Discovery of new primate genus and species in Lake Casa Blanca International State Park in Laredo, Texas

In an announcement today at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Philadelphia, Jim Westgate (Lamar University and University of Texas-Austin), Dana Cope (College of Charleston), and Chris Beard (Carnegie Museum of Natural History) shared their discovery of a new primate genus and three new primate species found in the Lake...

Understanding the evolution of human emotional communication through chimpanzee facial expressions

Coming from a graduate program where I had the opportunity to study humans as well as non-human animals, I sometimes became frustrated with the liberties that were (seemingly) allowed in research with humans, but not non-human animals. Namely the use of physiological markers (facial expressions in infants and young children) in identifying emotions. Emotion regulation...

New Enclosure at London Zoo: Gorilla Kingdom

On Friday, March 30th, the London Zoo will present a new enclosure to the public, Gorilla Kingdom (check out the website - there's a fun little gorilla video clip in the header). Effie, from Leipzig Zoo, joins Bobby and Zaire in an effort to recreate a natural gorilla harem. The £5.3m project includes indoor and...

Genetic study confirms three chimpanzee subspecies

Most people possessing any familiarity with our closest relatives know that there are two species of chimpanzees: Bonobos (Pan paniscus) and the common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Some researchers believe that bonobos and common chimps diverged around 0.9 million years ago (Won and Hey, 2002). Many may not know that taxonomies further divide common chimps into...

On primate behavior and tracing back the origins of morality

Personally, I have my own beef with sociobiology a.k.a. evolutionary psychology. I have yet to see it venture from a story telling, subjective science. But my issues don't prevent me from acknowledging and respecting progressive work done in this subfield of behavioral studies and primatology. I don't know where Nick Wade truly stands about sociobiology,...

When 48 becomes 50: two baby orangutans at Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Center

Towards the end of last year we posted on the anticipated release of 200 orangutans from the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Center in Central Kalimantan to the protected Baktikop forest. Their departure provided more room for 48 new residents from Thailand (which recently became 50 new residents). Willie Smits (Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation and Reconstruction...

A call for help in locating chimp facilities near Los Angeles

Last week, we were sent an email asking for help in locating a chimpanzee refuge near Los Angeles. The email specifically asked, "Do [we know of] any organizations that have a chimp facility near Los Angeles?" Betsy, rolled up her sleeves and did some serious Googling and the best found match was, Animal Haven Ranch...

Nine chimpanzees have a new home at the Save the Chimps facility in Florida

To update Kambiz's previous mention of Carol Noon's chimp refuge, nine more chimpanzees arrived at the Save the Chimps 200 acre facility in Florida on Friday bringing the total number of residents to 99. Dr. Carol Noon, Save the Chimps Director, on their trip from New Mexico: "When they arrived, I got on the truck...

Estrus asynchrony in chimps

Just want to quickly point out some interesting reading that popped up in this month’s issue of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (and in a LiveScience post). Estrus cycle asynchrony in wild female chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii. The authors (Matsumoto-Oda, et al.) highlight the prevalence of the synchronized cycle mating strategy (among primates and other animals)...

The Curse of the Monkey’s Paw

Did you know that between October 2005 to September 2006, US airport inspectors "reported 50 incidents of discovered bushmeat, with each shipment averaging about 9 pounds? That works out to about one shipment being caught every week!" That is what the CDC has reported in an article over at ABC News. The article, "Bushmeat: Curse...