monkey
zooillogix | May 19, 2009
by Katie the Lowly Intern
Does the sinking feeling of knowing you could have gotten what you wanted had you made better choices in life sound familiar? Like how if in college, had you gotten a real degree, set goals for yourself, and not tried to buy friendships with your credit card, you could possibly now have a steady job, ambition, and friends? If it does, then you may rest easier tonight knowing there is a term for that: "fictive thinking". And guess what... monkeys get it too!
Researchers at Duke University have concluded that monkeys don't respond solely to direct punishment or…
edyong | January 21, 2009The blood that flows into our heads is obviously important for it provides nutrients and oxygen to that most energetically demanding of organs - the brain. But for neuroscientists, blood flow in the brain has a special significance; many have used it to measure brain activity using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.
This scanning technology has become a common feature of modern neuroscience studies, where it's used to follow firing neurons and to identify parts of the brain that are active during common mental tasks. Its use rests on the assumption that the…
edyong | January 15, 2009From the carpenter choosing the right strength of drill, or the artist selecting the right weight of pencil, humans have a natural talent for picking the right tool for the job. Now, it seems that monkeys are similarly selective about their tools. In the first study of its kind, Elisabetta Visalberghi from the National Research Council, Italy, found that capuchin monkeys are able to pick stones with the right properties for nutcracking.
Capuchins often use stones to crack otherwise impenetrable nuts upon hard, flat surfaces, turning innocuous forest objects into their own hammers and anvils…
zooillogix | July 25, 2008Oh good God. We are reprinting this article in its entirety from the Orange News because it is just too good. Check it!
Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.
"It's hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!" Feng told Oriental Today.
He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.
Feng's wife said the monkey-faced piglet…
esiegel | May 12, 2008What the heck has this world come to? All over the internet, this picture of an Orangutan trying to fish with a stick has been shown:
But what's the story behind this? Is this evidence that humans are not unique among the Great Apes as tool-users?
Not quite. According to the Daily Mail, this is an orangutan that had extensive exposure to humans; this jungle setting is actually where they reintroduce orangutans into the wild from zoos, private homes and (yikes) butcher shops. This particular orangutan actually doesn't successfully know how to fish; this was something he copied from nearby…
zooillogix | March 19, 2008Cutting edge research from The State
Thanks to Pete Angelastro for reminding us about this classic awesomeness.
bleimanb | November 13, 2007India's bustling capital has been a little more bustling of late with a veritable invasion of rude, sometimes dangerous monkeys. As the forests outlying the city have been destroyed, more and more rhesus macaque monkeys have made their way into the urban areas. In some cases they have literally overrun government buildings and are known for biting and stealing food from people passing by.
"I will totally F&*# you up"...he seems to say.
In two recent examples of the mayhem, a monkey went on a rampage in Dehli yesterday severely injuring 25 people including babies and children. While the…
laelaps | October 9, 2007Category: Anthropology
As I mentioned just prior to my move to Sb, I spent this past Saturday at NYU at the "Evolutionary Anthropology at the Interface" conference, which was primarily a celebration of the work of Cliff Jolly. I'm still a bit over my head when it comes to knowing the full "Who's Who" of evolutionary anthropology, but I do know that Cliff Jolly is most well known for his "seed-eaters" hypothesis of human origins, in which extant baboons (Papio sp.) are proposed to be better primates to study when considering primate origins and a seed-eating diet is put forward as one of the…
zooillogix | August 8, 2007Turns out the monkey isn't the only creature in the forest getting bombed. Check out this video of the African booze tree.
Special thanks to Tom Ferriss for finding this clip.
zooillogix | July 23, 2007The best part of this video is the wholesome message at the end: consistently drunk monkeys "tend to make better leaders and command greater respect!"
Vervet monkeys, Cercopithecus aethiops. Thanks to Brent Edwards for sending along this gem.
zooillogix | March 27, 2007Gandalf of the Marmosets, Emperor Marmoset, Saguinus imperator
Animals that carry cells from another individual, most often a fraternal twin (non-identical), are known as chimeras. Aside from marmosets, chimeras have been discovered in humans, cats and cows. Considered a rare fluke in most species, marmosets have a unique embryonic development that results in most of them sharing chimeric blood. Researchers recently discovered that the swapping goes even further: 50% of male marmosets carry their brothers' sperm and 10% of female marmosets have their sisters' ovaries. That means marmosets can…