Primates
laelaps | November 13, 2007
This is one of my favorite shots of the Snow Monkeys (Macaca fuscata, also known as Japanese Macaques) resident at the Central Park Zoo in New York. While most primates are tropical to subtropical in their ranges, Snow Monkeys (as they name would imply) are the furthest north in the Northern Hemisphere, classically being filmed and photographed in naturally occurring hot springs to occasionally escape the cold snow of the alpine habitats of Japan. These are also the monkeys famously known for washing their food, one female taken to washing sweet potatoes in the water before eating them…
laelaps | November 9, 2007
A brief clip of a Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) vocalizing.Some mornings in the forests of Indonesia, a male and female gibbon will perform a musical duet. The pair will call out, staking their claim in the forest, often answered by neighboring pairs, their treetop display the result of much practice so that the pair can get things "just right." In order to achieve an effective display the two gibbons need to form a pair bond, but the strength and permanence of the pair-bond between these apes has long been obscured by the sociological biases of the scientists studying them. Indeed, the…
laelaps | November 2, 2007Mark of SB's own Denialism Blog has asked other science bloggers who use animals in their research to speak up and discuss what they do either in their own posts in the comments. I do not participate in lab research involving animals, but I have taken an interest in the subject, especially when non-human primates are used. While I don't doubt the importance of animal testing, I do have reservations about the ethics of using non-human primates in medical research. This is not to say that I advocate the acts of terrorism by extremists as related in Mark's posts, but I do have concerns about…