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Four Great Apes

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Under the Hominoidea family lies the four great apes, the pongidae ( Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Orangutans and Gorillas). The great apes are quite significant because their genetic makeup is closely related to another great primate-- humans. That being said, for this assigment, I chose to focus on the Orangutan, a living priate that shares 97.6 % of DNA with humans.

Orangutans are capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror, are known to use tools, learn from and teach each other new skills, as well as being able to take another’s perspective (observational learning). Researches have successfully taught orangutans sign language and other various communication skills, proving that their ability to grasp and process is evidence of a highly intelligent individual. Orangutans are also the largest arboreal mammals and the only great ape found in Asia, as the other three species can only be found in Africa.

There are two known species of Orangutans, who are geographically separated, one species lives in the islands of Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus), and the other in the …show more content…

It has been known that most of the region has suffered deforestation to make room for palm oil plantations and Indonesia’s growing demand for wood products, around the world!. It has been documented that 70% of deforestation is illegally logged threatening the Orangutan population. Due to their strong arboreal needs which have been faced with deforestation, and human impact such as growth in population, bush meat, and hunting, orangutans have been placed as a great ape in danger of extinction. According to the IUCN, there has been over an 80% decline in Sumatran Orangutans in the last seventy five years, making them critically endangered. The Bornean Orangutan is listed as endangered by the IUCN, with a 50% decline over the last sixty

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The government has passed many conservation policies to protect animals, eco-systems, plants and trees itself and indigenous people’s way of life, but many of these policies get overlooked and require a lot of extra work. How it affects the rest of the world- This action is permanent, and all of the world is targeted as a potential setting for deforestation. It is predicted that the continuing action may result in very few rainforest across the entire globe. Cutting trees can also be harmful to our ozone layer, which protects earth from dangerous radiation.

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To get Washoe to pay attention so the sign language rather than what we spoke, the Gardeners ask for the teachers to never speak while signing with Washoe. In other studies, the teachers would expose the chimps to spoken languages and the chimps would not pick up on the signs as much. The Gardeners method was proven to work, Washoe thrived in ASL. If she didn’t know a sign she would make one up, like “dirty good” for toilet. When Washoe was exposed to other chimps, she was able to teach them ASL to communicate with each

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In Jeremy Rifkin’s article, “A Change of Heart about Animals”, he argues that animals have feelings and emotions and are more similar to humans than expected. This claim is true and Rifkin has strong evidence that proves his claim including how animals show a sense of self and are very intelligent. A study by the Washington National Zoo reports that “orangutans given mirrorrs explore parts of their bodies they can’t otherwise see, showing a sense of self” (Rifkin 10). This study supports Rifkin’s claim because this qualified study proves that animals have a sense of self. Animals are curious about their bodies and looks; when given the opportunity to see themselves, animals often inspect and groom their bodies.

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Jane Goodall’s research lets the rest of the world know that a chimpanzee’s behavior is very similar to that of humans. Humans and chimpanzees have evolved into two different species over a period of time. When she was a young girl, her father bought her a stuffed chimpanzee toy and it influenced her to become interested in animal life at an early age. From then on, she was always extremely curious and interested in how animals come to this Earth and how animals behave. One of the obstacles in her life was that her family could not afford to send her to college to get a good career.

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Orangutan translates into person of the forest. A. National Geographics website says that these primates are only found in Sumatra and Bornea. Sumatra is an island that is a part of Indonesia. Bornea is east of Sumatra and southeast of Asia. III.

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The primate observation that I chose to observe are Orangutan, Squirrel Monkey, and Lemur. This observation took place in the Lowry Park Zoo on October 18th. I went to the Lowry Park Zoo around 2 pm until 5 pm. The purpose of this observation is through primate’s anatomy, locomotion, and behavior to getting know them better, and how they are differences and similarities compare to human beings. When I got there, the Zoo was already very crowd.

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Humans have been examining and studying non-human primates for ages in an attempt to further understand the reasoning behind human behavior and base instinct. While it would be ideal to study non-human primates in the wild, away from possible interference from human civilization, that is often not the case, especially for students, and in this case the non-human primates have been observed within captivity. Specifically, the species observed were the Tufted Capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) and the common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) at the Living Links to Human Evolution Research Centre in Edinburgh Zoo. The tufted capuchin monkey is most commonly found within the neotropical regions of South America including: Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname,

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Learned behaviors are important in primates because it shows that they can evolve by learning knew things and passing them onto there offspring. This ability of learned behavior is special in primates because of there intelligence. All animals have instinctual behaviors, which are needed to keep themselves alive, but not all species have learned behaviors as sophisticated as

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As diurnal as orangutans are they group together to forge meals as mixtures of fats and sugars from fruits, protein from nuts, and carbohydrates from tree leaves are a must. As solitary foragers, orangutans disperse throughout the rainforest environment that creates a feedback (from plant species) to aid energy in doing its job to sustain orangutan groups in their solitary homerange while Earth's resources become another infinite relationship with (an example)

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Studying captive primates can help us learn not only how they behave, but also how they are similar or different to each other and humans as well as give us insight into the effects of captivity. This paper will be describing, comparing, and contrasting the behavior of two species of captive primates at the Alexandria Zoo, golden lion tamarins and howler monkeys, as well as discussing the possible effects captivity could have had on them. This paper will also discuss any human-like behaviors observed in the two primate species and what we as humans could learn about our own behavior by studying primates. The two primates I observed were 1 of 3 golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) all of unknown gender and a solitary female howler

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The illegal hunting and trade of primate meat is a large contributing factor to the decline of primate species in the tropics. This, in addition to habitat loss and fragmentation, disease, and the pet trade, is putting many primate species at high risk of extinction. Poverty, population growth, construction of roads, emergence of regional and international markets, and new hunting technology are triggering the increased hunting pressure on forest mammals. Primate species are especially vulnerable to increased hunting pressure because of their slower reproductive cycles. The decline of primate species must be stopped to avoid their extinction and the potential consequences that this could have for tropical forests.

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Great Apes Joseph Both Africa and Asia are home to the magnificent great apes, including bonobos, chimps, eastern, and western gorillas, and orangutans. The population of of these creatures is drastically going down. The reason being is that the apes are losing their forests. Humans are the main cause of forests being cut down. Humans are cutting down the trees for lumber, commercial logging, and mining.

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Another factor that is leading to the decline of the orangutans, is that they are forced into solitude. This is because the orangutan’s food supply is running low in the rain forest on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Instead of adapting and trying new foods, they follow the tradition of their fathers and only eat food that their mothers taught them were okay to eat. From the lack of food, there isn’t enough for more than one orangutan in the area.

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This is clear because around the same time, 1974 to be exact, another ape experiment of the same nature was conducted. A Stanford student named Penny Patterson took on the task of teaching a Koko the gorilla sign language. Penny has been Koko’s caretaker to this date, a total 41 years, and over that time Koko has never harmed anyone. Koko also knows over 1,000 signs in American sign language. Penny never abandoned Koko and brought her up very well.

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