Primate Center Library
Phone: [phone]
[e-mail]

Cool Like You

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

Humans excel at following conventions. In France, acquaintances greet one another with a kiss on the cheek. In Japan, they bow. The different greetings have no inherent use on their own--and they would each lose their meaning when performed in the wrong context. But are humans the only animals to use such social conventions? A new study in chimps suggests not; the primates can learn an arbitrary behavior and pass it along to their groupmates.

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

Speaking Bonobo

Bonobos have an impressive vocabulary, especially when it comes to snacks

By Paul Raffaele

 

To better understand bonobo intelligence, I traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet Kanzi, a 26-year-old male bonobo reputedly able to converse with humans. When Kanzi was an infant, American psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh tried to teach his mother, Matata, to communicate using a keyboard labeled with geometric symbols. Matata never really got the hang of it, but Kanzi—who usually played in the background, seemingly oblivious, during his mother’s teaching sessions—picked up the language.

Savage-Rumbaugh and her colleagues kept adding symbols to Kanzi’s keyboard and laminated sheets of paper. First Kanzi used 6 symbols, then 18, finally 348. The symbols refer to familiar objects (yogurt, key, tummy, bowl), favored activities (chase, tickle), and even some concepts considered fairly abstract (now, bad).

Kanzi learned to combine these symbols in regular ways, or in what linguists call"proto-grammar."Once, Savage-Rumbaugh says, on an outing in a forest by the Georgia State University laboratory where he was raised, Kanzi touched the symbols for"marshmallow"and"fire."Given matches and marshmallows, Kanzi snapped twigs for a fire, lit them with the matches and toasted the marshmallows on a stick.

Watch Kanzi comprehend novel sentences — phrases that preclude the learning of specific responses.

Savage-Rumbaugh claims that in addition to the symbols Kanzi uses, he knows the meaning of up to 3,000 spoken English words. She tests his comprehension in part by having someone in another room pronounce words that Kanzi hears through a set of headphones. Kanzi then points to the appropriate symbol on his keyboard. But Savage-Rumbaugh says Kanzi also understands words that aren’t a part of his keyboard vocabulary; she says he can respond appropriately to commands such as"put the soap in the water"or"carry the TV outdoors."

About a year ago, Kanzi and his sister, mother, nephew and four other bonobos moved into a $10 million, 18-room house and laboratory complex at the Great Ape Trust, North America’s largest great ape sanctuary, five miles from downtown Des Moines. The bonobo compound boasts a 13,000-square-foot lab, drinking fountains, outdoor playgrounds, rooms linked by hydraulic doors that the animals operate themselves by pushing buttons, and a kitchen where they can use a microwave oven and get snacks from a vending machine (pressing the symbols for desired foods).

Kanzi and the other bonobos spend evenings sprawled on the floor, snacking on M & M’s, blueberries, onions and celery, as they watch DVDs they select by pressing buttons on a computer screen. Their favorites star apes and other creatures friendly with humans such as Quest for Fire, Every Which Way But Loose, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan and Babe.

Through a glass panel, Savage-Rumbaugh asks Kanzi if it’s OK for me to enter his enclosure."The bonobos control who comes into their quarters,"she explains. Kanzi, still the alpha male of this group in his middle age, has the mien of an aging patriarch—he’s balding and paunchy with serious, deep-set eyes. Squealing apparent agreement, he pushes a button, and I walk inside. A wire barrier still separates us."Kanzi can cause you serious damage if he wants,"Savage-Rumbaugh adds.

Kanzi shows me his electronic lexigram touch pad, which is connected to a computer that displays—while a male voice speaks—the words he selects. But Kanzi’s finger slips off the keys."We're trying to solve this problem,"says Savage-Rumbaugh.

She and her colleagues have been testing the bonobos’ ability to express their thoughts vocally, rather than by pushing buttons. In one experiment she described to me, she placed Kanzi and Panbanisha, his sister, in separate rooms where they could hear but not see each other. Through lexigrams, Savage-Rumbaugh explained to Kanzi that he would be given yogurt. He was then asked to communicate this information to Panbanisha."Kanzi vocalized, then Panbanisha vocalized in return and selected ‘yogurt’ on the keyboard in front of her,"Savage-Rumbaugh tells me.

With these and other ape-language experiments, says Savage-Rumbaugh,"the mythology of human uniqueness is coming under challenge. If apes can learn language, which we once thought unique to humans, then it suggests that ability is not innate in just us."

But many linguists argue that these bonobos are simply very skilled at getting what they want, and that their abilities do not constitute language."I do not believe that there has ever been an example anywhere of a nonhuman expressing an opinion, or asking a question. Not ever,"says Geoffrey Pullum, a linguist at the University of California at Santa Cruz."It would be wonderful if animals could say things about the world, as opposed to just signaling a direct emotional state or need. But they just don’t.”

Whatever the dimension of Kanzi’s abilities, he and I did manage to communicate. I’d told Savage-Rumbaugh about some of my adventures, and she invited me to perform a Maori war dance. I beat my chest, slapped my thighs and hollered. The bonobos sat quiet and motionless for a few seconds, then all but Kanzi snapped into a frenzy, the noise deafening as they screamed, bared their teeth and pounded on the walls and floor of their enclosure. Still calm, Kanzi waved an arm at Savage-Rumbaugh, as if asking her to come closer, then let loose with a stream of squeaks and squeals."Kanzi says he knows you're not threatening them,"Savage-Rumbaugh said to me,"and he'd like you to do it again just for him, in a room out back, so the others won't get upset.”

I’m skeptical, but I follow the researcher through the complex, out of Kanzi's sight. I find him, all alone, standing behind protective bars. Seeing me, he slapped his chest and thighs, mimicking my war dance, as if inviting me to perform an encore. I obliged, of course, and Kanzi joined in with gusto.

 

Fuente: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/november/speakingbonobo.php 

La estructura genética del gran simio

A un 3% del hombre

1. • Robert Waterston, el científico que coordinó la secuenciación del genoma del chimpancé, explica que las mayores diferencias con los humanos atañen al sexo y el sistema inmune
   

Robert Waterston El lunes, en CosmoCaixa-Barcelona. Foto: JOSEP GARCÍA

ANTONIO MADRIDEJOS
BARCELONA

Los humanos (Homo sapiens) y los chimpancés (Pan troglodytes) llevan solo seis o siete millones de años avanzando por caminos divergentes, que en términos evolutivos es un suspiro, y lógicamente lo comparten casi todo. Guardando las distancias, se parecen los esqueletos, la visión, la fabricación de hemoglobina, el desarrollo corporal, la memoria, el cuidado de los hijos... "Compartimos entre el 96% y el 97% del genoma. Nos parecemos tanto a los chimpancés --dice el biólogo Robert Waterston-- como los propios chimpancés a los gorilas". ¿Otro ejemplo? Las diferencias son 10 veces más pequeñas que entre ratas y ratones.
Waterston, catedrático de la Universidad de Washington en Seattle (EEUU), fue el coordinador del consorcio internacional que el año pasado publicó la secuenciación del genoma del chimpancé, "el primer gran simio, si exceptuamos el hombre", del que disponemos un resumen bastante preciso de su estructura genética. El investigador estuvo ayer en Barcelona invitado por el programa de ciencia y medio ambiente de la Obra Social La Caixa.
Técnicamente, prosigue Waterston, las diferencias en el ADN de ambas especies suponen sólo el 1,2% del total. "Lo que pasa es que hay secuencias que están en el chimpancé y faltan en los humanos, o al revés, y pueden representar otro 3%", insiste. Tenemos casi los mismos cromosomas (23 pares los humanos, 24 pares los chimpancés) y casi los mismos genes. "Lo que nos diferencia es esencialmente que algunos aminoácidos que están codificados dentro de un gen son distintos". Los genes se expresan de forma diferente y las proteínas resultantes no son iguales.
En cualquier caso, cambios aparentemente pequeños pueden tener una importancia vital. El profesor pone el ejemplo de la mutación que provocó que el cráneo de los humanos pudiera crecer a costa de perder musculatura en la mandíbula y fuerza en la masticación.

Genes defensivos
De forma sorprendente, las mayores diferencias entre ambos genomas no atañen a genes vinculados a lo que entendemos por humanidad, sino a una conducta tan supuestamente animal como es la reproducción. Así, Waterston cita grandes divergencias en genes responsables de la producción de esperma, fruto posiblemente de la prosmicua vida de los chimpancés. También varían el sistema inmunológico y las defensas: "Son genes que tienden a cambiar rápido debido a la injerencia de factores externos que los atacan".
¿Y la inteligencia? "Es difícil vincular determinados genes a lo que llamamos inteligencia. Ya me gustaría saberlo --prosigue--, pero sí confío en que comparando ambos genomas podamos descubrir qué es lo que nos hizo humanos".
Lo que sí se ha comprobado, dice Waterston, es que hay un gen inactivo en los chimpancés, llamado FoxP2, que parece determinante en nuestra capacidad de hablar. El catedrático explica que a una familia británica se le ha detectado la misma particularidad: sus miembros son inteligentes, pero tienen problemas insalvables con la pronunciación y la gramática.

Capacidad olfativa
En seis millones de vida por separado, ambas especies de origen centroafricano han acumulado nuevas aptitudes genéticas y han perdido otras. "Es difícil determinarlo, pero sabemos que los humanos, por ejemplo, han perdido capacidad olfativa que se mantiene en los chimpancés".
"Como nuestros parientes evolutivos más cercanos, los chimpancés están especialmente capacitados para enseñarnos sobre nosotros mismos --dice Waterston--. Creo que nos podrían ayudar a entender la base genética de algunas enfermedades humanas". Y luego cita el caso del virus del sida, una enfermedad que los chimpancés transportan pero no sufren. "El sida no progresa en ellos, no les infecta".
¿Y los gorilas? Se sitúan más lejos de los humanos. A partir de un antepasado común, sus genes iniciaron caminos divergentes mucho antes, posiblemente hace 10 millones de años, y hora las coincidencias rondan el 92%. "Todavía no ha concluido la secuenciación del genoma del gorila, pero hay aproximadamente un 2% de diferencias y otro 6% de fragmentos del ADN que faltan en una u otra especie", concluye Waterston.

 

Fuente: El Periódico de Catalunya 

Chimps share human learning trait

Un-apelike: Georgia researcher finds that animals pass knowledge from one generation to the next, as people do.

By Bill Hendrick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/26/06

Unlike many of their human cousins, chimps aren't chumps.

Scientists have learned that chimpanzees don't just ape the behavior of their fellows, but actually learn from watching it. And then they pass down what they've learned as a cultural trait from generation to generation.

As far as scientists know, this ability is unique to chimps and humans —- though chimps' Homo sapiens cousins often learn by trial and painful error.

"Culture depends on learning from others," said Victoria Horner, formerly a primate behaviorist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who's now at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in the piney wilds of Gwinnett County.

She published her findings in the Aug. 28 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science with co-authors Frans de Waal, Yerkes' longtime top ape expert, and St. Andrews scholar Andrew Whiten.

Great apes, which include humans, chimps, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos, are so prone to copying each other's behavior than the name "ape" has become synonymous with miming. But Horner said this study was groundbreaking because it showed that a chain of six chimps went beyond simple mimicking and "faithfully and accurately transmitted behaviors" to each other exactly, down a line of individuals.

It "shows behaviors can spread within a group and down a chain of animals without human intervention, so the chimps effectively learn from each other," she said. "The behavior does not degrade when passed along a chain. Researchers knew chimps could copy human behavior, but this research shows how they learn and copy from each other."

What this means, Horner said, is that chimps possess one of the critical skills necessary to create and maintain cultural differences between groups, and that their behaviors become traditions.

Horner and her colleagues set up experiments at the primate center in which they trained a chimp to open a small brown box containing fruit in one of two ways —- either by lifting the lid or by sliding a small door.

After the first chimp learned to lift the lid of the box open to get to the fruit, they let another one watch the "teacher" demonstrate the technique several times. After the teacher was removed, the new chimp was brought in. And it went straight to the box, lifted the lid and got the fruit out the same way its teacher had. This went on through six teacher-student generations.

The same experiment was replicated after another "teacher" retrieved the fruit by sliding open the door. Then another chimp was brought in, who learned to get the fruit just like that teacher had. This went on until it was clear that each chimp consistently carried on behavior learned from the one it had a chance to watch. A control group showed researchers that through trial and error they could discover a way into the box, even without a teacher.

It became obvious that the chimps were transferring knowledge through a chain of simulated generations, Horner said, showing for the first time that chimps exhibit generational learning behaviors just like humans do.

"The chimpanzees in this study continued using only the technique they observed, rather than an alternative method," Horner said. "This finding is particularly remarkable considering the chimpanzees in the control group were able to discover both methods through individual exploration."

Such research is important, de Waal said, because chimps are humans' closest cousins, and by learning more about how they learn, it helps us to understand ourselves.

"Everything in human culture was passed down through the generations," de Waal said. "Now we've shown in the chimps that the learning mechanisms needed to have culture are there."

"This tells us that they're darn near as smart as humans. We share 98.4 percent of our genes. It is important to know what makes us special and not so special," de Waal said. "We are looking at them for clues about how we got to be what we are and why we do what we do."

 

Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2006/09/26/meshchimps0926a.html

Big chimp refuge offers life with no cages

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

Chimpanzees Can Transmit Cultural Behavior To Multiple 'Generations'

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, according to new findings by researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, researchers have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike previous findings that indicated chimpanzees simply conform to the social norms of the group, this study shows behavior and traditions can be passed along a chain of individual chimpanzees. These findings, based upon behavioral data gathered at the Yerkes Field Station in Lawrenceville, Ga., will publish online in the August 28 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Rescued chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) near Djoum, South Province, Cameroon. (Photo by Brian Smithson / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Using a research design that simulated transmission over multiple generations, researchers Victoria Horner, PhD, of the University of St. Andrews and the Yerkes Research Center, along with Yerkes researcher Frans B.M. de Waal, PhD, and St. Andrews researcher Andrew Whiten, PhD, were able to more closely examine how chimpanzees learn from each other and the potential longevity of their culture. In doing so, they confirmed that a particular behavior can be transmitted accurately along a chain of up to six chimpanzees, representing six simulated generations equaling approximately 90 years of culture in the wild. A comparative benchmark study with three-year-old human children, conducted by St. Andrews researcher Emma Flynn, PhD, revealed similar results, providing further evidence chimpanzees, like humans, are creatures of culture.

In the study, researchers began by introducing a foraging technique to two chimpanzees, one each from two separate social groups, to train them to open a special testing box one of two ways -- either by sliding or lifting the door -- to reveal fruit inside. Chimpanzees in a third social group, used as the control group, were allowed to explore the testing box but were given no instruction or training to open the testing box. Once each individual animal from the first two social groups proved successful, another animal from the same social group was allowed to observe the process before interacting with the testing box. Once the second animal succeeded, another chimpanzee would enter and observe the technique, and so on down the chain. In the two social groups trained to slide or lift the door, the technique used by the original animal was passed to up to six chimpanzees. The chimpanzees in the control group were able to discover both methods through individual exploration, suggesting the exclusive use of a single technique in the non-control groups was due to behavioral transmission from a previous animal.

"The chimpanzees in this study continued using only the technique they observed rather than an alternative method," said Horner. "This finding is particularly remarkable considering the chimpanzees in the control group were able to discover both methods through individual exploration. Clearly, observing one exclusive technique from a previous chimpanzee was sufficient for transmission of behavior along multiple cultural generations."

This research may contribute to a better understanding of how chimpanzees learn complex behaviors in the wild. "By conducting controlled cultural experiments with captive chimpanzees, we are able to learn more about wild population-specific behavioral differences, thought to represent a form of cultural variation," said Horner. "These findings also show great similarity between human and chimpanzee behavior, suggesting cultural learning may be rooted deep within the evolutionary process."

Further studies by researchers at the Yerkes-based Living Links Center, established in 1997 to facilitate primate studies that shed light on human behavioral evolution, may expand on these findings by examining the cognitive mechanisms involved in cultural learning and the generational transmission of behavior and traditions.

For more than seven decades, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University has been dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of primate biology, behavior, veterinary care and conservation, and to improving human health and well-being. Today, the center, as one of only eight National Institutes of Health-funded national primate research centers, provides specialized scientific resources, expertise and training opportunities. Recognized as a multidisciplinary research institute, the Yerkes Research Center is making landmark discoveries in the fields of microbiology and immunology, neuroscience, psychobiology and sensory-motor systems. Research programs are seeking ways to: develop vaccines for AIDS and malaria; treat cocaine addiction; interpret brain activity through imaging; increase understanding of progressive illnesses such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's; unlock the secrets of memory; determine behavioral effects of hormone replacement therapy; address vision disorders; and advance knowledge about the evolutionary links between biology and behavior.

Fuente: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060830075548.htm

Fecha: 30/08/2006

Tool Use Observed in 2nd Group of Chimps

ts practice in Cameroon -- 1,000 miles from the first sighting -- suggests it arose independently. By Tony Perry
Times Staff Writer

August 26, 2006

The noise came from the trees: crack, crack, crack.

As the researchers and their village guides crept closer, they saw something that was not supposed to be happening in the Ebo forest in the central African nation of Cameroon: chimpanzees using rocks as hammers to break open tough-shelled nuts.

Previous research had found that kind of tool use only in chimps 1,000 miles away, across the wide N'Zo-Sassandra River in Ivory Coast. Researchers thought the behavior was either a genetic trait or maybe a learned skill passed from one generation to another.

The discovery of tool use among chimps in Cameroon, separated from their cousins in Ivory Coast by the "information barrier" of the river, suggests that the skill was invented independently in each place, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Current Biology.

Lead author Bethan J. Morgan, a postdoctoral researcher from the San Diego Zoo, and senior research assistant Ekwoge E. Abwe reported seeing three adult chimps breaking coula nuts with quartz stones. When the animals spotted the researchers, a female chimp and a chimp of undetermined gender fled, but a male stayed behind, continuing to break nuts for three minutes.

The ground beneath the coula tree was littered with broken nutshells and quartz stones.

Morgan said the discovery pointed out how little might be known about the chimp subspecies Pan troglodytes vellerosus even as it is in danger of extinction by "bushmeat" poachers.

She said she hoped the find would spark new interest in preservation among environmentalists and African nations. Although the chimp is on a protected list in Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria, poaching is rampant.

Interaction between researchers and hunters has not been pleasant. One group, Morgan said, threatened to burn down the researchers' camp.

"Luckily, other field assistants were wonderful and stayed in the forest and protected the campsite," she said from Cameroon in a telephone interview. "None of these forests are safe."

Fuente: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-chimps26aug26,0,1384382.story?coll=la-story-footer

Use of stone hammers sheds light on geographic patterns of chimpanzee tool use

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.

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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

Related Dispatch by Richard W. Wrangham: "Chimpanzees: The Culture-Zone Concept Becomes Untidy."

 

Study hints language skills came early in primates

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

 

 

Josep Call publica en Science que los simios planifican su futuro

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)

Nuevo Master en Primatología de la Universitat de Barcelona

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.