From the category archives:

Primates

Gelada Monkey (Theropithecus gelada)

by JR Kinyak on April 7, 2010

in Primates

gelada monkey

Gelada monkey (click image to enlarge)

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High in the mountains of Ethiopia live large groups of monkeys, the geladas, who spend their days grazing on grass, mating, socializing, and making a variety of interesting sounds that some people speculate could reveal something about the evolution of human language and music. Also known as bleeding-heart baboons and lion baboons (although they aren’t actually baboons), the geladas are the only remaining grazing primate. (In Coco’s drawing, below, you can see a gelada with his upper lip drawn back, showing the grass he’s been eating.) They organize themselves in large troops that consist of “harem” groups as well as nonbreeding males. In the harem groups, each of which comprises a handful of females and a breeding male, the females are in charge of the family’s movements, and they decide when it’s time to trade in their male for a new one.

Gelada by Coco, age 11 (10 when she drew it). Click image to enlarge.

In most baboons and monkeys, swellings on the females’ rear ends indicate their reproductive ability. Because geladas spend so much time sitting on their rumps, though, this would be an impractical way for them to signal to potential mates. The red patches on their chests provide these swelling signs instead. In the female, the color and and size of the patch indicate where she is in her reproductive cycle; in the male, the patch shows his status.

Once, the geladas were targeted for their beautiful fur. Then came the Ethiopian civil war, which brought gunfire to their mountain home and made it impossible for scientists to study the monkeys. Now, they face their biggest threat ever: climate change. As the mountains where the monkeys live get warmer, scientists say, the geladas will almost certainly become extinct. Not only does the warmer climate threaten the grasses that the monkeys depend on for nutrition, it also means that humans will be able to farm at ever-higher altitudes, and where there are farms, there cannot be geladas. These strange and beautiful monkeys are in serious danger of becoming just one more victim of our neglect and apathy toward the planet. It’s too bad the other animals have to share Earth with us.

Gelada by Theo, age 13. Click image to enlarge.

Tagged as: coco, humans, monkey, theo, threats

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Black-handed Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi)

by JR Kinyak on September 15, 2009

in Primates

Black-handed spider monkey (click image to enlarge)

Black-handed spider monkey (click image to enlarge)


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These incredibly agile monkeys live throughout Central America. They’re very social, swinging through the treetops in groups of 20 or 30, munching on fruit, leaves, and flowers. They’re important distributors of fruit seeds, dispersing them through their digestive system. Unfortunately, the black-handed spider monkey is endangered due to habitat loss.

Tagged as: endangered, monkey, threats

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White-Handed Gibbon (Hylobates lar)

by JR Kinyak on July 21, 2009

in Primates

White-handed gibbon (click image to enlarge)

White-handed gibbon (click image to enlarge)


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The white-handed gibbon, also known as the lar gibbon, is an endangered rainforest ape that lives in southeast Asia, from Sumatra and Malaysia to Myanmar, Thailand, and possibly part of China, although they’re likely extinct in that country. These gibbons are endangered because of their popularity in the pet trade, but especially because of deforestation and the disappearing rain forests.

I’m considering adding a small feature to the Daily Mammal sidebar in which I keep a running list of my favorite new-to-me biology words. In addition to crepuscular, fossorial, scansorial, pelage, tragus, and amberat, we now have brachiation: the act of traveling by swinging from branch to branch, something that white-handed gibbons are extremely good at. They are so good at it, in fact, that you should marvel at their brachiatory (I made that one up) skills by watching this video from ARKive. I love how they fall down through the treetops, making a giant crash through the leaves and hooking onto the next branch at the last second.

Just recently, gibbon researcher Thomas Geissmann published a paper in which he described a rare and lovely discovery: a captive female white-handed gibbon had mastered the use of a tool, specifically a musical instrument, or rather more specifically, a slamming door that she used as a musical instrument. White-handed gibbons (and other gibbons) are known for their haunting songs, which they sing in male-female duets. At the same place in her song each time she sang it, this particular gibbon would punctuate the melody with a percussive bang from the wooden door to her sleeping box. She almost never sang the song without the slam, and she almost never slammed the door when she wasn’t singing. You can read more about her and listen to her song (complete with the slam) in this BBC article. (Check out their caption for her portrait: “The all-singing, door-slamming, female white-handed gibbon.” It’s got a rhythm to it.)

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Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator)

by JR Kinyak on July 10, 2009

in Primates

Emperor tamarin (click image to enlarge)

Emperor tamarin (click image to enlarge)


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I have two things I’d like to share with you about the emperor tamarin (also known as the emperor marmoset). First, according to Mammals—Their Latin Names Explained by A.F. Gotch,

“A taxidermist, so the story goes, had never seen a live tamarin and twisted the white ‘moustache’ upwards to look like the Emperor of Germany, instead of letting it droop in the natural position. It thus acquired the name Emperor Tamarin as a joke, but the name stuck, and the Latin name became established as Saguinus imperator.”

Second, check out this clip from a BBC series called Clever Monkeys, in which we learn about the mother emperor tamarin’s cunning use of mannies, and then have a good weekend:

Tagged as: humans, names

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Scientific Names Week: Olive Baboon (Papio anubis)

by JR Kinyak on April 28, 2009

in Primates,Theme Weeks

Olive Baboon (click image to enlarge)

Olive Baboon (click image to enlarge)

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The olive baboon lives in a wide swath of land across the middle of Africa. It’s one of those rare mammals that not only is safe from extinction, but whose numbers seem to be growing. Let’s all celebrate that ’cause it gets depressing around here, doesn’t it?

Papio in the baboon’s scientific name comes from a French word for baboon (according to A.F. Gotch, whom you may or may not believe). Anubis, of course, is the Egyptian god of the afterlife who has the head of a jackal. I’m guessing that anubis in this monkey’s name is a reference to the way baboons’ snouts resembles those of dogs.

On the other hand, whoever named Papio anubis may have been thinking of the lofty status baboons held in ancient Egypt. They were kept as pets (and possibly fruit pickers or other kinds of workers), depicted in art, and mummified in tombs. Supposedly, the Egyptians used their feces as an ingredient in aphrodisiacs. The Egyptian religion associated baboons with the sun god, perhaps because of the raucous ruckus they make at dawn, as well as with the afterlife. Baboons also represented the god Thoth, who was in charge of writing, wisdom, and judging the dead, as well as Hapy, the god of the Nile. The Egyptian god Babi has the head of a baboon. He’s vicious and bloodthirsty and lives on entrails and souls. Our word baboon may come from his name. Interestingly, it’s not known whether baboons were native to Egypt at that time or they were imported from Nubia.

Although it appears ancient Egyptian baboons were respected in theory, analysis of mummified baboon remains indicates that the monkeys were malnourished and kept in too-small cages.

Here is an ancient Egyptian baboon statue at the British Museum, along with some information about baboons and Egypt, and here’s another at the Metropolitan Museum.

Tagged as: baboon, humans, monkey, names, words

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Scientific Names Week: Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus)

by JR Kinyak on April 23, 2009

in Primates,Theme Weeks

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I love words and names for things, and I’ve enjoyed learning a little Latin and Greek as I draw these mammals. Let’s spend a few days meeting some mammals with interesting scientific names, starting with this wild-and-woolly tamarin. The cotton-top part of his common name is apt, but what about Saguinus oedipus? Saguinus means “like a squirrel monkey,” which is straightforward. The oedipus part is interesting, though. Literally, it means “swollen-footed,” and these monkeys were probably named for their big feet. But of course we think of Oedipus, too, and the complex named after him, and it seems that after the fact, at least one research study has found that the name Saguinus oedipus was appropriately oedipal in the oedipus-complex sense, too: in 2004, A.J. Ginther and C.T. Snowdon presented “The Oedipal Conflict in Saguinus oedipus” at the American Society of Primatologists’ yearly conference.

I would have named this monkey Madmaxus tinaturnerus, for that resemblance is, I feel, obvious. The German name for the cotton-top tamarin is Lisztäffchen, a diminutive form of the name Liszt, and that seems appropriate, too. Which of these famous musicians do you think the tamarin most resembles?
tamarin_tina
tamarin_liszt

(Tamarin photos by Nuno Barretto and Dan Jordan; used under Creative Commons licenses.)

Tagged as: humans, monkey, names, taxonomy, words

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Coffee Achievers Days: Formosan Rock Macaque (Macaca cyclopis)

by JR Kinyak on March 18, 2009

in Primates,Theme Weeks

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Here’s one last Coffee Achiever: the Formosan rock macaque, who eats coffee berries and spits out the pits, like you and I would do with cherries. Supposedly, people roast the spit-out coffee beans and sell the coffee for big bucks. I’m just glad to know that someone appreciates having the monkeys around for some reason. Here are some excerpts from news articles about these Taiwanese macaques from the past decade:

Representatives of villagers in Jiayi, Taiwan Province, are negotiating with the local government to let them catch a bunch of mischievous monkeys, which have been causing havoc in five neighboring villages.

The monkeys have bitten newborn piglets to death and chased after frightened children.

The monkeys have even picked fruit and wastefully thrown them everywhere. Villagers have failed in their attempts to scare the monkeys away, and have asked the government to approve a crack monkey-catching team to help them deal with this monkey madness. (China Daily, 2007)

Farmers in southern Taiwan have reported that Formosan macaques, a protected primate species, are becoming so outrageous that they are now milking goats, a local evening newspaper reported yesterday.

The paper quoted Tsai Fu-ching, chief of Tsaishan Li in Kaohsiung City, confirming the reports.

Tsaishan residents said that they have often seen the monkeys milking goats in the past, adding that they tended to appear in the morning and would hang around with the goats in order to steal their food. Not satisfied with this petty larceny, they then grab the goats’ teats and milk them.

Tsai said that the goats do not resist and do not seem alarmed by the monkeys, possibly because they are so used to their presence. (Taipei Times, 2001)

The farmers complained that the monkeys take their fruit, ravage farmland, and even sometimes harass women and children. (Taipei Times, 2004)

Tagged as: coffee, humans, monkey

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