June 5, 2012
Goo-Goo-Gorillas Have Their Own Kind Of Baby Talk

“Do you want to play wiv mummy? Wocka-wocka-woo?” said the gorilla. Well, not quite, but older gorillas have been found to use a modified system of gestures when communicating with infants. Much like “motherese”, the baby talk human parents use when talking to their children, the gorillas’ special gestures may help the infants to develop their own communication skills.

Eva Maria Luëfand Katja Liebalof the Free University of Berlin in Germany monitored 24 captive lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) for four months, focusing on the gestures they used to start and stop play. Typically, gorillas might encourage play by slapping others while making a “play face”, for instance, or somersaulting, and end bouts by placing a hand on the other gorilla’s head. With infants, every older gorilla used more touch-based gestures and repeated their gestures more.

No other apes have been seen modifying their signals for infants, although rhesus macaques do change one call when directing it at infants. But Luëf suspects that all great apes can do it. The adults could be encouraging the infants to develop their gesturing, saysRichard Byrne of the University of St Andrews, UK.

Gorillas have to learn how best to use their repertoire of gestures. That takes practice, and possibly help from older gorillas. “I think it’s very likely that’s what’s going on,” Byrne says.

From newscientist.com

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Filed under: Ape Primate Gorilla Baby Young language Culture Gestures 
January 21, 2012
Baby Bonobo Born At Twycross Zoo!

Twycross Zoo is pleased to announce the birth of an extremely important baby Bonobo! In the early hours of Friday 6th January 2012, Maringa gave birth to a baby girl weighing in at a very healthy 1.44 kilograms after an eight and a half month pregnancy. 

Charlotte Macdonald, Living Collection Curator, said: “When keepers arrived at the enclosure to find Maringa had given birth, they noticed the baby was strong and alert but not actually on mum. She was being kept warm and safe by another female Bonobo within the group. 

“Maringa has had difficulty raising her young in the past therefore we have been planning for this birth in conjunction with the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) since last summer. Donna Smithson, one of our Bonobo keepers, visited Frankfurt Zoo last year to observe how they trained one of their female bonobos to be a foster mum, in the event that Maringa showed no interest in the newborn.” Charlotte said.

Diatou, the newborn’s auntie, has been specifically chosen to become the baby’s foster mum. Keepers have been training Diatou in the hope that she will hold the baby and look after the baby as the mother would do.

Charlotte added: “Keepers plan to care for the baby until she is a little bit older and not reliant on two-hourly feeds. When the newborn is returned to the group, Diatou will become the mother in all aspects but feeding - Diatou is being trained to bring the baby to the mesh of the enclosure in order for keepers to feed the baby.

“Although an anxious time for both keepers and staff at Twycross, following the months of preparation we have put into this birth we are very hopeful the introduction of the baby into the bonobo group will go smoothly.” 

The new arrival has been living behind the scenes within the bonobo enclosure since her birth and will remain off-show until she is ready to join the group. This arrangement was made to ensure the infant becomes familiar with the smells and the vocalisations of other bonobos. Her father, Kakowet, and soon-to-be foster mum, Diatou, have shown a great deal of interest in the baby girl and will sit and watch her for long periods of time. Maringa is also doing very well and suffered no complications from the birth. 

From ZooBorns

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Filed under: Primate Ape Bonobo Birth Young Baby 
January 4, 2012
Wooly White Baby Colobus Arrives At Drusillas Park

The UK’s Drusillas Park is celebrating the arrival of a baby Colobus monkey - the first to be bred at the Zoo. The little scamp was born on November 18 and is looking extremely alert alongside parents, Elgon and Isis. Born covered in wooly white fur resembleing a lamb, it will be approximately six months before the baby develops the black and white color like the adults.

The new arrival is being closely guarded by mom but will become increasingly confident over the coming weeks. These large black and white monkeys live in family groups of up to 20, which often consist of a male and several females plus their young. They usually have one baby at a time. 

This family group was re-homed to the zoo at the beginning of the year from Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. In the wild, they inhabit the forests of central Africa where they are threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. Colobus monkeys are highly arboreal, travelling through the treetops using their elongated arms and legs to spring from branch to branch. A long mane hangs from their shoulders like a cape as they perform hair-raising displays of jumps and lunges. 

The colobus monkeys at Drusillas Park are part of a European breeding program. Hopefully, the family tree will continue to grow at the zoo for many years to come.

From ZooBorns

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Filed under: Primate Monkey Colobus Monkey Baby Young Newborn 
December 29, 2011
A New Baby Gibbon Swings Into Brookfield Zoo

The Chicago Zoological Society, which manages Brookfield Zoo, is happy to announce the birth of a male White-Cheeked Gibbon on November 15. The 1-month-old infant—along with his mom, Indah; dad, Benny; and 2-year-old brother, Thani—can be seen on exhibit in the zoo’s Tropic World: Asia exhibit daily between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Since his birth, the infant has been keeping a close grip on his mom. He will stay in contact and be carried by Indah for a few more months. As he gets older, he will begin to explore the habitat on his own, become more independent, and play with his brother and dad. 

All White-cheeked Gibbons are born with a blond coat matching their mother’s coat, a form of camouflage. The new male Gibbon will retain this light coloring until it begins to turn dusky when he is half a year old. By the time he reaches his first birthday, the young Gibbon will be sporting a black coat with light cheek patches, like his dad and brother. He will retain this coloration for life. Females turn black and then back to blond again, with a small patch of black on their crown, when they reach sexual maturity at around 6 to 8 years of age.

Read More at ZooBorns

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Filed under: Gibbon White Cheeked Gibbon Ape Lesser Ape Primate Baby Young 
December 19, 2011

A little baby Gorilla practises his chest pound. Adorable. 

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Filed under: Baby Cute Gorilla Young Ape Primate 
October 2, 2011

“A mother gesturing at her 6-day-old infant. The type of gestures that can be observed (lipsmacking and teeth-chatter) are common among rhesus macaques. What is striking here is the exaggeration of the gesture that is accompanied by head-bobbings in order to further attract infant attention. This seems to be specific to mother-infant relationship. The exaggeration of facial displays and other modifications of the behavior in humans (e.g., the high pitch in the voice) are typical ways of communicating between mother and infant, the so called ‘motherese.’ Our study demonstrated that these types of gesturing are very common during the first three weeks of the infant macaque life. However, their functions remain unclear.”

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Filed under: Macaque Monkey Primate Mother Child Young Baby Communication Gestures 
September 28, 2011
Video Suggests Mother Chimps May Grieve Death Of An Infant

The death of a baby chimp caused responses in a mother chimpanzee not typically seen directed toward live infants, but it’s unclear whether she was actually mourning, researchers say.

The new report may help improve understanding of how chimpanzees, one of humans’ closest primate relatives, respond to and learn about death, the study authors noted.

In the study, the researchers observed and made videos of a mother chimpanzee whose 16-month-old infant just died. After carrying the dead infant’s body for a day, the mother placed the body on the ground in a clearing and repeatedly approached the body and held her fingers against the infant’s face and neck for a number of seconds.

The mother remained near the body for nearly an hour, watching it from a distance, then carried it to a group of chimpanzees and watched as they investigated it. The next day, the mother did not carry the body.

The research, conducted by a team at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands, was released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of theAmerican Journal of Primatology.

“The videos are extremely valuable, because they force one to stop and think about what might be happening in the minds of other primates. Whether a viewer ultimately decides that the chimpanzee is mourning, or simply curious about the corpse, is not nearly as important as people taking a moment to consider the possibilities,” researcher Katherine Cronin said in an institute news release.

From US News

The full report from the American Journal of Primatology can be found here at Wiley Online Library.

I find it a little odd that this behaviour is being written about as though it is something new and incredible. Grieving behaviour has been witnessed in Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangutans for a long time now. I have posted examples of this before, here, here, and here. In fact, even as a young child, at least around 12 years ago, I knew that ape mothers with recently deceased young carried the corpses away from the rest of the group, and sat with them for a considerable amount of time, or even refused to let go of the body, carrying it around with them for a number of days. — PrimateWin x

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Filed under: Chimpanzee Chimp Gorilla Orangutan Ape Primate Grief Grieving Death Mother Child Young 
September 16, 2011
Primate Young

Proof that Chimpanzees actively teach. Before this, it was believed that only humans actually teach one another, and primates learn through cultural transmission. Not so.

A young female Gorilla is deserted by her mother soon after she suffers horrendous injuries. Her father, the Silverback, ‘adopts’ her.

The first Gorilla to be born at London Zoo in 23 years.

Japanese Snow Macaques enjoy a thermal bath. Only young born to dominant females are allowed in.

Leaf Monkey young are a bright apricot colour. This helps with ‘baby sitting’.

All from BBC Nature. 

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Filed under: Chimps Chimpanzees Gorillas Tamarins Leaf Monkeys Apes Ape monkey Monkeys Primates Baby Babies Young Newborns 
August 25, 2011
rhamphotheca: sheyshawsheyshaw: Not yet two, a golden snub-nosed monkey perches in a highland forest in China’s Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve. Maturity comes by age seven. Life span is unknown.

rhamphotheca:

sheyshawsheyshaw: Not yet two, a golden snub-nosed monkey perches in a highland forest in China’s Zhouzhi National Nature Reserve. Maturity comes by age seven. Life span is unknown.

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Filed under: Primate Monkey Baby Young