A Primate’s Memoir, written by Robert Sapolsky, documents the author’s time in Kenya while he studied the various behaviors of a troop of baboons. One of the key aspects of the book was the social rank that developed within the troop. Female baboons have a social hierarchy that is fairly cut and dry. The eldest baboons in the troop are considered the higher-ranking females, and as the baboons get younger, so to follows the string of dominance. The ranking for males was essentially from the strongest baboons to the weakest baboons. The baboon at the top of the social hierarchy was considered the alpha male. This social rank has huge implications for the troop in regards to which baboons mated with each other. If another baboon wanted to become the alpha male, then he would have to challenge the current alpha male to a fight, and win. The baboon’s distinct personality mixed with their instincts are the primary factors for where one lands on the social hierarchy. Another key aspect of the book was the strategies that took place when the baboons wanted to mate with another baboon. Similar to humans, the baboon males tried to impress the female baboons in a way that would make them want to mate. The rank of the male is considered to be one of the greatest factors contributing to what mate they end up with, because there is nothing more impressive than becoming a high-ranking baboon. Also, there were instances of lower-ranking baboons strategizing and forming teams with other baboons to become a higher ranking baboon for the mating possibilities. The baboons in the group are considered a patch-work of different troops, as it is common for one baboon to move to different groups frequently.
Each baboon in the troop has a specific place ...
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...ated poorly and could not stand up for itself, it was likely that they were going to move on to another troop. The similarities between baboons and humans is also uncanny. From the way that they choose the most dominant person in their troop for the males, to the way they choose the highest-ranking female. Also, the way that baboons go about getting a mate is very similar to that of humans. Humans, by nature, try to make themselves as appealing as possible to make themselves more desirable for mates. Like baboons, humans do not limit themselves to only men going out and finding a mate, as women do this as well. All in all, Robert Sapolsky painted a very clear picture of how baboons live, interact, mate with each other, and become dominant figures in his book, A Primate’s Memoir.
Works Cited
Sapolsky, Robert M. A Primate's Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2001. Print.
Due to all of Jane Goodall’s consecutive studies and patience, the world wouldn’t have as much insight into a primate’s life as of today. Early in her life she always had a fascination of animals, especially chimpanzees. She began her journey as a young British woman with determination and ended by traveling to Tanzania, Africa. It was there when she became more in depth with herself and the chimpanzees. Living in the jungles, Goodall documented the everyday lives to our closest relative. She carved the need to conserve the earth into the world with her logical advances and new discoveries. She had touched the hearts of many animal-loving people and received many awards and achievements for her cause. From the early 20th century to current time, Jane Goodall has influenced the world by her engaged dedication to the observations of chimpanzees and through the scientific studies from her books, articles,
Reproduction in Homo sapiens, as in all animals, is a primary driving force and has been elaborated upon since the beginnings of society. Humans must take part in sexual reproduction to produce offspring, thus initiation behaviors can be studied. Commonly, the male makes advances and the female is the selector, or chooses the mate. For humans, this holds true and behavior is modified to maximize competitive receptability. This phenomenon carries across all cultural boundaries and is deeply rooted in the overall behavior patterns in the people of the culture. People try to refine their natural appearance to maximize mating opportunity. The males attempt to enhance features for success in initiation and females compete for receptability completeness.
Quiatt, D., & Reynolds, V. (1993). Primate behaviour: information, social knowledge, and the evolution of culture. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press].
Throughout situations and research conducted by not only Robert Sapolsky or Jane Goodman, but from many other credited sources, we can blatantly see the, if not identical, similarities between the two species of humans and baboons. The most apparent likewise characteristics of this can be read and documented in Professor Sapolsky’s book, A Primate’s Memoirs. Sapolsky, who spent hundreds if not thousands, of hours studying these Savanna Baboons, sheds a vast insight into ideas of social dominance, mating strategies, instinctual prowess, community settings, hygiene, and reform of an entire generation; many of which can be unknowingly seen directly in the common occurrence of a humans daily life. One of the biggest ideals shown throughout history is the need for power and dominance.
It has been believed that culture is unique to humans and no other groups of animals have culture, but recent evidence refutes this ideology. Before getting into the meat of the argument, it is important to first address the issues regarding the ambiguity of the term, “culture.” What is culture? Many scientists may argue that culture is the way of life for a group of individuals, this definition includes the values, beliefs and traditions of the group (Sapolsky, 2006). Other scientists may argue that culture is the transmission of habits and information by social means (Sapolsky, 2006). Despite the different specifics of what culture is, almost all scientists would agree that culture is transmitted socially through social learning that promotes the transfer of information between members in a group (Boesch and Tomasello, 1998). Based on these notions of culture, it can be justifiably stated that primates have culture. Primates exhibit food preparation techniques, use of tools, communication skills, and most importantly, behaviors of social learning. An exemplar of primates’ capabilities for culture is Koko, the lowland gorilla. Koko, in captivity, was able to learn American sign language, demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to deceive.
Anubis baboons live in large, multimale, multifemale troops, with high degrees of polygamy and aggression. In contrast, hamadryas baboons have a multilevel social system; during sometimes of the day hundreds of animals share a limited resource (e.g., cliffs used for sleeping), while at other times males herd young females into their groups, forcibly retaining them in stable “harems.” When Kummer moved a female Anubis into a hamadryas group and a female hamadryas into an Anubis troop, within hours the Anubis female had assimilated the hamadryas social style, following a male who had herded her into his harem. This is attributed to use of physical force by dominant male. However, this could not explain the fact that within hours the hamadryas female had ceased attempting to align herself with (and be herded by) an adult male and adopted the more open Anubis system (Kummer
In Franz De Waal’s book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes, social interactions between the chimpanzees at the Arnhem Zoo in Holland are examined. De Waal spends time observing the lives of these animals and comparing them and their ‘culture’ to human culture. The book follows a power struggle between the three dominant male chimps, Yeroen, Luit, and Nikkie. The book does not exclude female chimps and talks about how they influence the role the alpha males play.
The “Monkey’s Paw” reveals an intriguing story of destiny and death. The Theme challenges the classical ideas of destiny and fate.
There are many animals in the world. Even we don’t know the exact number of them. Recently, it’s difficult to find some species because they already threaten and most of them become extinct. We can’t find the great ape called chimpanzees easily in the Africa forest. The largest population of chimpanzees are in central Africa, mainly Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Cameroon. It’s about 150,000 to 250,000 individuals (WWF,n.d). Their population keeps decreasing rapidly each year. Although this problem already handled by big organization, government and others, but the chimpanzees life aren’t safe. It is caused by many reasons, the human activities are one of the big problem that made chimpanzee become in endangered. Such as deforestation
Social groups of primates closely relate to sexual dimorphism, because how each of their communities interact with one another plays a large role in sexual selection. Sexual selection, as Darwin stated, is a key factor and cause in the morphological dimorphism between sexes of a species. Additionally, sexual selection comes from male competition, which directly correlates to primate’s social structures. For example, genus gorilla is a part of a polygynous mating system, which consists of one male and multiple female. This creates an environment where males must compete with one another to reproduce and create offspring. Due to this competition, males must prove to be strong and attract themselves to females to ensure reproductive success. These strong male traits are favored in sexual selection, because the females are highly particular about the male they mate with, so there become specific male traits that are most desirable. Therefore, in polygynous groups, sexual dimorphism is the greatest (Frayer, Wolpoff, 1985). In comparison, a monogamous primate such as genus hylobate or gibbons has a social structure that consists of a more nuclear based family. There is a lot less male competition because males do not mate with multiple females. Therefore, primates are less dimorphic in monogamous social structures (Frayer, Wolpoff,
The structure of this essay is based on animals and humans mate choice strategies and gender differences and similarities. These factors are intertwined with males and females reproduction success for choosing the right mate and bearing the parental cost involved in the offspring upbringing. (Trivers, 1972, 1985).Animal males from the evolutionary perspectives seek fertile, strong, females as a security for their offspring reproduction. These males’ strategize for their mate choice by advertising their masculinity as men ready for a mate. (Buss & Barnes, 1986; Buss, 1987).The female animals chooses mate base on their sense of security so they prefer males capable to protect and bear the cost of parenting with them.(Trivers,1972).In humans, females prefer wealthy men with high status as mate (Bjorklund & shackleford, 1999; Buss, 1992) whereas males prefer to date young attractive females who considers as fertile with the ability for genes reproduction.
This article, titled Common Ground, written by Barbara Smuts, points out the main differences between humans and apes, such as our upright stance, large brains, and capacity for spoken language and abstract reasoning. However, the main point of this article is to emphasize the many similarities that apes share with us. Smuts goes into great detail about how human social and emotional tendencies are very reflective in the family of apes.
In his lecture, primatologist Robert Sapolsky explains the uniqueness of humans as well as our similarities to other primates. In doing so, he broke it down into six points of interest: aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule, empathy, pleasure in anticipation and gratification postponement, and lastly, culture. Professor Sapolsky approaches each point with interesting fact-based examples thus allowing me to gain insight on humans and other primates. Sapolsky’s knowledge of primates along with his scientific background allows him to make a clear argument that one cannot simply ignore.
The scene where alpha and beta males are given watermelons but the females are not shows some similar behaviors between human and chimpanzee. For instance, the alpha male’s behavior to express dominant by displaying his watermelons to the other chimpanzees show his desire to elicit envy and jealousy. Although it seems selfish for the alpha male to not share his bounty with the female chimpanzees, it is a behavior that essentially reminded the female chimpanzees of the dominant role resume by the alpha. Similarly, with modern human, the behavior to express oneself with extravagant possessions such as named brand clothing and expensive materials is a behavior that can be compared to the alpha male chimpanzee. Wealth and material possession with
In comparison, dominance and rank for male baboons is heavily dependent on age and size. Male baboons dominate everyone that is typically smaller than they are. Higher ranking male baboons get first pick with mating with higher ranking female baboons. They