Visit our textbook-specific Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/relethford8e to access the exercises that follow.
The Callicam: Compare and Contrast Marmoset Behavior
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/callicam.
The Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center Callicam makes it possible to remotely control the site's Web cam and observe live marmoset behavior in two-minute intervals. Click on the "Open the Callicam" link. You are now able to view the marmoset enclosure and move the camera with horizontal and vertical slide buttons around the viewing frame. Make five
2-minute observations. (If the marmosets are inactive, you may wish to come back to the site later.)
How many different types of behavior (i.e., grooming, aggression, play, feeding) were you able to observe?
Were you able to determine which individuals were dominant and which were submissive?
Would you consider marmosets to be solitary or social?
What are some of the behavioral traits of chimps and humans that are discussed in the article? What are some differences?
Sex and aggression have been subjects of interest since the time of Freud. In what ways do we approach these subjects?
Do sex and aggression have a similar form of expression in chimps and humans?
What is the state of knowledge about the particular group of primates you have chosen? Do scientists know much about this particular type of behavior in this species? Does this research build on what scientists know about primates, or does it investigate a new area of behavior?
Do different authors have similar views of primates, or do their views on the capabilities of primates differ?
Do chimpanzees engage in cooperative behavior? If so, in what contexts?
Do chimpanzees make and use tools? If so, is this considered culture?
In what ways are chimps similar to humans? Are they different in any significant ways?
Read the biography of the F family of chimpanzees from Gombe.
How have these specific individuals helped us to understand chimpanzees in general?
What do you think of the written description of this family? Is it the writer making them seem extremely human, or is it the chimpanzees' behavior?
Understanding Bonobos
http://songweaver.com/info/bonobos.html.
Bonobos were classified as a species following their discovery in a Belgian colonial museum in 1929. This article discusses the many aspects of bonobo social life and their connections to humans.
Read Bonobo Sex and Society by Frans de Waal, 1995.
Bonobos are unique in some ways among primates. How are they different from other chimpanzees? How are they similar to humans?
What is unique about bonobo social structure? How does the bonobo estrus cycle differ from the estrus cycle of other primates?
How do observations of bonobo behavior help us understand our own evolutionary history?
