Tarsiers are a difficult species to classify due to their interesting mix of prosimian and monkey-like traits, not to mention their very own unique features! (For more on tarsiers, read our Asian primate section.) Click the link below for a listing of the tarsier species.

Tarsier_taxonomy

Prosimians include the wet nosed primates, such as lemurs, indrids, and aye aye. (For more on what makes a prosimian, check our our Types of Primates page.) For a complete listing of prosimians, click on the link below.

Prosimian_taxonomy (pdf)

Congratulations! You, a budding primatologist, have just uncovered a new species of primate. You are now bestowed with all the honors that go along with such a discovery, including publication in a major journal, first dibs on describing your primate and assigning it a place on the primate family tree, and the hugely important task of creating both a common and scientific name for this animal. Don’t underestimate the importance of the scientific naming task, either! By adding an -i to your last name, you can even immortalize yourself in the species name as the ultimate tribute to your scientific prowess. (And others have done it! How about Propithecus edwardsi, or Ateles geoffroyi, just to name a few!)

But, how did you know you had discovered a new species? Will others agree with your findings? What does this discovery mean to other primatologists?

Our basic biology courses teach us that there are distinct groups of organisms on our planet that can be neatly divided into species, which can be grouped together into Orders, which can be grouped into Classes, and so forth, all the way up to the Domain level. (For more on classification, click here.) While defining species is an important task in our study of living organisms, the reality is that understanding what a species is exactly and how a group of organisms can become a species is by no means basic or simple. Instead, controversy abounds among scientists, making your discovery of a new species a debatable issue in itself.

Biologists studying living organisms are most likely to view a species as a group of individuals that mate with each other and successfully produce babies that grow into fertile adults.  The key here is that the offspring produced also successfully breed when they grow up. Thus, we allude to the old horse and donkey example. Horses (Equus ferus) mate with other horses to produce virile horses. Donkeys (Equus africanus) mate with other donkeys to produce virile donkeys. Horses and donkeys can mate together, but when they breed, they produce mules, and mules are generally sterile. So, by definition, horses and donkeys are not the same species.

Neanderthal Jaw Fragment: National Museum's Galleries of Wales

Paleontologists, however, must stray from this species definition since they cannot tell which fossils bred together and/or produced fertile offspring. (Ah, if these bones could speak.) So, their ideas of species definitions tend to focus on the physical similarities of individuals, especially the traits that can be traced backward through a family line.  Fossils from organisms that are physically alike, found in a similar location, and dated from a particular time period could be grouped into one species.

But fossils are relatively rare to begin with, and so entire species of extinct primates have been named on the basis of one bone, and even because of only one unique feature, such as a particular arrangement of cones on a tooth! Even when there are abundant fossils spanning long time frames, trying to determine where one species ended and a new one began can be just as problematic. Sometimes, gradual changes in physical appearance can be seen in a species over time, but we do not know at what point individuals diverged and would no longer have been capable of reproducing with other similar organisms.

Some geneticists are also interested in the species discussion, and so they attempt to separate species based on their genetic similarities and differences. Genetics are currently of more use to those studying living organisms since DNA extraction from fossils is still difficult. Genetic studies, however, are not foolproof. For example, a geneticist may suggest that two groups of organisms are actually one species based on their DNA, but behavioral researchers of those two groups will lividly protest that the two groups do not even look the same and never mate in the wild.

What does all this mean to you, oh primate discoverer extraordinaire?!? It means you have a long road ahead of you before other scientists will accept your discovery into the primate hierarchy. If you have found a living primate, you will have to prove your primate’s uniqueness on more than just physical appearance. To be taken seriously, you will have to show that your primate does not mate with any other similar species. If you have discovered a fossilized primate, you will need to show that the features in your primate are not found in any other similar remains. In either case, you might need to contact a geneticist to help back up your story, or you may need to spend years of study to verify your data.

Despite this, our popular news media regularly touts discoveries of “new species” of primates based on articles published by eager primatologists hoping to convince fellow scientists that they have indeed discovered a unique organism, worthy of the almost hallowed “species” label.  Further study and future discussion into the matter often results in the demotion of these organisms to the sub-species level, or maybe even just placement as a color variant of an existing species. However, these types of novel finds should by no means be viewed as less important. Discovering a new group of primates, unstudied by anyone else, or a new bone, unlike anything found to date, fuels our hope that organisms are surviving amidst troubled times and proves that we still have so much to learn about the world around us.

It’s been a while since we’ve published a “Primate on a Hump-day,” but felt we couldn’t pass up the chance to talk about snow monkeys on the first Wednesday of December!

Japanese Macaque Profile

Age Japanese Macaques generally live into their 30s.

Body Type: Robust bodies with relatively short limbs and almost nonexistent tails. (Tails project out only about three inches.) Adult females are pretty variable in weight, the more petite ladies weighing around 20 pounds and heftier broads at 40. Males fall into approximately the same size range, so not a whole lot of size variation between the sexes. Snow monkeys are rather drab, with gray and light brown pelage, flaked with white patches of hair, especially on the undersides of arms and legs. Their faces and rumps are vivid red, becoming even brighter with age and during the mating season.

Sex Females usually begin reproducing when they are about four years old, and males typically leave their birth group to reproduce at about five years of age.

Relationship Status Japanese macaques are polygamous (mate with more than one individual during breeding season) and live in family groups made up of a few adult males and several related female and their youngsters and infants.

Kiddos After a pregnancy lasting almost six months, females typically birth a single infant, with the surprise of twins on occasion. Babies are weaned around the age of one, but females remain in their family group and males stay until they reach sexual maturity. Although most baby-raising duties fall into the arms of the mother, other females in the group that do not have their own offspring may help tote young ones around, and sometimes males also may protect and groom infants in the group.

Political Views Snow monkey troops are made up of matrilines, meaning family groups of related females. Females stick together through thick and thin, while males move in and out of groups their entire lives. Both sexes have separate dominance hierarchies, whereby a pecking order exists among individuals. Males and females at the top of this order get first access to the best resources, while individuals at the bottom have to wait their turn and pretty much stay out of the way of more dominant individuals. It is possible for females to be dominant over males, and so male-female interactions are highly variable, making it difficult to classify the species as either male or female dominant.

Further, it has been suggested that high-ranking males rely on high-ranking females in the troop to help them keep their status. (Reminiscent of the Bill-Hillary dynamic, perhaps???)

Social Life Japanese macaque troops can reach sizes of well over 100 individuals, though smaller groups of around 40 are more common.

Home Town Snow monkeys take up residence at higher latitudes than any other primate, preferring the deciduous and evergreen forests of Japan. Macaca fuscata are endangered, primarily due to the destruction of habitat in their natural home ranges. However, the snow monkey is highly valued to many of the local human residents, and large numbers of dedicated individuals are working to preserve their beloved primate.

Photo by Asteiner

Oogivore type Relatively omnivorous, feeding on invertebrates, bird eggs, fungi, and the leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds of some 200 different plant species.

Locomotion Quadrupedal

Interests Soaking with their soul mates in hot springs, spending lazy days grooming among friends, and dipping morsels of food into salt water (it’s an acquired taste).

You may have recently heard news about “Ardi” (Ardipithecus ramidus), which is the oldest and most complete hominid skeleton that has been found to date. Not surprisingly, controversy abounds regarding what this skeleton means for the ancestral trees of apes and humans. See the following video for a quick peek into the ongoing discussion about where to place Ardi on the primate family tree.

FOR MORE ABOUT ARDI, check out Discovery Channel’s interactive website “DISCOVERING ARDI.”

You can also read more about “Lucy” and other primate fossils of Africa near the end of the page in our “Primates of Africa” section.

J.H. Matternes / Science via AFP – Getty Images

Check out this popular YouTube Video of a chimpanzee showing a little excitement at the zoo.

So…what’s going on here? Is the chimp happy, angry, annoyed? Although we can’t know for sure since it is impossible to get into this little guy’s head, scientists can use what we know about wild chimpanzee behavior to proffer a guess as to why he seems to be “going crazy.” Below is a video excerpt from Discovery.com which offers one scientist’s point of view on the display.

CLICK HERE TO send an e-mail that asks your senators to co-sponsor the Great Ape Protection Act (GAPA), S. 3694. This important legislation would end invasive research on chimpanzees who remain in laboratories, release federally owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuaries, and end federal funding for the breeding of federally-owned chimpanzees, affecting more than 1,000 animals. Below are talking points related to this alert.

• The Great Ape Protection Act will save taxpayers $20‐25 million annually.
• The U.S. is the only nation in the world that is known to still use captive chimpanzees for large-scale invasive research.
• Although chimpanzees are our closest genetic relatives, physiological differences make chimpanzees poor models for human health research
• Chimpanzees used in research suffer from post‐traumatic stress disorder and depression

For more ways to help primates, visit our GET ACTIVE page.

Grey langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) are on patrol in India this week, in association with the impending Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Feeling threatened by rampant wildlife near their accommodations, some visiting teams began to threaten to pull out of the games if something wasn’t done quickly to alleviate pest problems in the city. Snakes, wild dogs, and small troops of monkeys are apparently causing quite a disturbance for the athletes, entering rooms for cover or to steal food and sometimes even attacking people in the streets. Solution? Employ large, aggressive langurs that are perfectly capable of driving wildlife away from villages where the athletes are staying. Utilized in India for a variety of purposes, langurs are incredibly intelligent and apparently well suited for such security detail. At time of printing, it is still undetermined as to whether they will be provided with pepper spray and batons.

Ah, animal pests–raccoons routinely overturning trash and strewing it across the sidewalk, armadillos digging for grubs and wreaking havoc on the lawn, or perhaps wild rabbits regularly visiting the homegrown garden, quickly munching the best produce you worked so hard to grow. Wild animals invade, and the turf wars begin. Some people simply exterminate at will. Others attempt catch and release projects, involving long drives into the country to find a spot far enough away to dump the pesky critter. A few of us shrug our shoulders, pick up the trash or shredded vegetables and just admit defeat.

What about when these pests are primates? Are human responses any different? The October issue of the American Journal of Primatology focuses on ethnoprimatology: the study of the issues that arise when humans and nonhuman primates interact with each other.

Negative human-nonhuman primate interactions are becoming more of an issue in many places, since ongoing habitat destruction is increasingly shrinking the areas where primates can safely range and forage. Several species of primates have adapted to their loss of personal space by routinely utilizing food grown by humans or rummaging through morsels left behind in city trash bins.

Loss of crops and increased risk of disease transmission are two of the most common problems that local people face in dealing with territory overlaps with nonhuman primates. Monkeys that destroy crops and display little or no fear of people are described by their human neighbors as “greedy,” “lazy,” and even “evil.” Some farmers exterminate these animals at will, even when laws exist that ban primate hunting.

Assuming that you love primates, which is probably why you ever decided to peruse a site entitled “iloveprimates.com,” the thought of monkeys being killed or viewed in such a negative light might be disturbing. However, the fact that farmers attribute human morality to the primates is interesting in its own right. Some of the more destructive primates are viewed as bitter enemies and are assigned human traits often viewed by societies as “sins.” However, other less invasive primates are described in a positive ways, with valuable characteristics such as humility, friendliness, and honesty. And, despite garnering the hatred of so many people, even the “sinner” primates are fed during the dry season by the same humans that subsequently blaze guns a few months later.

Humans seem to have an instinctual fondness for these animals so similar to ourselves, but this similarity can also cause feelings of uneasiness and a sense that primates are acting maliciously against us when they take food or display aggression. Are other animals really capable of malice? What exactly happens to cause an animal to be considered a pest?  Fun ideas for future discussion and debate!

Primary Source: Perceptions of nonhuman primates in human–wildlife conflict scenarios (Hill, C.M. and A.D. Webber)

Long, gray cape shimmering in the sunlight, a male Hamadryas baboon sits perched upon a rock, lackadaisically chewing on a grass stalk and monitoring his harem. The females in his group are closely bonded to him, and they stay near to him with their youngsters in tow. Juveniles also play nearby, bouncing from spot to spot, grappling and chasing each other for hours at end. Night approaches, and his family joins up with other Hamadryas families, forming a safe clan that will sleep together until morning arrives.

Far away on an entirely different continent, another male baboon sits alone on the bare floor of a metal cage, helplessly pulling at the chain around his neck, listening to the loud noises surrounding his cage, uncertain about what will happen when night falls. Dubbed “Tilin,” this male Hamadryas baboon was born into captivity and raised in a  South American circus.

A year ago, Tilin’s life experiences centered on the routines associated with being a circus performer. Most likely, he was unaware that his plight could ever change. However, a movement was underway in Bolivia, led by Animal Defenders International (ADI) and supported by the overwhelming majority of local residents. Designed to end the animal violence and confinement that was far too prevalent in South American circuses, this campaign represented the world’s first national ban on animal circuses. Due to the work of dedicated volunteers, benevolent supporters, and determined advocates, the ban was officially passed in June, 2009.

Tilin, along with four adult lions, were the first animals to be released from their involuntary servitude in the circus. Through the financial help of Bob Barker, ADI was able to build a new enclosure for Tilin and commit to funding care for all five of the animals for the rest of their lives.

Tilin is currently undergoing the process of being moved to the Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary in the U.K.

The first step was to release him from his confinement chains. Watch this happen below:

You can also watch the rest of Tilin’s journey unfold by clicking here to visit his ADI Rescue Diary. Although not yet complete, Tilin’s tale will have a happy ending. Now a healthy and active baboon, Tilin will spend his days at a primate sanctuary where he may have a chance to meet other baboons and will no longer be made to work for a living. Regular care and attention will undoubtedly be lavished on this handsome male.

ADOPT TILIN TODAY! You can show love for Tilin by adopting him, which will allow more animals like him to be rescued from poor conditions in captivity. Click Here Now!