Sint Maarten is the southern region of the Caribbean Island nation, Saint Martin, divided between France and the Netherlands. Its reputation as a popular Caribbean holiday destination, however, is likely to become tarnished following reports that the government plans to kill the entire population of free-living vervets. Funding is to be given to Nature Foundation […]
Tag: primates
Mandrills teach their daughters good hygiene practices
Humans are not the only ones to teach their children good hygiene practices—mandrills do it too. In these primates, where many individuals are infected with contagious gastrointestinal parasites, some females systematically avoid grooming the peri-anal region of their groupmates. This “hygienic” strategy is then transmitted to their daughters, as shown by the study of Marie […]
Research Finds the Answer to Why Primates Hold Onto Dead Infants
A study published in Live Science was conducted to uncover the reason why primates carry around their dead infants. This is a distressing behavior where primate mothers will continue to treat the infant as though it were alive, even as it is decomposing. Researchers conducted an analysis of over 400 cases where this behavior was […]
World’s loneliest gorilla doomed to die in captivity in tiny cage in shopping centre
The world’s loneliest gorilla is doomed to die in captivity in a tiny cage in a shopping centre, after activists’ continued attempts to free her fail. Pop icon Cher has joined an ever increasing swell of animal rights activists and celebrities campaigning to have Bua Noi resettled in an environment where she can spend the […]
Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds
A family of viruses that can cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms that is also a critical threat to macaque populations is now “poised for spillover” to humans, a new report reveals. The study, published in September in the journal Cell, reveals that the animal virus has found ways to access human cells, multiply and evade parts […]
Study Shows Crows Are Capable of Recursion, a Communication Skill Thought to Be Distinctively Human
Crows are one of the most misunderstood creatures in the animal kingdom. Crows are incredibly smart and creative, and this new report shows just how intelligent they are. Recursive sentences are a key part of language, and researchers have long wondered if animals can grasp this concept. Recursion is what allows us to form long […]
Outgunned by militants, rangers fear for chimpanzees in southwest Mali
Forestry officer Karim Kamisoko is not at his post. Instead of patrolling Bafing Faunal Reserve in southwestern Mali, he and his fellow rangers are 70 kilometers (43 miles) away, taking shelter from Islamist militants who have seized control of much of this part of southwestern Mali. Bafing Faunal Reserve covers 176,000 hectares (435,000 acres), its […]
Climate Crisis and Deforestation Are Bringing Tree-Dwelling Primates Down to Earth
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance postdoctoral associate Timothy Eppley, Ph.D., was observing southern bamboo lemurs in Madagascar when he noticed something odd. Usually, these lemurs spend their entire lives in the trees. But in places where their forest habitat had been thinned by human activity, the primates would risk descending to the ground to search […]