Primate Behavioral Ecology Anthro 381. Nicole Hess, PhD

Transcription

1 Primate Behavioral Ecology Anthro 381 Nicole Hess, PhD

2 Day 1! Syllabus! Perry short film on Abby s group:! Start next series of intro slides ( Why study? )

3 Why study primates?

4 Cute Monkeys

5 Cuteness in animals! Archer, J (1997). Why do people love their pets? Evolution and Human Behavior, 18 (4), ! Abstract: The evidence that people form strong attachments with their pets is briefly reviewed before identifying the characteristics of such relationships, which include pets being a source of security as well as the objects of caregiving. In evolutionary terms, pet ownership poses a problem, since attachment and devoting resources to another species are, in theory, fitness-reducing. Three attempts to account for pet keeping are discussed, as are the problems with these views. Pet keeping is placed into the context of other forms of interspecific associations. From this, an alternative Darwinian explanation is proposed: pets are viewed as manipulating human responses that had evolved to facilitate human relationships, primarily (but not exclusively) those between parent and child. The precise mechanisms that enable pets to elicit caregiving from humans are elaborated. They involve features that provide the initial attraction, such as neotenous characteristics, and those that enable the human owner to derive continuing satisfaction from interacting with the pet, such as the attribution of mental processes to human-like organisms. These mechanisms can, in some circumstances, cause pet owners to derive more satisfaction from their pet relationship than those with humans, because they supply a type of unconditional relationship that is usually absent from those with other human beings.

6 Artificial Selection for cuteness, i.e., neoteny (more on artificial selection to come) These cats were bred to cater to human propensities to love cute, young-looking physical attributes in animals Not so with nonhuman primates!!!

7 Reality

8 Amenable to Rigorous Study Jane Goodall Birute Galdikas Dian Fossey! Many are large, diurnal animals! Many can be habituated! Individual recognition is possible, facilitating the collection of high quality data

9 Diversity...

10 Complexity!"Intelligence"!Lying?!Mental attribution?!cultural transmission?!language?

11 Conservation! Habitat destruction (especially of rain forest) threatens most primates! Orangutan numbers have declined 80% in the last 20 years! Need for new generation of conservationists! Primates = "flagship" species! appealing animals useful for attracting financial, political, & public support for conservation efforts! can thus potentially help to also save thousands of species of less "appealing" but equally endangered animals & plants living in same habitat.

12 To Understand Ourselves

13 Why Study Primates?! Analogous traits! Similarities between two species based on common ancestry! Example: it is likely that the last common ancestor of chimps and humans ate meat! Homologous traits! Similarities between two species based on common function! These traits evolved independently! Example: bats fly and butterflies fly! Analogies can dictate design restraints and can help us understand solutions to problems of traits

14 Course Overview

15 Primate?

16 Trends/Diversity

17 Methods

18 Natural Selection Darwin Wallace

19 The Evolution of Adaptations Underlying Behavior William Hamilton, Nico Tinbergen, Bob Trivers, George Williams, Don Symons, Carel van Schaik

20 New World and Old World *natural habitats (in brown)

21 Habitats Rainforest Savanna

22 Stereoscopic Vision (view from above)

23 Suborder Infraorder Superfamily Family Subfamily Lemuriformes Lemuridae (true lemurs) Indriidae Common Names ring-tailed, ruffed, and mouse lemurs, etc. indris, avahis, and sifakas Distribution Madagascar and Comoro Islands Madagascar Prosimii (prosimians) Lorisiformes Daubentoniidae aye-ayes Madagascar Loridae Galagonidae lorises, pottos, and angwantibos galagos (or bush babies) lorises--india and Southeast Asia; others-- Africa sub-saharan Africa and Zanzibar Tarsiformes Tarsiidae tarsiers Philippines, Borneo, Celebes Islands, and Sumatra Callithricidae marmosets and tamarins Panama and north and eastern South America Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) Ceboidea Cebidae Atelidae squirrel and owl monkeys, capuchins, etc. howler and spider monkeys, etc. Central America and north and eastern South America Central America and north and eastern South America Anthropoidea (anthropoids) Catarrhini (Old World monkeys, apes and humans) Cercopithecoi dea (Old World monkeys) Cercopithecida e Cercopithecin ae Colobinae guenons, vervets, baboons, macaques, etc. colobuses, langurs, and proboscis monkeys guenons and baboons-- Africa; macaques-- northwest Africa, Gibraltar, South and East Asia colobuses-- Central Africa; langurs-- India and Southeast Asia; proboscis monkeys-- Borneo Hylobatidae gibbons and siamangs Southeast Asia Hominoidea (apes and humans) Pongidae orangutans chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas Sumatra and Borneo Central and West Africa Hominidae humans throughout the world

24 Evolutionary History of the Primates

25 corm Eating Food

26 Being Food

27 Parenting

28 Sexual Selection

29 Dominance

30 Male-Female Relationships

31 Paternal Investment moustached tamarin moustached human

32 Mating Patterns and Group Configurations

33 Primate Development

34 Kin Selection

35 Reciprocity?

36 Coalitions Female coalition (gelada baboons) Male coalition (chimpanzees)

37 Why are Primates Intelligent? (2 theories)

38 Conservation and Ethics

39 Humans?

40 End