Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini)- Inhabit the Island of Madagascar and live in a variety of habitats. Some live in moist, tropical rainforests, while others live in dry desert areas. They spend most of their time in trees and bushes. They are said to be an important species to the island of Madagascar since they disperse the seeds from the fruit they eat which then grow into new plants. This is important to the forests in Madagascar since they are on a procedure of destruction at a very high rate. They reached Madagascar early in primate evolution and became isolated reproductively from the African mainland about 250 miles away. Ring-tailed lemurs live in multi-male/multi-female groups, averaging 10-12 individuals. Females are dominant and therefore are the most powerful member and focal point of the group. The size of each of the groups is unstable with smaller and larger than average groups having disadvantages. Males voluntarily leave their natal troop at age three and continue to emigrate to new troops throughout their lifetime on the other side females remain with their natal troop throughout their life. “Females begin to reproduce in their second or third year of life and will give birth to one offspring each year. Lemur troops living in the same forest will have very close mating and birth seasons because reproduction coincides with food seasonality and availability and females display mate choice behavior by either accepting or denying a male’s approaches” http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/behavior/Spring2003/Dennis/mating.html
Spider Monkeys (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini)- live in the tropical rain forests of central and South America, and occur as far north as Mexico. They are able to maintain a powerful grip on branches even though they have no thumbs. They are social and gather in groups of up to two- or three-dozen animals. At night, the groups split up into smaller sleeping parties of a half dozen or fewer. Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders. They can be noisy animals and often communicate with many calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds. Spider monkeys are extremely social animals. In fact, if one is kept alone in captivity, it can easily die of loneliness unless its owner gives it a great deal of attention. In the wild, these monkeys tend to congregate in groups of 40–50, although they break up into smaller groups during the course of the day. Each large group has its own territory, and members of the group patrol it daily on specific paths. Spider monkeys rarely enter neighboring territories. Whenever spider monkey territories over-lap, the monkeys somehow readjust them over time.
Females give birth to only a single baby every two to five years. Due to the environment they live in mothers tend to take a lot of care of their babies for the first year of their lives, and often move about with their offspring clinging to their backs. To have access to more food the groups might tend to stay together and separated from other groups.
Baboons (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)- There are five different species of baboons and they all live in Africa or Arabia. They are some of the world's largest monkeys, and males of different species average from 33 to 82 pounds. Usually they prefer savanna and other semi-arid habitats, though a few live in tropical forests. Many species of cercopithecines sleep in trees or on cliff faces and spend their days in large groups foraging for food on grasslands.”Baboons are very social animals and live in groups. “Baboon social behavior is matrilineal, in which a network of social relationships are sustained over three generations from the female members of the species. A troop of baboons can range in number from 30 to over 200 members, depending upon the availability of food. The baboon troop consists of related bands composed of several clans, where each clan may have a number of smaller harem families made up of mothers, their children, and a male”. The reproduction of the baboons is limited first because of scarcity of food on the dry steppe as well as on the savanna. Many young baboons die from starvation or malnutrition, and the competition for food therefore plays a big role for the parents who have to feed their young. There is also a fierce competition between the males for access to mate with the females. Baboons are rarely monogamous and the females tend to stick together most of the time as well as the males therefore within my judgment I think that since most of the baboon females are pregnant most of the time they get adapted to the environment of always being around or near the males.
Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae)-they live in a wide variety of habitats, including tropical rain forests woodlands, swamp forests, and grasslands in western Africa. They can walk upright (when they need to use their arms to carry something), but usually don't. Chimps are also very good at climbing trees, where they spend much of their time, including when they sleep. They can swing from branch to branch in the trees. Chimpanzees are fully grown and able to reproduce at 12-13 years old. Female chimpanzees are pregnant for about 8.5-9 months and usually have a single baby at a time; twins are rare. Female chimpanzees carefully nurture their young. Babies can grasp their mother's fur to ride on the mother's back at about 6 months. After they are weaned, chimpanzees begin to build their own sleeping nests out of vegetation and not use their mother's nest anymore. Young chimpanzees stay with their mother for about 7 years. Communication is used to teach the young the many skills that they need to survive in their environment, and to convey information to other chimpanzees about food, social relationships, distress, mating, etc.
From doing research about these primates I learned and evaluated on how much the environment has to do with the way they live, eat, and mate. Females are the ones that mostly take care of the offspring while like in the case of the lemurs the males voluntarily leave their natal troops. Also female reproduction is dependent upon the environment and the resources that it offers to these certain species.
Verenice,
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad that a Spider Monkey can die from loneliness! It seems as though all these examples of primates are very social animals. I wonder if this adaptation helps in survival or if they just like being social and surrounded by their families.
Your last comment was key:
ReplyDelete"Also female reproduction is dependent upon the environment and the resources that it offers to these certain species"
That is excellent, but I would have liked you to expanded upon it a bit more. At first it is sometimes hard to see how the environment and affect mating patterns, but think about how resources are laid out. Are they plentiful or rare? Hard or easy to defend? Do primates need to defend an area of resources to survive? The decision to be territorial will impact how a group of primates live and use their resources and may heavily influence whether you have one male and many females (polygyny) with the male defending females and territory OR if you have a monogamous pairing because males can't control enough resources to support more than one female and her offspring (just to highlight two possibilities.)
Well, that went on and on, but the post was very good. I just wanted to emphasize that one comment of yours because it really is key here.
Lanie, In my opinion I would say that they just like being social and surrounded by their families. As the post says that spider monkeys can die from loneliness I think it only refers to that kind of species and not to all in particular!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Rodriguez,
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean and thanks for the advice now that I see it, I should of expanded the blog a little bit more with those particular facts and for me to be able to emphasize the last comment that I did!