Zoo Activity - Essay Example

Zoo Activity The major evolutionary trends that have distinguished primates such as white-handed gibbon, gorilla and bolivian grey titi monkey and their generalised form came due to their adaptation to arboreal life. Although the other placental mammals had a tendency to live in grasslands, marine and other environments, the adaptive niche for the primates was trees. According to the arboreal hypothesis, this provided numerous challenges and opportunities such as depth perception and binocular vision, climbing by utilising prehensile hands and feet instead of claws, varied diet resulted to omnivorous adaptation and longer life span, increased their intelligence and more elaborate social system which they required to cope with. 1. White-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar) White-handed gibbons are diurnal, natural aerial acrobats and are fairly awkward on the ground. The have long fingers and limbs, special thumbs and strong arms are specialised to the arboreal life in their forest home. Stewart and Harcourt (16-19) noted that as they swing from limb to limb they usually hook their fingers lightly over the branches. When they meet a break in the trees, they have the capability to leap to the next tree up to 25-30 feet away. Their intelligence in locomotion makes them quick and efficient when moving from feeding to escaping from predators. The morphology and behavior of white-handed gibbon With regard to its morphology, the white-handed gibbon lacks a tail and has a throat sac located beneath the chin. The average body mass for an adult is around 5.7 kilograms, and for the female it is around 5.3 kilograms. Pelage color ranges from dark brown to beige. We found the white-handed gibbon sleeping and when we entered due to its high sense of smell and hearing it woke up. I observed that its movement was quadrupedal. Gibbons show true brachiation with their specialised elongated hands, curved fingers, extremely long arms and relatively short legs (Brandon-Jones, 112-115). The primate exhibits sensory modalities which enable good interaction instinct with others through social grooming where they remove dead skin and parasites from the hair of another. With regard to vocalization of the white-handed gibbon,it was through duetting. It assist maintain the pair bond between the breeding pair. I did not hear any sound. Besides, the primate was not eating since they were resting, even though their foraging is mainly fruits and leaves. Their mating system incorporated extra-pair copulations, polyandrous groupings, and partner changes. I also observed no facial expression from the primate. The adaptive niche for white-handed gibbon is trees. When it comes to sleeping, gibbons slept alone or with a few others huddled together in a fork between branches, upright resting on tough pads located on their rare ends. 2. Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) They are regarded as the largest of all living primates. They have been found to confine largely to forested regions of central Africa. Two varieties: highland and lowland. They show marked sexual dimorphism. Males weigh up to 400 pounds and females at 200 pounds. Weight makes them semi-quadrupedal knuckle walkers and majorly terrestrial. Family groups comprise of one or more large silverback males, a few females and sub-adult offspring. They are gentle and shy vegetarians. However, when provoked males will attack to defend their group. The morphology and behavior of gorillas A majority of gorillas in zoos are western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla). The gorilla had a brownish-gray pelage color with reddish highlights. The male weighed around 140 kilograms while the female weighed around 75 kilograms. Its locomotion was quadrupedally, with a special kind of quadrupedal gait called knuckle-walking (Fleagle, 148). The gorilla has a polygynous mating system and unimale social system. Both the females and males emigrated from natal groups. Immature gorillas spent much of their time playing, resting and grooming each other showing true altruism, although they tended to groom direct siblings. The silver-back male made roars to show stress or threat making the group to hide. The other vocal communication signals that I observed included: question bark, cry, hoot series, chuckle and belch vocalizations that was made when they were stationary to show contentment. This was after eating foliage and fruits. Another behavioural cusp is that during mating most of them change their facial expressions. 3. Bolivian titi monkey (Callicebus donacophilus) It is a species of the new world monkey of the species cercopithecidae. Their trait is the broadly flaring nose with nostrils facing outwards commonly referred to as platyrrhine. It is found mostly in the tropical forests of central and eastern Bolivia in the upper basins of the Mamore River and the Rio Grande and Brazil. They live in small territorial groups and are usually thought to form monogamous pair-bonds (Kinzey, 217). For the bolivian titi monkey, their locomotion usually varies from arboreal to terrestrial quadrupedalism to acrobatic leaping to semi-brachiation. Morphology and behavior of bolivian grey titi monkey. Primatologists assert that both sexes of the Bolivian grey titi monkeys have thick and long fur, which make them look bigger and fluffy. As their name suggests, their fur is often grey. They had powerful prehensile tails for suspension while eating. They were eating fruits and leaves. They also have distinct markings on their ears. The titi monkeys are fruvigorous since in the zoo they were feeding on fruits and leaves. Bolivian grey titi monkeys usually rest during the middle of the day and are diurnal since they feed during the day; in the morning and in the afternoon, and inactive at night. When sleeping, monkeys huddle together and twine tails (Groves, 25-27).Their locomotion varied from arboreal to terrestrial quadrupedalism to acrobatic leaping in the zoo. With regard to vocalization of the bolivian titi monkey, I did not hear any sound as well as facial expressions. The primate is very interactive with others especially during feeding and social grooming. It has been found to interact well with humans compared to other species. They are also characterized by using manipulative foraging on top of tress and on the ground for fallen fruits and leaves (Kinzey, 28-219-220). Works Cited Brandon-Jones, D. Asian primate classification. Intertanational Journal of Primatol. pp. 97–164.2004. Groves, C. P. Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M, eds.Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.2005. Kinzey, W. G. "Synopsis of the new world primates: Callicebus". In Kinzey, W. G. New world primates: ecology, evolution, and behavior. New York: Aldine De Gruyter. pp. 213–221.2007. Stewart, K.J. and Harcourt, A.H. Gorillas: Variation in Female Relationships. In Primate Societies. eds. B.B. Smuts, D.L. Cheney, R.M. Seyfart, R.W. Wrangham, and T.T. Struhsaker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.1999. Fleagle, J. Primate Adaption and Evolution (Second ed.). New York: Academic Press. pp. 145–147.1998. Read More