Primate Glossary

Disclaimer: This glossary was originally created as a study aid, and is now basically a test of an HTML feature, so don't expect much.

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T V W

aggression - used for expressing displeasure, demonstrating that another male can't protect a female, social control (mobbing), males managing relations among females

agonistic buffering - infants used in male-male interactions to inhibit aggressiveness - helps if the infant is cooperative, knows the male who's holding it - grooming of infant can turn into mutual grooming - eg. baboons, macaques

allele - variant of gene - eg. gene for eye colour; allele for blue, brown, green

alliance - short-term cooperation - an animal has been doing something with another (eg. grooming) and they stand up together - occurs with adjacently ranked animals

alloparenting - animals other than mother looking after infants or juveniles - helps both mother and infant - gives others parenting experience

altricial - born helpless, long period of dependency - primates are behaviourally altricial (opposite of precocial)

altruism - behaviour that helps another individual - more likely if cost is cheaper - if cost is cheap, extend help to more distant relations

altruism, reciprocal - I'll help you and you help me - interferes with outcome of kin selection

anatomy - foliovores are bigger than frugivores which are bigger than insectivores

aye-aye (daubentonia madagascarensis) - nocturnal - stiff hair like porcupine - long second finger with claw to get insects out of trees - live in nests - noyau

baboons (papio) - cynocephalus - yellow, anubis - olive, ursinis - chacma, papio Guinea, hamadryas - hamadryas - babies every 2 years - eat fruit, seeds, young grass, insects, corms, small mammals, new leaves, rhyzomes - dig holes for water - males tolerant of black infants, less so of juveniles - mounting is social as well as sexual

behaviourist - some things are not genetically based - relationships of animals to environment and other animals - isolated mothers don't raise young successfully - use deductive reasoning - observe behaviour, don't impute intelligence

Bernstein & Wade's model of mating strategies - male's success depends on how many females he can mate with, female's depends on ecological factors (resources)

bioenergetics - terrestrial females have to be large enough to live on ground and small enough to be able to eat enough for themselves and support pregnancy

black & white colobus - eat mature leaves - spend much of day feeding - small multi-multi groups - long periods resting while digesting - small ranges, leaves are abundant groom each other's long coats, although difficult with short thumbs - not very proximal - semi-brachiators

black lemurs - female slightly larger than male - mainly arboreal - small multi-multi groups - scent marking - females tend to assert themselves against males

blue monkeys - quadrupedal movement - troops about 20, 1 male - cheek pouches less alloparenting - bouncing form of locomotion characteristic of young - most males leave their natal troop - social play among adults too - less grooming, but peaceful relations

bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) - bipedalism widely practiced - sleep in nests - large multi-multi groups fission-fusion societies - females live natal groups - competition and aggression rare - males may take part in child rearing - food sharing occurs, mostly between females broad sexual repertoire - sociosexual behaviour - juveniles and infants also engage in sex - maintain social bonds with all members of group

bushbabies (galaginae) - mainly arboreal, nocturnal - small - eat insects, flowers - nest alone or in small groups - scent marking, urine washing - seasonal breeding

caecum - hindgut stomach, able to digest leaves

callitrichidae - smaller new world monkeys - marmosets and tamarins - small - males and females look alike - twins common - juveniles help raise young

capuchin monkeys - 3-15 kg - single male groups - eat insects, birds, lizards, frogs don't groom or rest much

Catarrhini - old world - narrow nose - Cercopithecoidea (monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes)

cebidae - larger new world monkeys - capuchin - cebus, squirrel - saimiri, howler alouatta - woolly spider - brachteles arachnoides

chacma baboons - more fierce in defense against predators - fewer trees in their habitat

chimpanzees - open male-bonded groups - no tail - grooming between males - vocalize loudly when they want to locate others, when something exciting happens - eat leaves, small fruit, insects, nuts - brachiators - lifelong relations between mothers and children who stay in the group - baby usually dies if its mother dies before it's weaned elaborate greeting ceremonies - central male group does boundary control - when two animals come together, dominant one puts arm over the other

coalition - long-term alliance that develops over time

colobines - in Africa: black and white, red, olive, kirk's - saculated stomachs - little sexual dimorphism - proceptive sexual behaviour - small multi-multi groups - dawn and dusk roaring - in SE Asia: Presbytis, Semnopithecus, Pygathrix, Nasalis - small one-male groups

communication - 4 parts: signal, motivation, meaning, function - what's the unit size of a signal - meaning is context-based - proximate function is immediate, ultimate function is long-term

communication, basic - what you can't lie about - sex, age, species, sexual receptivity (estrus swelling), sickness, fear scent in gorillas

communication channel - actual nervous input that comes into brain - eg. sense of smell, touch, heating

communication, interactive - individual has some choice with this - eg. do I make a scent mark, threat

communication modality - what you do with a particular channel - olfactory channel: scent marking, pheromone production - visual channel: facial gestures, hand and body gestures, piloerection, kinesis, proxemics- auditory channel: clear calls, harsh calls

communication, nonverbal - sounds, but not words

communication, nonvocal - everything but sounds - subtle, fast, accurate

consort behaviour - male and female spending time together grooming, sleeping, eating, mating

consociate - females breed with all available males, eg. Barbary macaques

coprophagy - animals eating their own feces - not particularly common - can get nutrients out of them a second time

costs, mating - takes males longer to grow up, have to hold off competitors and defend territory - females have to eat for two when pregnant, carry infant around

crepuscular - awake at dawn and dusk - eg. ring tail lemurs

crypsis - camouflage

death - major attrition in young (first babies often lost) - accidents (fall out of tress), starvation (juveniles), predation, primates attacking primates (mostly for food), old age (not particularly common), disease (bigger problem than predation)

defensibility, female - have to defend female you're trying to consort with - may be difficult to keep track of her all the time

DeVore - studied baboons in open grassland - central hierarchy: large males in centre with adult females, younger animals around outside of group

displays - set of behaviours that are ritualized and have become a signal - stereotyped form (often exaggerated) and repeated, always at same intensity - to release tension, intimidate others, keep others out of your range - eg. gorilla chest beating, chimpanzee greeting - behaviour comes from autonomic responses, intention movements, and displacement activities

dominance - not a permanent trait, always within some context, not a genetically inherited trait, can be for females as well as males

dominant - an animal gets its own way

ectoparasites - fleas, ticks, lice, flies - primates don't have many of these because of grooming

estrus - periodic behavioural readiness to mate - may have physical manifestation, ie. perineal swelling and colour change to pink/red

first degree relations - offspring, parents, siblings (half of alleles shared)

fission - group may separate when it gets too big, eg. Japanese macaques

fitness, inclusive - behaviour to promote well-being of those who share a fraction of your genes

fitness, individual - how many kids you sire

foliovore - eats leaves, fruit that's too hard for smaller primates to eat - lower metabolic requirements per unit mass - weigh 40-80 kg (and more for gorillas)

frugivore - eats fruit and leaves - weigh 3-30 kg (most under 15)

Gause's exclusion principle - if you have two species using the same niche, one will drive the other to extinction

gelada, Theropithecus (bleeding heart baboon) - sleep on cliffs in mountainous regions of Ethiopia - groups fission when 7 or 8 females - several groups make up a band, several bands make up a herd

gestalt - grasp problem all together, work out solution mentally before breaking into bits

gibbons - heavily forest areas of SE Asia - ischial callosities - don't make nests, sit in trees like monkeys - intermembral index 130+ (arms longer than legs) - don't walk quadrupedally (or bipedally much) - territorial, defend 90% of range - monogamous pairs - spend lots of time in canopy - lots of grooming

gorillas - berengi - mountain, grauri - eastern lowlands, gorilla - western lowlands male-female relationship basis of cohesion of group - half of their day is spent feeding males don't participate in raising children - eat leaves, stems, bamboo, bark - females more arboreal (smaller) - build nests, use them for one night only - chest beating is adult intimidation - adult male may take baby if mother dies - walk on knuckles - lots of time sitting upright - extensive overlap in ranges - get water from plants - females leave group often when just presexual

hamadryas baboons - male herds females in its group - other male kidnaps young females and cares for them until they're sexually mature - hamadryas male can herd anubis females - male will bite females who try to leave group

Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) - sacred monkeys in India - one-male or multi-male groups - lots of allomothering - in Dharwar, high population density, infants may be killed in male takeovers of groups - in Orcha, low population density, no male takeovers of groups

helminthes - internal parasites - worms in blood vessels, lungs, intestines - most primates have a few of these

howler monkeys - highly arboreal - 15 kg - hyoid bone in throat is huge - bare patch on bottom of tail to grip tree - long fingers and toes, prehensile tails - saecum to digest leaves

imprinting - infant recognition of face, social gestures

infanticide - strange in primates because they depend so much on social relations

inhibition - tendency to perform a behaviour is reduced when others are doing it - eg. mating inhibits a third person joining

insectivore - eats insects, tree gum - small, sharp teeth - weigh under 500 grams (eg. tarsier)

inspection - sniffing the genital region - very common, especially of infants

instinctive behaviour - behaviour without observation, eg. clinging, sucking, rooting ritualized (occurs same way each time), comes from a particular stimulus (eg. hunger)

interaction, conflict - neither participant gets what they want -eg. males fighting over a female, another male takes it away

interaction, conflict assymetric - one animal gives in because of harassment - eg. male harasses a female until she lets him mount

interaction, mutual - actions of animals are cooperative - eg. grooming

interaction, reactive - one animal attempts to interact, other ignores - eg. male lets female eat nearby

intermembral index - ratio of length of arms to legs - higher ratio means arms that much longer than legs

ischial callosities - calluses on rear, so the animals can sit and sleep, eg. baboons

Japanese macaques - central-peripheral structure: leader males and females in centre, then females, then young males - linear dominance hierarchy - matrilinear structure important, males move into group - males care for juveniles and infants in some groups - animal indicates where it wants to be groomed by position

Kaufman & Rosenblum - studied bonnet and pigtail macaques - bonnets will adopt babies, pigtails will not - mother-infant bond very close in pigtails, and they sit more spread out

kin selection - maximize the amount of your genes in the next generation - your behaviour towards another depends on the degree of relatedness, amount of cost, and amount of benefit

kinesics - how an animal moves, how an animal holds its body

language - allows us to deal with generalizations, abstractions, symbols, past and future, distance from emotion - based on code system - it's a second language for the apes - are they trying to please the researcher, solve task, get what they want, or is it actual two-way communication - people who've known each other for a long time don't use full sentences so why should apes

langurs - lots of allomothering - difficult for single male to hold off repeated attacks from all-male groups - relatively short childhood - usually males are the breeding male of a group for 3-5 years, has to be at least 22 months to ensure kids survive

learned behaviour - often variable, observed before doing it successfully, stimulus variability - eg. mothering skills, communication

lemur, dwarf (cheirogaleus) - store up fat in tails - become torpid below 18 degrees and hibernate for 1-5 months - nest in holes in trees

lemur, mouse (microcebus) - sleep alone or in groups in nests - forage by themselves basically noyau - seasonal breeding

lemur, ring tail (lemurcatta) - arboreal, quadrupedal - group living - crepuscular seasonal breeding - stink fights

lion-tail macaques - rare - grey wrap around face, darker coat - food pouches - adult play more common than in other species

lorisinae - slow lofts - nyctecebus, slender lofts - lofts, potto - peradicticus, angwantibo - arctocebus - small, nocturnal branch walkers - eat birds and insects noyau - can hang from feet - caecum for digesting gum

macaques (macaca) - fuscata - Japanese, sylvanus - barbary, radiata - bonnet, hemistrina - pigtail, fascicularis - crab-eater - female-bonded groups - display with branch shaking - hybrids between subspecies occur both in wild and captivity

mandrills - terrestrial - eat roots, seeds, bark, buds, fruit, insects - cheek pouches adult male has facial colouration - upside down locomotor pattern in trees

Marais - studied chacma baboons in early 1900's

marmosets - ringed tails

mobbing - a bunch of animals converging on another animal to make it go away or stop doing something - eg. a predator

mount, series - male mounts female on and off, with grooming, etc. in between - eg. orangutan

mount, single - male mounts female once, after some friendly behaviour

multi-male, multi-female - varied group size - more common among old world monkeys - vervets, baboons, macaques, colobus

muzzling - infants sniff adults' mouths to learn what they' re eating

Napier's levels of forest - emergents, upper forest canopy, middle story, lower/under story, ground/floor

Nishida - studied chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains - development and extinction of traditions when groups are separated

noyau - solitary lifestyle, exception is search and mate times - prosimians and orangutans

one-male group - male has breeding access to more than two females - there are always young males, juveniles around too - gorilla, barbary macaques

open group - number of females and offspring hang around - batch of males in another group - chimpanzees

orangutans - rarely groom other animals - solitary animals much of the time - young play with objects and each other - feet are prehensile - walk with weight on fists females have ranges that overlap - males have much larger ranges that overlap ranges of several females - pairs of adolescents may hang out together - big throat sac to scare others away

pair - male and female with offspring form group - territorial, not much sexual dimorphism- eg. gibbons, siamangs

palmigrade - palms flat on ground, eg. baboons

phenological cycle - in tropical plants, each tree has its own cycle of blooming and fruiting

piloerection - hair stands up on end, makes animal look bigger

Platyrrhini - new world monkeys - Callitrichidae (small) and Cebidae (big)

polyandry - one female has several mates - males help with offspring - marmosets and tamarins

precocial - born well developed - primates are physically precocial (opposite of altricial)

primate characteristics - generalized skeleton, highly mobile digits, sensitive tactile pads on hands, abbreviation of snout, binocular vision, fewer teeth, bigger brain, nourishment of fetus before birth, upright posture, prolongation of infant dependency

primiparous - first-time mother - often lose their baby, may not have enough milk or know how to look after it

proceptive behaviour - female goes to male and attempts to instigate mating

prosimians - wet rhinarium - vibrissae - tapetum - longer nose, sideways-facing eyes mixture of nails and claws - less manipulative hands - multiple young - use a nest more teeth - tethered upper lip - often nocturnal - vertical clinging and leaping, branch walking or running - arboreal, sense of smell important

proxemics - an animal's use of space

pseudoestrus - external physical manifestations and behaviour that go with estrus

range - area that includes places to sleep, water, food rank - level of social influence

rhinarium - wet nose - prosimians

role behaviour - cooperation necessary to get things done - social tasks to be done are control, sentry, baby tender, mother role, leader, sage, defender

RoweIl - studied baboons in gallery forest - they stayed close to trees - subordinate hierarchy

Sade's hypothesis - offspring are in their mother's dominance shadow - animals rise to the rank of their mother in normal circumstances

safari pairs - consorting couple - could last for a couple of months - move to edge of group and hang out together - eg. chimpanzees

selection, k - fewer offspring, more parental care - usually in larger animals (within primates)

selection, R - shorter life span, more offspring born and more lost - smaller, terrestrial primates

sexual dimorphism - males and females look different - size, hair growth pattern, colour of fur, size of canines - terrestrial primates are reasonably sexually dimorphic in spider monkeys, females are bigger than males

sharing - a resource that's large and non-storable can be shared without great cost

sifaka (propithecus verreauxi) - small multi-multi - eat leaves, fruit, flowers territorial, but don't actually fight - dental comb for grooming - vertical clingers and leapers

silverback - mature male gorilla, usually only one in a group

social facilitation - when one animal does something and then everybody does it

sociobiology (contrast with behaviourist) - behaviour is based on a determined genetic background - eg. altruistic, infant care, aggressive behaviours

sociosexual behaviour - genital-genital rubbing between males and between females, juveniles and infants engaging in sex - eg. bonobos

spiteful - do something negative to someone else at a (smaller) cost to yourself

squirrel monkeys - 5 kg - require forest - upper layers most of the time - eat insects, fruit, nuts - large groups of 80-100 animals - sleep in clumps to keep warm - branch runners - urine washing

status - a characteristic, like juvenile, pregnant

subordinate hierarchy - hierarchy of who will give way - different way of looking at things that dominance hierarchy

super donor - the better you are as a worker, the better for you reproductively (from sociobiology)

tamarins - scent marking - branch runners - nocturnal - live in trees - monogamous spend lots of time on vines - long canines (marmosets don't have them) - territorial bare faces

tapetum - reflective layer in back of eyes - prosimians

tarsiers - SE Asia - small, nocturnal - live in pairs - insectivorous - clinging and leaping - long fingers with suction cups on ends - extra joint in leg for better jumping dry nose, free upper lip, no dental comb

territoriality - defending area against others of same species

tool use - modify shape of what you' re using to fulfill a function better - eg. chimpanzees using sticks to get termites and ants

tree shrews (tupaiidae) - transitional form - omnivorous, active, belligerent - claws, not nails - lack binocular vision

vervets - multi-multi groups - eat figs, fruit, new leaves, flowers, insects, bark, gum, grass, corms, roots - cheek pouches - males protect group (lots of enemies) - use bipedal posture to look around

vibrissae - whiskers - prosimians

weaning - 2 basic strategies - do it early and slowly (tendency for primiparous mothers), or late and quickly (infants will scream a lot)

woolly spider monkeys - 15 kg - live in crowns of tallest trees - semi-brachiators prehensile tails - troop (15-20) sleeps together, forages in subgroups - half of day spent resting - eat leaves and fruit only - drink out of tree holes

Last modified: June 19, 1996. Return to Dave Switzer's Home on the Web.