Moving evidence into practice: cost analysis and assessment of macaques’ sustained behavioral engagement with videogames and foraging devices
Environmental enrichment plans for captive nonhuman primates often include provision of foraging devices. The rationale for using foraging devices is to promote species‐typical activity patterns that encourage physical engagement and provide multi‐sensory stimulation. However, these devices have been shown to be ineffective at sustaining manipulation over long periods of time, and often produce minimal cognitive engagement. Here we use an evidence‐based approach to directly compare the amount of object‐directed behavior with a foraging device and a computer‐based videogame system. We recorded 11 adult male rhesus...
Source: American Journal of Primatology - June 30, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Allyson J. Bennett, Chaney M. Perkins, Parker D. Tenpas, Alma L. Reinebach, Peter J. Pierre Tags: Research Article Source Type: research
Paternity in wild ring‐tailed lemurs (Lemur catta): Implications for male mating strategies
In this study, we analyzed paternity in a population of wild L. catta from the Bezà Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar. Paternity was determined with 80–95% confidence for 39 offspring born to nine different groups. We calculated male reproductive skew indices for six groups, and our results showed a range of values corresponding to both high and low reproductive skew. Between 21% and 33% of offspring (3 of 14 or three of nine, counting paternity assignments at the 80% or 95% confidence levels, respectively) were sired by extra‐troop males. Males siring offspring within the same group during the same ...
Source: American Journal of Primatology - June 30, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Joyce A. Parga, Michelle L. Sauther, Frank P. Cuozzo, Ibrahim Antho Youssouf Jacky, Richard R. Lawler, Robert W. Sussman, Lisa Gould, Jennifer Pastorini Tags: Research Article Source Type: research
A new conservation strategy for China—A model starting with primates
Although the evolutionary history of primates in China dates to the Eocene, and includes major radiations of lorisids, hominoids, cercopithecines, and colobines during the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene, extensive human‐induced habitat change and deforestation over the past few centuries has resulted in 22 of 25 extant species listed as threatened or endangered, and two species of gibbons extirpated in the last few years. This commentary briefly reviews factors that have contributed to the decline of primates in China over the past 400 years, and in particular how major social events and economic development in moder...
Source: American Journal of Primatology - June 30, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ruliang Pan, Charles Oxnard, Cyril C. Grueter, Baoguo Li, Xiaoguang Qi, Gang He, Songtao Guo, Paul A. Garber Tags: Commentary Source Type: research
Detection of viruses using discarded plants from wild mountain gorillas and golden monkeys
Infectious diseases pose one of the most significant threats to the survival of great apes in the wild. The critically endangered mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is at high risk for contracting human pathogens because approximately 60% of the population is habituated to humans to support a thriving ecotourism program. Disease surveillance for human and non‐human primate pathogens is important for population health and management of protected primate species. Here, we evaluate discarded plants from mountain gorillas and sympatric golden monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti), as a novel biological sample to det...
Source: American Journal of Primatology - June 23, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tierra Smiley Evans, Kirsten V.K. Gilardi, Peter A. Barry, Benard Jasper Ssebide, Jean Felix Kinani, Fred Nizeyimana, Jean Bosco Noheri, Denis K. Byarugaba, Antoine Mudakikwa, Michael R. Cranfield, Jonna A.K. Mazet, Christine K. Johnson Tags: Research Article Source Type: research
Chimpanzees in an anthropogenic landscape: Examining food resources across habitat types at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa
We examined food resources in all habitat types available in the chimpanzees’ core area. We surveyed resource composition, structure and heterogeneity (20 m × 20 m quadrats, N = 54) and assessed temporal availability of food from phenology trails (total distance 5951 m; 1073 individual trees) over 1 year (2012–2013). Over half of Bossou consists of regenerating forest and is highly diverse in terms of chimpanzee food species; large fruit bearing trees are rare and confined to primary and riverine forest. Moraceae (mulberries and figs) was the dominant family, trees of which produce drupaceous fruits favo...
Source: American Journal of Primatology - June 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Nicola Bryson‐Morrison, Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Tatyana Humle Tags: Research Article Source Type: research
