tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1018694248093803542024-03-06T00:09:36.488-08:00The CHIMP & SEE BlogMimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11053231478359501631noreply@blogger.comBlogger236125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-41694584686367355092024-01-25T06:12:00.000-08:002024-01-26T04:23:52.805-08:00Chimp&See Tribute to Christophe Boesch<h2 id="panaf-founder-and-co-director-christophe-beosch-passed-away-suddenly-on-sunday-january-14th-2024" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px;" tabindex="-1"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://panafrican.eva.mpg.de/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">PanAf</a> founder and co-director Christophe Boesch passed away suddenly on Sunday January 14th 2024</span></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://panafrican.eva.mpg.de/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">The PanAf </a>was Christophe's legacy project, his great vision and he greatly supported our work on Chimp&See. He was a very great man and the world is a lot worse now that he is gone.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">We even caught him on our PanAf/Chimp&See camera traps a few times at various sites:<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></p><div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="embed-responsive-item youtube-player" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q-v9HPeAihY" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-height: 390px; max-width: 600px; width: 600px;" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Today at the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/press/news/article/christophe-boesch-passed-away/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">MPI-EVA</a>,I gave one of the speeches at his memorial tribute which mainly focused on his academic work. My friend and colleague Dr. Tobias Deschner, then focused on all the achievements of the <a href="https://www.wildchimps.org/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">Wild Chimpanzee Foundation</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">My text is posted below, but I would like to encourage you to follow the WCF on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGmGFQlW4LLz5UdU3N6cHQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">youtube</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/wildchimps/mycompany/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">linkedin</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wildchimps" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">facebook</a>,<a href="https://www.instagram.com/wildchimpanzeefoundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"> instagram </a>and <a href="https://www.wildchimps.org/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">on their website.</a> It is my favourite NGO and they do amazing grass roots, evidence-based conservation work, and supporting them is the best way to honour Christophe's memory.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/inza-kone-b86960a1_tribute-to-christophe-boesch-the-african-activity-7154833517376323584-pg3J?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #00979d; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">Dr. Inza Kone's tribute post to Christoph</a>e also showcases beautifully the impact this amazing man had in the conservation world and beyond.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">--<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />(extracted from the MPI-EVA Tribute to Christoph Boesch. January 25th 2024. M. Arandjelovic)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">I came to this institute with a passion for wildlife conservation, genetics and an obsession with gorillas. But over the last 20 years Christophe Boesch managed to convince me that chimps were pretty cool too.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Christophe was a pioneer. I can list a ton of firsts. With his wife Hedwige, they established the Tai Chimpanzee Project in 1979 and were the first to habituate chimpanzees without provisioning. This meant they just followed shadows in the forest, hoping for years that one day the chimps would just stop running away. Legend has it that this was because the chimps wouldn’t eat the bananas Christophe tried to give them. But be it intentional or reactive, Christophe and Hedwige kept at it for 5 years, trusting a process no one had tried before, a mix of confidence and hope, that it would work, with enough persistence.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Christophe’s Tai Chimpanzee Project revealed western chimps to be more gregarious than those that had been documented in the east and taught us about chimpanzee adoption by males, of unrelated orphan infants. He was the first to document cooperative hunting in chimpanzees. He is one of the founding fathers of animal culture and it's basis in social learning. He debated tirelessly across fields, advocating for species-specific, culturally-relevant and ecologically-appropriate testing in both human and primate cognition studies. Christophe is also the founding father of primate archaeology, bringing archaeologists to Tai to excavate a 4000 year old chimpanzee stone tool use site in 2001.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">In 2005 Christophe started the Loango Ape Project in Central Africa, and as was the trend at several of the newer chimp research sites, the more we looked, the more chimpanzee behavioural diversity was found.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">This inspired Christophe’s legacy project the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee which he started with Hjalmar Kuehl in 2010. The ambitious idea of creating short-term research sites, for as many chimpanzee groups as possible across their range, to better understand the behavioural repertoire of chimps and the evolutionary drivers of that diversity. Over 10 years, non-invasive data was collected from 18 countries and over 50 chimpanzee sites, and has already led to exciting revelations on the evolution of behavioural diversity. At the time, the PanAf project was thought of as unfeasible and over reaching, but thanks to Christophe’s vision and leadership, its already being replicated in other taxa.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Christophe often said he felt indebted to the chimps. and that the only way he felt he could repay that debt, was to ensure their protection.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">He not only established the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation in 2000, but he also made sure his NGO would follow evidence-based ground-truthed practices. He supervised countless students whose research focus was improving conservation and biodiversity assessments, so that the basis of WCF recommendations and interventions would be to the highest scientific standards. This led to the birth of the A.P.E.S. database and eventually the A.P.E.S. wiki where all ape survey data is centralized and widely accessible.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">I don’t want to just list his accomplishments though, I want you to know this man supported me and cheerleaded me, as he did for many others, and many other women in particular. He also understood the importance of nurturing chimpanzee range country scientists and did so enthusiastically. He supported them academically, but also encouraged them to take leadership roles in their home countries. So many students and researchers came through these MPI hallways from Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Rwanda, Gabon and more. This includes Christophe’s PhD student Dr. Simone Ban, the first woman to obtain her doctorate from the largest university in cote d'Ivoire in 2017.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Christophe valued a lot of things about people that don’t usually get valued in academia. He valued different view points, he liked to be challenged and to talk through difficult topics and he made us do the same, he brought us to the table. He didn’t mind if people felt passionately, feelings and topics were not scary or taboo, discussion was the way towards resolution.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">When I joined the Max Planck, many moons ago, I had no field experience, I was a lab person and at that time, the two did not mix. But Christophe let me go to Tai anyway so that I could see the forest and the chimps. Specifically because he thought it would make me a better scientist. And it was indeed life changing. When he joined me in the forest a month after I had been there he was able to show me so much more than I had been seeing. I saw the forest through his eyes, i hadn’t been seeing the things I was looking at. His knowledge and passion were absolutely magical, and I am so very sad that I won’t get to be with that again.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">During that trip, in a time before GPSs, he kept trying to teach me how to use my map and compass and find the trails at Tai. No matter how many times I screwed it up though, he was so encouraging when I succeeded. As if I had done it on the first try. I was also not the most agile primate ever to enter the Tai forest either, and there were a lot of snickers from the field assistants every time I tripped and fell to my face AGAIN on the forest floor . And I remember at some point in the afternoon, Christophe casually said to one of the assistants, but loud enough so that I could hear, “even though she falls a lot, she gets up really well”. And At the time, I mainly thought this was a kindness. a way to motivate me forward, to make sure I was still going to collect my data.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">But now when I think about it, I think it was actually an overarching metaphor for how Christophe approached things and inspired people. Do your best, you may fail, try again, try again, don’t get discouraged, keep fighting, don't let the snickers of others keep you down, keep trying to figure it out. You will get there.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Christophe should still be here. He should be still fighting for the chimps. We need him, the chimps need him, the forests need him and I am absolutely ruined that he is gone. I only take solace in knowing how many people he inspired and that will carry on his amazing legacy.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Rest in Power Dear Christophe and thank you SO much for everything. Merci.</span></p><hr style="border-bottom: 0px solid rgba(128, 128, 128, 0.5); border-image: initial; border-left: 0px solid rgba(128, 128, 128, 0.5); border-right: 0px solid rgba(128, 128, 128, 0.5); border-top-color: rgba(128, 128, 128, 0.5); border-top-style: solid; box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 1em 0px;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span style="background-color: white;">This video was made by/for the 2023 Indianapolis Prize for with Christophe was a finalist and showcases what an incredible force of nature he was.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></p><div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #646464; font-family: Karla, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="embed-responsive-item youtube-player" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HBPLA7Na6JI" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-height: 390px; max-width: 600px; width: 600px;" type="text/html" width="640"></iframe></span></div>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-19816605338607458072022-11-21T23:31:00.003-08:002022-11-21T23:31:25.772-08:00Online Now! Chimp matching miniproject in collaboration with PantheraCats with photos from Niokolo Koba National Park!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmQaVYjmW_ePTJlw2okR8PcAmMSps6IzX65Mbmht7KegqkGqcKWeECGJjZOBWPD_rnvFeQVCN0mxm_4G3pzwRzMO3xcULJ_YN6CwGFhrJuuJYnNVOcDZNRjOR9pciDno3d3oibtQtwRqLIKQxEh3BWCeZmpuMPX_c3YKSybVDXbpeAZp8wTW6ftxI/s1030/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="1030" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmQaVYjmW_ePTJlw2okR8PcAmMSps6IzX65Mbmht7KegqkGqcKWeECGJjZOBWPD_rnvFeQVCN0mxm_4G3pzwRzMO3xcULJ_YN6CwGFhrJuuJYnNVOcDZNRjOR9pciDno3d3oibtQtwRqLIKQxEh3BWCeZmpuMPX_c3YKSybVDXbpeAZp8wTW6ftxI/w640-h246/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s go! Our new chimp matching miniproject in collaboration with PantheraCats with photos from Niokolo Koba National Park is live! Join us and get into some chimp matching 🐵</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-edac0de0-7fff-b7e1-f8e6-42cd9ba81dfe"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Check it out at: </span><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see-matching-miniproject-niokolo-koba/talk/5499/2670449" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see-matching-miniproject-niokolo-koba/talk/5499/2670449</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This project is hosted on its own chimp&see spin off site and will get updated as photos come in. This project will be a bit different than how we normally do things as it will be photos only, no videos, and the cameras are mostly set up to pick up the sides of animals, so we are in for a challenge! </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We're super excited about this new challenge and think its a great opportunity to get into chimp matching if you aren't already hooked :)</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-45875363327164341482022-11-15T03:35:00.004-08:002022-11-15T03:35:41.048-08:00New chimp matching miniproject: Niokolo Koba National Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAskKd_MA3Jqw6CSGQHZDNp3t3FDB-3sbvzW92zqzgRnabaUk-CmN7YUE8EiS-O5NU-smsoGliKd86lomW7Oheu_kwAud9z71A0_zWKWbD9BAyARFAF6ruk9cztR_g1eoJJM2-wIakspzB2_FNlNC8mvOUkMir5j5VMgCKiXhIZMV8Uxc7URfTfV8/s1824/startpage01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1824" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAskKd_MA3Jqw6CSGQHZDNp3t3FDB-3sbvzW92zqzgRnabaUk-CmN7YUE8EiS-O5NU-smsoGliKd86lomW7Oheu_kwAud9z71A0_zWKWbD9BAyARFAF6ruk9cztR_g1eoJJM2-wIakspzB2_FNlNC8mvOUkMir5j5VMgCKiXhIZMV8Uxc7URfTfV8/w640-h258/startpage01.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>We have a new chimp matching miniproject coming next week in collaboration with <a href="https://panthera.org/panthera-senegal" target="_blank">Panthera Cats</a> with photos from Niokolo Koba National Park</p><p>read more about Panthera’s work here: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/inside-the-race-to-save-west-africas-endangered-lions" target="_blank">https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/inside-the-race-to-save-west-africas-endangered-lions</a></p><p>We’ll start on November 21st and will post the link then!</p><div><br /></div>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-82020480845470913972022-11-15T03:31:00.004-08:002022-11-15T03:36:06.573-08:00Chimp&See in the Süddeutsche Zeitung<p>Our amazing scimod Nuria's kids, Laura and Nora, were interviewed about chimpandsee.org ! Thanks girls for taking the time to talk about your time with us and to Süddeutsche Zeitung for featuring our project 🙂</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwuYY29sDNReOQXf2XSWeTMVtHK7PVbVT8vAuN8jprrABXtgRFahgAVtNPWlv2IroZ6JAjz4p6PmPwmMZ4V4vXsKWJmFhp0d45qdGr0h013p1k-rjGUemeSeaX2VcDVpspKcXfbibs_I6D7WHwqwFBNRbczQoEtEd3x0B8agseTgqaS8ILYrU7cQF/s765/German-Press.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="765" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGwuYY29sDNReOQXf2XSWeTMVtHK7PVbVT8vAuN8jprrABXtgRFahgAVtNPWlv2IroZ6JAjz4p6PmPwmMZ4V4vXsKWJmFhp0d45qdGr0h013p1k-rjGUemeSeaX2VcDVpspKcXfbibs_I6D7WHwqwFBNRbczQoEtEd3x0B8agseTgqaS8ILYrU7cQF/w640-h600/German-Press.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><p>(English translation:</p><p>"We support the project Chimp&See. For this you have to watch videos from African forests on a website. They come from cameras that react to movements. They make so many videos that the researchers can't analyze everything on their own. The cameras are already triggered when a branch shakes or a bird flies across the frame. On many videos, nothing can be seen, but sometimes you can see chimpanzees. Then you have to describe how many animals can be seen and what they are doing. Baby chimpanzees are especially cute. Or when you can watch an ape cracking a nut or using a stone as a tool." )</p><p><a href="https://www.sueddeutsche.de/leben/wissenschaft-affenviel-arbeit-1.5686905" target="_blank">Full article HERE</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VHpKh4P6C8QA-9BAVln46Y7iLeLQr4aKydKqkTfC8OBMoPOZqwSCcNLiusx6Bjw71RDLYgWtvaxOCSnqNoVzJfxLbQkGRwoZDmeXer1ZKpw2ps7F4L9jvGumbYR_zCO7EWbupfW8PTgtFN1uaFb-ogygBXnHjY8s5lqH-s1hOrgOFX3RkxSt8Sxh/s725/image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VHpKh4P6C8QA-9BAVln46Y7iLeLQr4aKydKqkTfC8OBMoPOZqwSCcNLiusx6Bjw71RDLYgWtvaxOCSnqNoVzJfxLbQkGRwoZDmeXer1ZKpw2ps7F4L9jvGumbYR_zCO7EWbupfW8PTgtFN1uaFb-ogygBXnHjY8s5lqH-s1hOrgOFX3RkxSt8Sxh/s320/image-1.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><br />Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-14492176096815662162022-06-09T09:27:00.003-07:002022-06-09T09:27:28.657-07:00Loango-Thea on the cover of Cell Genomics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZMftCQ2d811uTSAdWxMP_drlF2SdubF0nt2zrLWVVtWCk4wjUXqaqHBQW7SOrsW7xHj5KClDQAP1eqOtmLsTCq9ErxFdIpqzewqL-Y1wLXv-gKRWJ0cZxntw1sC5_A-j9xKKlyV81IcSopqDjQ0JYGK9ek3gQluFfrqFQ_l6bKSE1Ctd-7LRMG7O/s768/FUwaaE7XwAENGOE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="591" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZMftCQ2d811uTSAdWxMP_drlF2SdubF0nt2zrLWVVtWCk4wjUXqaqHBQW7SOrsW7xHj5KClDQAP1eqOtmLsTCq9ErxFdIpqzewqL-Y1wLXv-gKRWJ0cZxntw1sC5_A-j9xKKlyV81IcSopqDjQ0JYGK9ek3gQluFfrqFQ_l6bKSE1Ctd-7LRMG7O/w308-h400/FUwaaE7XwAENGOE.jpeg" width="308" /></a></div><br /><p>So happy that <a href="https://en.ozouga.org/" target="_blank">Ozouga Chimps</a> ' "Thea" of the Rekambo community in Loango National Park, Gabon made the cover of Cell Press Cell Genomics and is the ambassador for our recent paper on chimpanzee population histories "<a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(22)00062-3" target="_blank">Fontsere et al (2022) Population dynamics and genetic connectivity in recent chimpanzee history. Cell Genomics DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2022.100133</a>"</p><p>Thank you to <a href="https://rolandhilgartner.com/" target="_blank">Roland Hilgartner Wildlife Photographer and Author</a> for generously allowing the use of his photo!</p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-68034386122628607762022-06-02T07:56:00.005-07:002022-06-03T01:58:27.132-07:00CONSERVATION FROM THE COUCH: FROM GERMANY AND AFRICA TO OKLAHOMA<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK1TsrIckZN1_zBAlbIALWniUsCmKpNTGy2ZBCh7xSzLrZUvBVO6qCZ3rta9cYtjrA3dZHssu3OIJQOwv2c3ULOl2X7HPEJNbmOaRL8hJEtvC5DF7QJ9SC_6KqbD-t152SiJAdGS1Biuhi7uOOdc4QxBKWSCyD4D1d8d8YZ0t95jxXyjVJ2f3jiqZ8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhK1TsrIckZN1_zBAlbIALWniUsCmKpNTGy2ZBCh7xSzLrZUvBVO6qCZ3rta9cYtjrA3dZHssu3OIJQOwv2c3ULOl2X7HPEJNbmOaRL8hJEtvC5DF7QJ9SC_6KqbD-t152SiJAdGS1Biuhi7uOOdc4QxBKWSCyD4D1d8d8YZ0t95jxXyjVJ2f3jiqZ8" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="background-color: white;">A feature on our mod Laura K Lynn!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"Thanks to a program called Chimp&See, Laura was able to combine her love for primates and conservation on a global scale and do it all from the comfort of her couch.</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> "</span><br /></span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Read more here: </span><a href="https://www.okczoo.org/blog/posts/conservation-from-the-couch-from-germany-and-africa-to-oklahoma" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;">CONSERVATION FROM THE COUCH: FROM GERMANY AND AFRICA TO OKLAHOM</span>A</a></div><p></p><p><br /></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-56472238117959552432022-06-02T07:25:00.005-07:002022-06-07T09:38:17.334-07:00New PanAf paper: Population dynamics and genetic connectivity in recent chimpanzee history<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_7YHnhzhzHe2TxS6BnmJYgxuk1za-9DpPDn--xBtiynhL6gjoV02n-1U0QI02hlSeV7S9VQ_f2_NqtEnjZ69jMSwYVoMtzwNVg-Zh4kZAhtx_UtHMpBr2sORizHYsG9mDoiuLcrfXKUYbC9goZ5017th18ODIEEZ1VLg-xGC1IUxEJNTX1gq54KT1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="375" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_7YHnhzhzHe2TxS6BnmJYgxuk1za-9DpPDn--xBtiynhL6gjoV02n-1U0QI02hlSeV7S9VQ_f2_NqtEnjZ69jMSwYVoMtzwNVg-Zh4kZAhtx_UtHMpBr2sORizHYsG9mDoiuLcrfXKUYbC9goZ5017th18ODIEEZ1VLg-xGC1IUxEJNTX1gq54KT1=w400-h400" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Our newest PanAf paper is out now in Cell Genomics, entitled "<a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(22)00062-3" target="_blank">Population dynamics and genetic connectivity in recent chimpanzee history</a>" </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For a great summary of what we found check out some of our press </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220601-scientists-produce-chimp-genetic-map-to-combat-trafficking " target="_blank">Scientists produce chimp genetic map to combat trafficking</a></li><li><a href="https://www.idiv.de/en/news/news_single_view/2366.html" target="_blank">U Pompeu Fabra/iDiv/MPI-EVA press release</a></li><li><a href="https://www.france24.com/fr/info-en-continu/20220601-des-scientifiques-aident-%C3%A0-lutter-contre-le-trafic-de-chimpanz%C3%A9s-en-%C3%A9tudiant-leur-adn" target="_blank">Des scientifiques aident à lutter contre le trafic de chimpanzés en étudiant leur ADN</a></li><li><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/scientists-create-worlds-largest-chimp-dna-genome-poop-1713265" target="_blank">Scientists Create World's Largest Chimp DNA Genome From Poop</a></li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">or read lead author <a href="https://twitter.com/ClaudiaFontsere/status/1532019072854024195?t=PLUK_6pBqO7ociRjC9LWFA&s=19" target="_blank">Claudia Fontsere's fabulous Twitter thread</a> !</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVbZMXHElfKrgiq0x79DD8oczMo898xQt8BkTO4chQq1-oPbNJh_0KwGfJYVTDtR3WvTw1ttwjIa82oBZr6VVL6zVmODw-xINz9IpML2VUnkMi4eWNVZkE1ngFICl2XWvB6wYchQwsXNKw9_LKMv3rO0LbzMR62DrkksTs6O-JHUH53RXVurBSZc8_/s400/QnPZMXjT_400x400.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVbZMXHElfKrgiq0x79DD8oczMo898xQt8BkTO4chQq1-oPbNJh_0KwGfJYVTDtR3WvTw1ttwjIa82oBZr6VVL6zVmODw-xINz9IpML2VUnkMi4eWNVZkE1ngFICl2XWvB6wYchQwsXNKw9_LKMv3rO0LbzMR62DrkksTs6O-JHUH53RXVurBSZc8_/s320/QnPZMXjT_400x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><br /><p></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-57236204264350372762022-03-09T05:38:00.006-08:002022-03-09T05:38:52.314-08:00 Welcome to "Tranquil Sea" in the Mbe Mountains<p> Welcome to "Tranquil Sea", our collaborative site with WCS_Nigeria in the #MbeMountains! Home of #CrossRiverGorillas , Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzees & more!</p><p>Get started at http://ChimpandSee.org or check out our intro post at https://zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2279/2371328</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwiWbbZwwWVCwRSO6jctJN_gT0Bvw96pb2BjImMhUV0rEciur_VZXMPAObUoaY0ELAVD3ehJDMfsRl98_w8qQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-12463438969942881482021-06-24T06:04:00.004-07:002021-06-24T06:05:07.277-07:00New PanAf chimp microbiomes paper!<p>The PanAf has a new paper out examing the microbiomes of chimpanzees across their range!</p><p><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6erDm9-8whG1ZiPcmF4gxpZ14b4M7zTn2IWiuX3IUAHEZU2_iVK120mkU8M1h_KavMLHmOcCro7gApvaEseNfHndAeHhYiMux4OG8MkiEmmsQKqFR17PUHxRfi_iiMvjtNgX8sLCw-Y/s725/Capture2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="725" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6erDm9-8whG1ZiPcmF4gxpZ14b4M7zTn2IWiuX3IUAHEZU2_iVK120mkU8M1h_KavMLHmOcCro7gApvaEseNfHndAeHhYiMux4OG8MkiEmmsQKqFR17PUHxRfi_iiMvjtNgX8sLCw-Y/w400-h236/Capture2.JPG" width="400" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><b><u>tl;dr: </u></b><p></p><p>Genetics/geography are correlated with prokaryotic and parasite community dissimilarity. When controlling for these, vegetation also has an influence on prokaryotic community composition.</p><p>We also found some site-specific differences in prokaryote community composition (though not in Western chimps). </p><p>We discuss how regional tool use for resource extraction might be influencing site-specific differences & compare the patterns observed in chimps to those in humans.</p><p>Citation:</p><p>
<span style="color: #0000ee;"><u><a href="https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mSystems.01269-20" target="_blank">Bueno de Mesquita CP, Nichols LM, Gebert MJ, Vanderburgh C, Bocksberger G, Lester JD, Kalan AK, Dieguez P, McCarthy MS, Agbor A, Álvarez Varona P, Ayimisin AE, Bessone M, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Coupland C, Deschner T, Egbe VE, Goedmakers A, Granjon A-C, Grueter CC, Head J, Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Kadam P, Kaiser M, Lapuente J, Larson B, Marrocoli S, Morgan D, Mugerwa B, Mulindahabi F, Neil E, Niyigaba P, Pacheco L, Piel AK, Robbins MM, Rundus A, Sanz CM, Sciaky L, Sheil D, Sommer V, Stewart FA, Ton E, van Schijndel J, Vergnes V, Wessling EG, Wittig RM, Ginath YY, Yurkiw K, Zuberbühler K, Gogarten JF, Heintz-Buschart A, Muellner-Riehl AN, Boesch C, Kühl HS, Fierer N, Arandjelovic M*, Dunn RR* (2021) Structure of Chimpanzee Gut Microbiomes across Tropical Africa. Msystems doi: 10.1128/msystems.01269-20</a></u></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ee;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe87c32JFF9aLYFV5iWGX4wraj7RdKWzynHHdB8FKIW8sP0Tg0ZmUkYrGUVKv-DaQourMFwqEIbpdnIxgabtFvFuP5FGwNXkacl3HuR07Kqq00a0h57ZqYlW1Ko1_5cjEFZAZqG6UmZAU/s1157/Capture.JPG" style="font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="1157" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe87c32JFF9aLYFV5iWGX4wraj7RdKWzynHHdB8FKIW8sP0Tg0ZmUkYrGUVKv-DaQourMFwqEIbpdnIxgabtFvFuP5FGwNXkacl3HuR07Kqq00a0h57ZqYlW1Ko1_5cjEFZAZqG6UmZAU/w640-h370/Capture.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="color: #0000ee;"></span></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-6446702069615260772021-03-17T06:18:00.003-07:002022-03-09T07:07:20.462-08:00Chimp&See update, March 2021: What's done and what's here!<p> Hi everyone</p><p>We have started 2021 with a BANG!</p><p>In the last months look at all we have accomplished:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Finished chimp matching at XenonBloom (bye bye algae fishing chimps...for now ;) )</li><li>Finished chimp matching at SoaringLeaf and our first chimp matching site truly run by a mod and it was a HUGE success - thank you wonderful Heidi/Boleyn!!!</li><li>Opened the new Cameroon-Nigeria chimpanzee site GlowingCloud</li><li>Started<b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/3346/1884507" target="_blank"> GORILLA matching at Green Toadstool</a></b> - with an all new focus on silverbacks and groups thanks to the great ideas of, and lead by, our mod Anja/AnLand!</li><li>We did some housekeeping at New Dragonfly an identified all the unique chimps there - a big thank you to the scimods Paula/PauDG and Nuria/NuriaM for this big effort!</li><li>There has also been a huge effort at site clean up by our amazing team lead by Karen/Kikilee3 and Lucia/luca-chimp who are taking care of the videos with the need_id tags and wrong tags! Thank you ladies :)</li><li>We have a whole new set of "how to" videos curated by Carol/Eweforia <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2278/1731529" target="_blank">HERE</a></b> </li><li>We also have LOTS of new chimp matching tools including all the wonderful mug shots (including butt mug shots) curated by burdock/Libby and Carol/Eweforia</li><ul><li>for the<a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/4042/1895042" target="_blank"><b> Green Toadstool site check them out here</b></a>! </li></ul></ul><div>and what's happening now?</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We just launched <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/4042/1891621" target="_blank">CHIMP matching at GreenToadstool</a></b> which features some very exotic blond chimps and some clever honey collection with tools from a central chimp population</li></ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDY5iVwQG_jPAnf3pQ7Fn8JhXNzsBpEZDjbic-2pkhLGsyvPQvqMNKggso6Av_GOTtYgi_AdVDV-Fitc5RueDmOuMDz2CjvJU2YoFp3pn3ruj0RdttIkod-OHUYiyEMD8370blEP0Ink/s1280/c2ed360c-84e3-4037-a5bd-9c465877c919.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDY5iVwQG_jPAnf3pQ7Fn8JhXNzsBpEZDjbic-2pkhLGsyvPQvqMNKggso6Av_GOTtYgi_AdVDV-Fitc5RueDmOuMDz2CjvJU2YoFp3pn3ruj0RdttIkod-OHUYiyEMD8370blEP0Ink/w640-h360/c2ed360c-84e3-4037-a5bd-9c465877c919.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A <a href="ttps://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/36994518" target="_blank">blond chimp</a>! get involved in chimp matching at GreenToadstool to find her again!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>...We are<b> <a href="http://chimpandsee.org" target="_blank">annotating at GlowingCloud</a></b> with the SpeciesID, MonkeySee and TrottersID workflows</li><li>We have our ongoing <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2272/1453354" target="_blank"><b>elephant</b></a>, <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2271/1080109" target="_blank">leopard</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/3346" target="_blank">gorilla</a></b> matching projects plus the <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2278/965517" target="_blank"><b>animal selfies camera reaction</b></a> and <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2274/1397509?comment=2789416" target="_blank"><b>health issue</b></a> miniprojects. Click on the links to find out more :)</li></ul><div><br /></div><div>So what have we found?</div></div><div>At Xenon Bloom we named an incredible 92 chimps and found 4 unique chimps for a total of 96 at least, at this site!</div><div><br /></div><div>At Soaring Leaf we named 21 chimps and found 8 unique for a total of at east 29 chimps at that site :)</div><div><br /></div><div>We saw a lot of stone throwing and the <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/3897/1817560" target="_blank">incredible night time displays of multiple chimps</a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxwSN0m24_ZygU_usIEDLNcQ0hVoEMMM86i0zyxi8x_j-Pk6k_PvJfAdSPWFl3F9reAI_PH1IEYGrn3NgMdBQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div>The three most often seen and recognized chimps (thanks to their unique features) even inspired an epic ballad by TheWeez15/Zaneb aka Sev : <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2467/1870411" target="_blank">Our Leopard-Muzzled Grock</a></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvrdZPOzym10lwNq8d2424JcS5nVnYFFB8B3tU0tEMGqWzKWm1Xb_z4OH0KvTH59k_ftGqkAlCNAySwnL068G-mHz2e_B1VgogPtPGPxF5wMNSRz0KMCJ5gyXQ-u4h98BbOvUB_EKfYM/s1280/bcc37f36-a350-41a0-81b7-36f793789e56.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvrdZPOzym10lwNq8d2424JcS5nVnYFFB8B3tU0tEMGqWzKWm1Xb_z4OH0KvTH59k_ftGqkAlCNAySwnL068G-mHz2e_B1VgogPtPGPxF5wMNSRz0KMCJ5gyXQ-u4h98BbOvUB_EKfYM/w640-h360/bcc37f36-a350-41a0-81b7-36f793789e56.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/36070715" target="_blank">Grock</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>A big thank you and big pant hoots always to our awesome mod team especially Heike/HeikeW and Zuzi/yshish who are a massive support during these busy times! and as well to our tech support hero Colleen/sassydumbledore, you are THE BEST!</div><div><br /></div><div>We are looking for new chimp matchers, check out <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/4042/1891621" target="_blank">THIS POST</a></b> and sign up for the team calls :)</div><p></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-49931165653927152242021-03-16T01:45:00.004-07:002021-03-16T02:48:56.589-07:00The different African elephant species<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YwzsMcKOzbM" width="320" youtube-src-id="YwzsMcKOzbM"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It has been believed for years that there
was only one African elephant species, the savanna elephant (<i>Loxodonta africana</i>),
and the small forest elephant was a subspecies. It was only some years ago that
the forest elephant (<i>Loxodonta cyclotis</i>) was finally considered as
another African elephant species, when research had found that these two
elephants are genetically distinct from one another. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I say finally, because by recognizing their
status as species and not as subspecies, one can best manage a designed
elephant conservation strategy. Forest elephants are ecologically, socially,
morphologically and genetically different to savanna elephants, and that´s why
a strategy particularly designed is needed. The decline of the forest elephant
population represents the decline of an entire endangered species, and not just
of a sub-population. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">So now we have two recognized African
elephant species, the forest and the savanna elephants; but really? Two
species? what about the Congo Pygmy elephants, have you ever heard about them? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>A bit of history: </b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">the first supposed pygmy elephant was evidenced
in a Zoo in Germany (Hamburg Zoo) and then moved to New York, but the authors
described it as a very small forest elephant found in Congo and South Western
Uganda.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The zoo elephant was a young male called
Congo and described by Noack (1906) as <i>Elephas africanus pumilio</i>, later
known as <i>Loxodonta pumilio</i> or <i>fransseni</i>. Congo was a small young
male with very round ears that reminded a lot of the recently known to science
forest elephant (described at the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century by
Matschie, 1900)<sup>1</sup>. Ever since their discovery, the pygmy elephant
status has been debated. Some scientists have supported their existence, most
haven´t. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Although the disputed pygmy elephants of
the Congo basin are thought to be another separate species by cryptozoologists,
it is unanimously believed that those are actually forest elephants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">One explanation to why scientists thought
to have found a different species of elephants back in the 20<sup>th</sup>
century could be that they were at that time unfamiliar with the growth patterns
and social structure of elephants and thus what they described to be a herd of
very small elephants, was actually a herd where the big matriarch had died and
thus there remained young females and calves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There are also voices that claim that this
unusually small size of the forest elephants that made the scientists believe
in the existence of a third species was due to an early maturity as a result of
environmental conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The scientists conclude that the specific
taxon <i>Loxodonta pumilio</i> (or <i>Loxodonta fransseni</i>) should be
abandoned; so to the question, yes, there are two different African elephant
species: savanna and forest elephants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br clear="ALL" style="mso-ignore: vglayout;" />
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_70pCgEamcVLWmUPdDZM6qRVepQDOCK360NvKjbOhoMEyxzDIZoDE53Mpgtiesjxbce_F8zy8_ZHqKh65RtWmB25QfmSmARZt5Mc8Hs2trwsGNROa4KDlkWtF-LEqDgRUmD5c1Wu05U/s409/Congo+pygmy+ele.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="303" data-original-width="409" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_70pCgEamcVLWmUPdDZM6qRVepQDOCK360NvKjbOhoMEyxzDIZoDE53Mpgtiesjxbce_F8zy8_ZHqKh65RtWmB25QfmSmARZt5Mc8Hs2trwsGNROa4KDlkWtF-LEqDgRUmD5c1Wu05U/s320/Congo+pygmy+ele.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span color="windowtext" lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 9pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Congo,
a presumed pygmy elephant, now classified as <i>Loxodonta cyclotis </i>(African
forest elephant). </span></h3>
<h1><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>How different are they?</h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The forest elephants are smaller and thus
lighter. Their skin is smoother, with longer hairs (mostly on their trunks) and
long eyelashes, that protect their eyes while they walk through the dense
forest. Their ears are rounder (cycle=round, otis=ear), the savanna elephant
ears have the African continent shape. Like the savanna elephants, both sexes
have tusks, but those of the forest species are more or less straight and
thinner. The forest elephants have 5 toenails on the front feet and 4 on the
hind feet (like the Asian elephants), while the savanna elephants have 4 on the
front feet and 3 on the back. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The forest elephants live in smaller family
groups (and often more disperse) than savanna elephants and have a different
diet, the latter´s consisting basically of grass, whereas the forest elephants
eat more browse, tree leaves and fruits. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h1><span lang="EN-US">What´s their geographical range?<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">As their name suggests, the African forest
elephants live in Africa’s forests. While they once inhabited a larger range,
they now are confined to the tropical forests of Equatorial West and Central
Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The geographical range of the African
savanna elephants is wider, but in some areas their distribution overlaps with
that of the forest elephants in Central and Eastern Africa. Some scientists
talk about “hybrid zones” facilitated by poaching and habitat modifications,
and defend the theory that these species can interbreed over more than one
generation, which demonstrates that hybrids are fertile<sup>2</sup>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h1><span lang="EN-US">Which African elephant species do we see in Chimp&See?<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In almost every Chimp&See site where we
have found elephants, we have seen forest elephants. But due to that territory
overlapping there have been some sites where the elephants weren´t so small
anymore. I am referring to Green Snowflake and Restless Star, where both
species coexist, whose range overlap and where both species may be inter
breeding, and to Soaring Leaf, where we have seen savanna elephants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Check the Chimp&See <i><span lang="EN-US"><b>Loxodonta africana</b></span></i><span lang="EN-US"><b> :</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbP1dfb-1LjhobM5GF0XRrD_hBrAjgF9lp5UqkLrm-K8-A5B1udZKSbeUzGXl4isj45fAHhQu2uXnP5oyNpcQpTbjRcCU51XH6kX6mgyE6rHBm3y4FgCcbgTu_L-9LUiD4nunoKiuNFZU/s765/LA_SL.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="765" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbP1dfb-1LjhobM5GF0XRrD_hBrAjgF9lp5UqkLrm-K8-A5B1udZKSbeUzGXl4isj45fAHhQu2uXnP5oyNpcQpTbjRcCU51XH6kX6mgyE6rHBm3y4FgCcbgTu_L-9LUiD4nunoKiuNFZU/w260-h228/LA_SL.JPG" width="260" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/36088207" target="_blank">Soaring Leaf</a></span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOsVeyHHRZxuu7OA7vNHUeAPr0vnOlvXmcsips7G4cA5BJHdSvpHcm2X9qEbxT8mfk7XtzyJes1ewE8DPMqK34KBzqZWAjCVwCJxKhFhXwtFyGFaMUMWD6aQTg73bLNQ7LMEM2bR3N5s/s256/LA_RS.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOsVeyHHRZxuu7OA7vNHUeAPr0vnOlvXmcsips7G4cA5BJHdSvpHcm2X9qEbxT8mfk7XtzyJes1ewE8DPMqK34KBzqZWAjCVwCJxKhFhXwtFyGFaMUMWD6aQTg73bLNQ7LMEM2bR3N5s/s0/LA_RS.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://talk.chimpandsee.org/subjects/ACP000bfq2/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Restless Star</a><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij00HphZwZeSJoW7mB6N5VmSSgzmql8EEf38rL_TU_ZfrgBLlFllvTPEYHign4sU8lSeJS-RBiZkTAlu1kssdrtJj2Sf1CgZlIn3xMuLP_nDM670aPwfJFM-45p5CkJRHQnXfF1-oCrro/s268/LA_GS.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="175" data-original-width="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij00HphZwZeSJoW7mB6N5VmSSgzmql8EEf38rL_TU_ZfrgBLlFllvTPEYHign4sU8lSeJS-RBiZkTAlu1kssdrtJj2Sf1CgZlIn3xMuLP_nDM670aPwfJFM-45p5CkJRHQnXfF1-oCrro/s0/LA_GS.JPG" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US"><div style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://talk.chimpandsee.org/subjects/ACP000cr5l/" target="_blank">The big Gabela</a>, Green Snowflake (how many
front toenails can you count?)</span> </div></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">and compare them to the Chimp&See </span><i><span lang="EN-US"><b>Loxodonta cyclotis</b></span></i><span lang="EN-US"><b>:</b></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcp_uiNc6pECfbwkLyic8ipYBpcrsXL-3d_OaDXPvMZbbsJr6rfFJX-mdFWzu6ym02EytHUvrUayDODJhCpb90nxhR1scUvfwk5JbYa1hYM6SfR_cmlz2_Dzakm-f_v-VrhXzisvSU7JE/s661/Sahndra.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="486" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcp_uiNc6pECfbwkLyic8ipYBpcrsXL-3d_OaDXPvMZbbsJr6rfFJX-mdFWzu6ym02EytHUvrUayDODJhCpb90nxhR1scUvfwk5JbYa1hYM6SfR_cmlz2_Dzakm-f_v-VrhXzisvSU7JE/s320/Sahndra.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/35819524" target="_blank">Sahndra</a>, Twin Oaks </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hUdq_BShxL99scACowCLq_kW34tXk8jRMOSupP6rQVmm7gGMzzIDx_5u7I0x0OYrlmlzglU-ayMgQh4a_Sd_9hHORqqMRVqGWCBxF5tQm_wFFAbfsLA1w7-wY-9hOd_IOqiNY2zUbQo/s515/Tayo_5.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="323" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5hUdq_BShxL99scACowCLq_kW34tXk8jRMOSupP6rQVmm7gGMzzIDx_5u7I0x0OYrlmlzglU-ayMgQh4a_Sd_9hHORqqMRVqGWCBxF5tQm_wFFAbfsLA1w7-wY-9hOd_IOqiNY2zUbQo/s320/Tayo_5.JPG" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href=" https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/tags/Tayo" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Tayo</a><span style="text-align: left;">, Twin Oaks</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AbH17mn2Bu3uOurhKfYo1ICb-3cZyAr2CTzDoJimZ-1GN8Kvnpjt22vtHgHnFJniwm3hQ2CRiXCO1XuK_n3o4aIJS5NlXjZElrVuehX_-yPmsj14UeXT8_N_9xdc9nEH88EIZWvnG6E/s519/Jino_2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="431" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6AbH17mn2Bu3uOurhKfYo1ICb-3cZyAr2CTzDoJimZ-1GN8Kvnpjt22vtHgHnFJniwm3hQ2CRiXCO1XuK_n3o4aIJS5NlXjZElrVuehX_-yPmsj14UeXT8_N_9xdc9nEH88EIZWvnG6E/s320/Jino_2.JPG" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/37140377" target="_blank">Jino</a>, Green Toadstool</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you want to see more awesome elephant videos, check our <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2272">Elephant Discussion Board</a>. Please feel free to post any comment or anything that you want to know about elephants in that board! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">Ref:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"> 1. Groves, C. P., & Grubb, P.
(2000). Are there Pygmy Elephants?. Elephant, 2(4), 8-10. Doi: 10.22237/elephant/1521732181<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> 2. Mondol, Samrat & Moltke,
Ida & Hart, John & Keigwin, Michael & Brown, Lisa & Stephens,
Matthew & Wasser, Samuel. (2015). New evidence for hybrid zones of forest
and savanna elephants in Central and West Africa. Molecular ecology. 24.
10.1111/mec.13472</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">https://www.iucnredlist.org/</a></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/forest-elephant">https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/forest-elephant</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://www.bwindiimpenetrablenationalpark.com/see/wildlife/mammals/elephants/">https://www.bwindiimpenetrablenationalpark.com/see/wildlife/mammals/elephants/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://animalcorner.org/animals/african-forest-elephant/">https://animalcorner.org/animals/african-forest-elephant/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>Nuria Maldonadohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09334179243589349480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-44170211278371745652021-03-05T03:33:00.009-08:002021-03-05T03:53:30.881-08:00New PanAf paper: Recent genetic connectivity and clinal variation in chimpanzees<p><a href="https://www.mpg.de/16538522/0303-evan-chimpanzees-without-borders-150495-x" target="_blank">From our press release : Chimpanzees Without Borders</a></p><p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01806-x" target="_blank">new large-scale study</a> uncovers recent genetic connectivity between chimpanzee subspecies despite past isolation events</p><p>Much like us, chimpanzees, occupy diverse habitats and exhibit extensive behavioural variation. Human genetic variation however changes along a gradient, with no races and some areas of local genetic adaptation. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are divided into four subspecies separated by geographic barriers like rivers. Previous studies attempting to understand chimpanzee population histories have been limited either by a poor geographic distribution of samples, samples of uncertain origin or different types of genetic markers. Due to these obstacles, some studies have shown clear separations between chimpanzee subspecies while others suggest a genetic gradient across the species as in humans.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvi_M_g8rEMAdmgh965pl7vJnpwTIDQz6ifPtbymAFTr3lGgkpxS_NXGBKTF2CFS4Pzv-Hke2oqzEUnROpeFrmL7dtuEaM1iRUJrtgs7RSIfOPWVopj7sh3M-F9hK42H50wp_hlIQRRJ8/s1383/map2forpressrelease.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1383" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvi_M_g8rEMAdmgh965pl7vJnpwTIDQz6ifPtbymAFTr3lGgkpxS_NXGBKTF2CFS4Pzv-Hke2oqzEUnROpeFrmL7dtuEaM1iRUJrtgs7RSIfOPWVopj7sh3M-F9hK42H50wp_hlIQRRJ8/w640-h293/map2forpressrelease.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Chimpanzee dung samples were collected across Africa to determine if populations were recently connected despite historical barriers to gene flow.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">To resolve this dichotomy, researchers from the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and a team of international researchers, collected over 5000 fecal samples from 55 sites in 18 countries across the chimpanzee range over 8 years. This is by far the most complete sampling of the species to date, with a known location of origin for every sample, thus addressing the sampling limitations of previous studies. “Collecting these samples was often a daunting task for our amazing field teams. The chimpanzees were almost all unhabituated to human presence, so it took a lot of patience, skill and luck to find chimpanzee dung at each of the sites,” explains Mimi Arandjelovic, co-director of the PanAf and senior author of the study.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTmfxxLaaiaWCQbDnQfpXt6NLA_YkDinrpBfuEeSVJnz52zrNYgerLj6luI2FwqvHhGnB6nMbOlOdhHXGLsMoJSk89e0aufXwzapvXwVjqAaihEREcxX5USvpwZAXCjG3ppsgwmzpH8Q/s969/Picture4.tif" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="969" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiTmfxxLaaiaWCQbDnQfpXt6NLA_YkDinrpBfuEeSVJnz52zrNYgerLj6luI2FwqvHhGnB6nMbOlOdhHXGLsMoJSk89e0aufXwzapvXwVjqAaihEREcxX5USvpwZAXCjG3ppsgwmzpH8Q/s320/Picture4.tif" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Anthony Agbor, co-author of the study and field site manager at several PanAf sites, prepares samples for processing in the field.</i></span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Jack Lester, first author of the study, explains: “We used rapidly-evolving genetic markers that reflect the recent population history of species and, in combination with the dense sampling from across their range, we show that chimpanzee subspecies have been connected, or, more likely, reconnected, for extended periods during the most recent maximal expansion of African forests.”</p><p>So although chimpanzees were separated into different subspecies in their distant past, prior to the rise of recent anthropogenic disturbances, the proposed subspecies-specific geographic barriers were permeable to chimpanzee dispersal. Paolo Gratton, co-author of the study and researcher at the Università di Roma “Tor Vergata” adds: “It is widely thought that chimpanzees persisted in forest refugia during glacial periods, which has likely been responsible for isolating groups of populations which we now recognize as subspecies. Our results from fast-evolving microsatellite DNA markers however indicate that genetic connectivity in the most recent millennia mainly mirrors geographic distance and local factors, masking the older subspecies subdivisions.”</p><p>Furthermore, “these results suggest that the great behavioural diversity observed in chimpanzees are therefore not due to local genetic adaptation but that they rely on behavioural flexibility, much like humans, to respond to changes in their environment,” notes Hjalmar Kuehl, co-director of the PanAf and researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research.</p><p>The team also observed signals of reductions in diversity at some sites that appeared to be associated with recent anthropogenic pressures. In fact, at some locations PanAf teams visited no, or few, chimpanzees were detected despite recordings of their presence within the last decades. “Although not unforeseen, we were disheartened to already find the influence of human impacts at some field sites where genetic diversity was markedly lower than what we expected,” says Jack Lester.</p><p>These results highlight the importance of genetic connectivity for chimpanzees in their recent history. “Every effort should be made to re-establish and maintain dispersal corridors across their range, with perhaps special attention to trans-national protected areas,” notes Christophe Boesch, co-director of the PanAf and director of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation. Chimpanzees are known to be adaptable to human disturbance and can survive in human-modified landscapes, however, habitat loss, zoonotic diseases, bushmeat and pet trades are all threats to chimpanzee survival. These results warn of future critical impacts on their genetic health and viability if habitat fragmentation and isolation continue unabated.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNE_ie5SopnT4a9sXibhwJMArjxC_qwgQpl0jekV5AwBEQX8aBajNaLdvet7gydPcw0Jy0SJ3ESGuUe9Tq_UzKNs4tT7eMm0wh6NZXjq3zU7Wd4cy4Ny9h9KrQmW4ekSEf7ezbYmV4N3k/s854/chimpandseechimp.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="854" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNE_ie5SopnT4a9sXibhwJMArjxC_qwgQpl0jekV5AwBEQX8aBajNaLdvet7gydPcw0Jy0SJ3ESGuUe9Tq_UzKNs4tT7eMm0wh6NZXjq3zU7Wd4cy4Ny9h9KrQmW4ekSEf7ezbYmV4N3k/w400-h228/chimpandseechimp.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">As the chimpanzees were not habituated to human presence, scat samples were used as sources of DNA for the study. Here a chimpanzee from one of the study areas is recorded by a PanAf camera trap. At the <a href="http://chimpandsee.org" target="_blank">Chimp&See</a> citizen science project, all PanAf videos can be viewed and annotated.</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>Citation:</p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-01806-x" target="_blank">Lester JD, Vigilant L, Gratton P, McCarthy MS, Barratt CD, Dieguez P, Agbor A, Álvarez-Varona P, Angedakin S, Ayimisin EA, Bailey E, Bessone M, Brazzola G, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Danquah E, Deschner T, Egbe VE, Eno-Nku M, Goedmakers A, Granjon AC, Head J, Hedwig D, Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Junker J, Kadam P, Kaiser M, Kalan AK, Kehoe L, Kienast I, Langergraber KE, Lapuente J, Laudisoit A, Lee K, Marrocoli S, Mihindou V, Morgan D, Muhanguzi G, Neil E, Nicholl S, Orbell C, Ormsby LJ, Pacheco L, Piel A, Robbins MM, Rundus A, Sanz C, Sciaky L, Siaka AM, Städele V, Stewart F, Tagg N, Ton E, van Schijndel J, Vyalengerera MK, Wessling EG, Willie J, Wittig RM, Yuh YG, Yurkiw K, Zuberbuehler K, Boesch C, Kühl HS, Arandjelovic M (2021) Recent genetic connectivity and clinal variation in chimpanzees. Communications Biology</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-24608101193411176512021-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:002021-02-12T08:00:29.531-08:00Happy Lunar New Year – The Year of the Ox!Today starts the new lunar year – also called the Chinese New Year, but celebrated in many Asian countries. 2021 is the Year of the Ox and as every year, we want to take the opportunity to highlight the respective species – or a close African relative – from the Chimp&See cameratrap video footage. This year, it is of course the <b><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/tags/forest_buffalo" target="_blank">forest buffalo</a></b>! <div><br /></div><div>African forest buffalos (<i>Syncerus caffer nanus</i>) are a subspecies of the African buffalo – smaller than the ones you see in the savannahs of South and East Africa, but still impressive in their build. Adults of both sexes have short C-shaped horns that point back. Coloration is dark reddish to brown with an even darker line down the spine and darker lower legs. The ears have adorable black and white fringes. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the past five years since we started with your help to analyze our video footage, we’ve seen forest buffalos relatively rarely. This all changed with starting the <a href="https://twitter.com/loangochimps" target="_blank">Twin Oaks (Loango, Gabon) site in collaboration with the Ozouga Loango Chimpanzee Project</a>. The mixed landscape consisting of several habitat types varying from coastal lagoons, mangrove swamps, coastal forest, secondary and primary forest and open savannah seem to be ideally suited for this species. They can graze in the forest clearings and use the wetter habitats for wallowing to keep insects away. They usually have some help with the latter part from yellow-billed oxpeckers cleaning patiently their coats.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XH_Cw7xZ3n4impc-bjzoGN09RMkxofHovUWdCrbtRpTPTurav86kZsbSjmU6CdMJavajqcgMtnbAmzgUKFsWEFbkmgBDE3G2hVfRpuqCV4Y6XmO3lZuCJpUZBbYd0obSMx3Slq6oVRA-/s1920/buffalo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Two yellow-billed oxpecker cleaning a forest buffalo's fur" border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8XH_Cw7xZ3n4impc-bjzoGN09RMkxofHovUWdCrbtRpTPTurav86kZsbSjmU6CdMJavajqcgMtnbAmzgUKFsWEFbkmgBDE3G2hVfRpuqCV4Y6XmO3lZuCJpUZBbYd0obSMx3Slq6oVRA-/w640-h360/buffalo.jpg" title="Two yellow-billed oxpecker cleaning a forest buffalo's fur" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two yellow-billed oxpeckers cleaning a forest buffalo's fur. Original video <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/subjects/35864162" target="_blank">here</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>Forest buffalos are seen at night and day. They sometimes discover our cameratrap and react to this in different ways. <b>Please enjoy some video highlights from our forest buffalos, have some good Asian food of your choice, and a happy and prosperous new year!</b></div><div><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gn7beKlp8YA" width="560"></iframe></b></div>Anja Landsmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364309477578991385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-50397137921201044532021-01-20T22:44:00.001-08:002021-01-20T22:44:26.881-08:00The Best of the best in 20202020 has been a difficult year for many and it seems to us that Chimp&See – as other online citizen science projects as well – could provide a little bit of relief and entertainment amongst the turmoil in the world. We had a huge spike in classifications and new volunteers. We are grateful for all the help and support for our project. We love your interest in annotating our wildlife videos from all over Africa, especially the chimpanzees, and your questions while doing so. During the year, we worked on four sites that are in various stages of near-completion and a mini-project. <div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div>The science team also published the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.7128" target="_blank">first Chimp&See paper in Ecology and Evolution</a> that investigated how reliably volunteers at Chimp&See can identify individual chimpanzees from cameratrap footage only. For this, they compared the matching results of Chimp&See volunteers with chimp identifications by scientists from the same videos. The scientists knew those (habituated) chimpanzees from fieldwork. The results are promising: despite identifying fewer chimpanzees in the videos (only about 50% of the chimpanzees present ended up to be successfully matched to another chimp), the Chimp&See volunteers could reliably identify the members of this “test community”. That means, they identified (nearly) the same number of chimpanzees, but identified each chimp less often. The team created a great video abstract that you can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBC9eQXGYt4" target="_blank">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before Christmas, we asked you about your “Best of 2020” – your biggest surprise, creepiest and funniest clips, the best camera reaction, and of course your favorite chimpanzee. We compiled all nominations, made poll, and here are the results from your votes: </div><div> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3><b>Favorite chimp 2020: Freddy - or at Chimp&See called Loango-Freddy<br /></b></h3></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dS43xQtGcpo" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3><b>The funniest video 2020: giant kingfisher vs. bird<br /></b></h3></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UtwUvdvK9nU" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3><b>The creepiest video 2020: his gait looks painful, but elephant Hawking is our hero!<br /></b></h3></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k-o9craYvQA" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3><b>The biggest surprise 2020: no comment needed ;-)<br /></b></h3></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/et2J9pvtHoQ" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><h3><b>The best camera reaction: researchers having fun<br /></b></h3></div><div> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mmzB8RoUhsw" width="560"></iframe></div><div> <br /></div></div><div><br /></div>
If you missed the voting stage, but want to see all nominations – please check out the playlist on our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3sSfL6ORHk&list=PLfXbqEHZbXCsC7WPuX8QZPBvX6yax3VO2" target="_blank">youtube channel</a> (and subscribe for more - <span>we post every Wednesday</span>!)<div><br /><div><b>What will happen in 2021? </b>Well, we have many more research sites coming, needing furthermore your help to annotate the videos to the species level in three workflows: <b>‘Species ID’</b>, <b>‘MonkeySee’</b>, and <b>‘Trotters ID’</b>. Currently, the Central African site <b>Green Toadstool</b> is in the classification phase and chimp matching is starting <span>at</span> <b>Soaring Leaf </b>– a West African site – on January 25th. Check out the <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/3897/1791375" target="_blank">intro post</a>, read the instructions, and become part of the team! </div><div><br /></div><div>We will also move forward with the leopard and elephant mini-projects in 2021 and start gorilla identification, too.
<br /><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to all who voted, nominated, classified, and tagged videos at <a href="http://www.chimpandsee.org" target="_blank">Chimp&See</a>! We hope to see you around furthermore this year. Please come over and discover the secret life of chimpanzees (and gorillas, and leopards, and all the other critters).
</div></div></div>Anja Landsmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364309477578991385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-80078171435714235212021-01-14T08:22:00.008-08:002021-01-14T08:35:42.105-08:00Best of 2020 Poll - Vote now!<p><a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2279/1753686?comment=2903463&page=3" target="_blank">Reposted from the Chimp&See Talk discussion by Anja Landsmann (AnLand)</a></p><p> Hi everybody!</p><p>Thanks again for your nominations for our Best of 2020! I had lots of fun watching and preparing the videos for the final poll of the Best-of videos! Now it’s time to vote for the Very Best of the Best!</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is the poll: <a href="https://forms.gle/9hENRRBzbqF1CvRS6">https://forms.gle/9hENRRBzbqF1CvRS6</a></span></b></p><p>Please choose your favorite video in each of the five categories and submit the choices. The videos are uploaded to youtube and can be watched directly in the survey document or on our youtube channel: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3sSfL6ORHk&list=PLfXbqEHZbXCsC7WPuX8QZPBvX6yax3VO2&index=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/c/ChimpandSee/</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j3sSfL6ORHk" width="320" youtube-src-id="j3sSfL6ORHk"></iframe></div><br /><p>The poll ends on January 20th (next Wednesday) and we will post the results – the winner and a runner’s up for each category here and on our blog afterwards.</p><p>Thanks for having you here and helping enthusiastically with our project,</p><p>The Chimp&See team</p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11053231478359501631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-36174199151603328102020-12-28T04:52:00.007-08:002020-12-28T04:54:50.205-08:00Welcome to GreenToadstool!<p> <span data-offset-key="2bg1i-0-0" face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You, our absolutely incredible citizen scientists</span><span data-offset-key="2bg1i-2-0" face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">, got through the SoaringLeaf speciesID workflow SUPER FAST and before the end of the year! </span></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="a8jsj" data-offset-key="9drrq-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9drrq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="9drrq-0-0"> ...So...</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9drrq-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="9drrq-0-0"><br /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="a8jsj" data-offset-key="do0ss-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="do0ss-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="do0ss-0-0">We opened a new site: Welcome to GreenToadstool!</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="a8jsj" data-offset-key="5ca9r-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5ca9r-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="5ca9r-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="a8jsj" data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0">more here: </span><span style="color: #1b95e0;">https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2279/1756848</span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span style="color: #1b95e0;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Uw3gSQJRxs" width="320" youtube-src-id="2Uw3gSQJRxs"></iframe></div><br /><span style="color: #1b95e0;"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="68o2o-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span style="color: #1b95e0;"><br /></span></div></div>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-65518405240876019922020-12-17T03:11:00.005-08:002020-12-17T03:11:39.613-08:00First Chimp&See Paper (and new PanAf paper): Chimpanzee Identification and Social Network Construction through an Online Citizen Science Platform<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Our first <a href="http://ChimpandSee.org">ChimpandSee.org</a> paper! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We find that citizen scientists can reliably identify chimpanzees from camera trap videos. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">McCarthy MS, Stephens C, Dieguez P, Samuni L, Després-Einspenner ML, Harder B, Landsmann A, Lynn LK, Maldonado N, Ročkaiová Z, Widness J, Wittig RM, Boesch C, Kühl HS, Arandjelovic M (2020) Chimpanzee Identification and Social Network Construction through an Online Citizen Science Platform. Ecology and Evolution doi : 10.1002/ece3.7128</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.7128">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.7128</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Video abstract:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="350" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBC9eQXGYt4" width="421" youtube-src-id="NBC9eQXGYt4"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Abstract:</div>Citizen science has grown rapidly in popularity in recent years due to its potential to educate and engage the public while providing a means to address a myriad of scientific questions. However, the rise in popularity of citizen science has also been accompanied by concerns about the quality of data emerging from citizen science research projects. We assessed data quality in the online citizen scientist platform Chimp&See, which hosts camera trap videos of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other species across Equatorial Africa. In particular, we compared detection and identification of individual chimpanzees by citizen scientists with that of experts with years of experience studying those chimpanzees. We found that citizen scientists typically detected the same number of individual chimpanzees as experts, but assigned far fewer identifications (IDs) to those individuals. Those IDs assigned, however, were nearly always in agreement with the IDs provided by experts. We applied the data sets of citizen scientists and experts by constructing social networks from each. We found that both social networks were relatively robust and shared a similar structure, as well as having positively correlated individual network positions. Our findings demonstrate that, although citizen scientists produced a smaller data set based on fewer confirmed IDs, the data strongly reflect expert classifications and can be used for meaningful assessments of group structure and dynamics. This approach expands opportunities for social research and conservation monitoring in great apes and many other individually identifiable species.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Visit us at <a href="http://ChimpandSee.org">ChimpandSee.org</a> and participate in citizen science!</div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-61885841800465593292020-11-07T01:35:00.000-08:002020-11-07T01:35:07.576-08:00Another site is finished – Twin Oaks in the beautiful Loango National Park in Gabon<p>Last week, volunteers finished classifications in all three workflows for the Twin Oaks site in Gabon. This site was pretty special. First, it was just a beautiful forest landscape with many fancy birds, great elephant footage, and far more leopard sightings that we ever had at any site before. The <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2272" target="_blank">elephant </a>and <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2271" target="_blank">leopard mini-projects</a> are still gathering evidence for individual identifications to know more about the number and demographics of these species at Loango National Park, so get involved here, if that’s your passion.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCdtbD6t4N97yYqwdQnTAKTYEJxRJLrYyTZ_CbZzj3nU8X_2b7VN4frPyrPfpO3NrKrx32bDDjAWi9LU7sS2q9sTmRtiQRH8UPfnoaWvkbSOddH56hwcV6IFNbhWOHN6TU21ALAytHGzO/s2508/uCcQJJ2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1254" data-original-width="2508" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXCdtbD6t4N97yYqwdQnTAKTYEJxRJLrYyTZ_CbZzj3nU8X_2b7VN4frPyrPfpO3NrKrx32bDDjAWi9LU7sS2q9sTmRtiQRH8UPfnoaWvkbSOddH56hwcV6IFNbhWOHN6TU21ALAytHGzO/w640-h320/uCcQJJ2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Chimp&See leopard mini-project aims to identify individual leopards by comparing their unique coat patterns.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Secondly, the site was pretty special in terms of chimpanzee sightings and discussions. The camera traps had been set up in collaboration with the <a href="https://twitter.com/loangochimps" target="_blank">Loango Chimpanzee Project</a>, directed by Simone Pika and Tobias Deschner. The Loango Chimpanzee Project studies chimpanzee behavior and ecology in the Park since 2005 and habituated the Rekambo community that was also targeted by the Chimp&See camera traps. A recent finding of the project that made the news shows that <a href="https://www.mpg.de/13497324/0520-evan-019609-tortoises-on-the-menu" target="_blank">chimpanzees crack tortoises</a> open to eat them. <p></p><div><br /></div><div>Because of this collaboration, we had the chance to discuss with a researcher, Alessandra Mascaro, and Chimp&See citizen-scientist moderator Heidi Pfund about individual chimps that Alessandra knows intimately from her fieldwork. That means, we did not really discuss possible matches, but rather perspectives and identifiable traits of known chimpanzees. This “reverse matching” resulted in a steep learning curve for everyone involved and provided some new matching perspectives, but also caveats, for other sites where we typically discuss unknown chimps from just the camera trap footage. Another interesting part of these discussions were known family relationships and life stories of the chimps, even if that meant to know that a certain individual died during or after the study period. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hACBKfdRpic" width="560"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Finishing Twin Oaks doesn’t mean that we’ve run out of work. We started a two-months <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2279/1666507" target="_blank">“chimp matching challenge”</a> to finish the huge Xenon Bloom site. Become part of the team and help us identify all chimps and annotate the videos. We also opened a new site “Soaring Leaf” in West Africa, if you’re more drawn to the general “Species ID” workflow. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Get involved at <a href="http://chimpandsee.org">chimpandsee.org</a> and thanks a lot for all your help on behalf of the Chimp&See science team!
</b></div>Anja Landsmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364309477578991385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-71560322408796165612020-10-05T07:28:00.000-07:002020-10-05T07:28:45.080-07:00New Dragonfly is finished – here the highlights!<p>With the help of many volunteers, we finished classifications last week at our West African site “New Dragonfly”. We annotated not only all subjects in general Species ID workflow, but also identified all “trotters” (hoofed animals) and primates to the species level. Thanks to everyone involved for the great effort! </p><p><b>What did we find?</b> On the species level, we've seen <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/tags/waterbuck" target="_blank">waterbucks</a> for the first time, many bushbucks close to the camera, and burly giant forest hogs. A special highlight for many has been the rich footage of <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/tags/pangolin">pangolins</a> and <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/tags/aardvark">aardvarks</a> in the wild. We do see them rarely and New Dragonly offered some really close looks. </p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mFuJSZqSQ6g" width="560"></iframe></div>
<p> </p><p>On the <b>chimp side</b>, we are not quite done with matching all individuals seen and you are still invited to help with <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/sassydumbledore/chimp-and-see/talk/2627" target="_blank">chimp identification at New Dragonfly</a>. We already identified some very special chimps, like wonderful Grace here with her infant, but would love some input in discussions about the juveniles and some special males. Easiest to get involved is by following the link above and read the pinned discussions that have open proposals (marked with **), watch the videos and chimps in question, and tell us what you think. <br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCw6gWQF19X4U7IHtZQ-CWIfSx6vJA1bIhS4bmT9TZKyGMTiWDIZCm0I20BbYhWVCS5xI2wXtCogal1IysjdMdQDAumSPit6Go6tb9JZTmjf0VrcnF4j5p1meIJMQoc5qnpHjVXvLcV1J/s1280/5179ce8c-b98d-433f-bb89-799ac5d51d98.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCw6gWQF19X4U7IHtZQ-CWIfSx6vJA1bIhS4bmT9TZKyGMTiWDIZCm0I20BbYhWVCS5xI2wXtCogal1IysjdMdQDAumSPit6Go6tb9JZTmjf0VrcnF4j5p1meIJMQoc5qnpHjVXvLcV1J/w640-h360/5179ce8c-b98d-433f-bb89-799ac5d51d98.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grace with her yet unnamed infant discovering the camera. Her unique face helped with identification.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The chimps at New Dragonfly showed us plenty of <b>tool use</b> to collect ants with very fine sticks and delicate handling to avoid any biting, as well as <b>honey extraction</b> with long, sturdy sticks to gather honey from beehives in tree holes and underground nests. The tools are used here to open bee nests (e.g., by pounding) and to collect the honey. The chimp family in this video shows how it is done. </p><p></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Co7VtpSbSDE" width="560"></iframe></div>
<p> </p><p>If you are not into chimp matching, Chimp&See has three workflows on a very special site at Gabon's Loango National Park - called Twin Oaks - open, where you can help annotate within the general Species ID workflow or specialize in primates or trotters identification. You can find the Loango Chimpanzee Project also on <a href="https://twitter.com/loangochimps" target="_blank">Twitter </a>and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM7Fg0ctVaeVtoHqVqk4Ldw" target="_blank">Youtube</a>.</p><p><b>If you aren't volunteering with us yet - please get involved and annotate African wildlife at <a href="www.chimpandsee.org/" target="_blank">Chimp&See</a>!</b><br /></p>Anja Landsmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364309477578991385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-56900161208730309902020-09-18T14:35:00.003-07:002020-09-18T14:35:34.407-07:00New PanAf paper: Chimpanzees show greater behavioural and cultural diversity in more variable environments<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhu8EXch_M5eluc-S9tCOjQ4yYNg1ouaFj5QOKHcxkZzAgoLt7rr4zM1e6AYxXLLX1WsSF-U7IPj7pngsQI6e3h0uW9X4X7M51OQEqr7naOrTFJTTnpdc9i6MurgGstDpCBGagzXIg60E/s1696/original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="1696" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhu8EXch_M5eluc-S9tCOjQ4yYNg1ouaFj5QOKHcxkZzAgoLt7rr4zM1e6AYxXLLX1WsSF-U7IPj7pngsQI6e3h0uW9X4X7M51OQEqr7naOrTFJTTnpdc9i6MurgGstDpCBGagzXIg60E/w640-h360/original.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">An international team of researchers led by Ammie Kalan and Hjalmar Kühl of the </span><a class="external" href="http://panafrican.eva.mpg.de/" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006c66; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Pan African Programme: the Cultured Chimpanzee</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"> (PanAf) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology compiled a data set combining fieldwork conducted by the PanAf at 46 field sites, plus an in-depth literature search on chimpanzee research. For 144 chimpanzee social groups they investigated the long-standing question of under which environmental conditions chimpanzees acquire more behavioural traits. They used their unique dataset to test whether chimpanzee groups were more likely to possess a larger set of behaviours if they lived in more seasonal habitats or habitats where forest cover repeatedly changed over the last thousands of years. The behaviours largely included tool use and more than half have been described as cultural in previous studies.</span></p><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">Press Release <b><a href="https://www.mpg.de/15357707/0909-evan-019609-chimpanzees-exhibit-greater-behavioural-and-cultural-diversity-in-more-variable-environments" target="_blank">HERE</a></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">Original Paper <b><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18176-3" target="_blank">HERE</a></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.1px;">citation:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Kalan AK, Kulik L, Arandjelovic M, Boesch C, Haas F, Dieguez P, Barratt CD, Abwe EE, Agbor A, Angedakin S, Aubert F, Ayimisin EA, Bailey E, Bessone M, Brazzola G, Buh VE, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Coupland C, Curran B, Danquah E, Deschner T, Dowd D, Eno-Nku M, Fay JM, Goedmakers A, Granjon AC, Head J, Hedwig D, Hermans V, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Junker J, Kadam P, Kambi M, Kienast I, Kujirakwinja D, Langergraber KE, Lapuente J, Larson B, Lee KC, Leinert V, Llana M, Marrocoli S, Meier AC, Morgan B, Morgan D, Neil E, Nicholl S, Normand E, Ormsby LJ, Pacheco L, Piel A, Preece J, Robbins MM, Rundus A, Sanz C, Sommer V, Stewart F, Tagg N, Tennie C, Vergnes V, Welsh A, Wessling EG, Willie J, Wittig RM, Yuh YG, Zuberbuehler K, Kühl HS (2020) Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity. Nature Communications 11 (4451) doi: 0.1038/s41467-020-18176-3</span></span></div><p><span style="background-color: white;"><br /><br /></span></p>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-1245515479794217852020-06-23T11:29:00.003-07:002020-07-04T02:10:09.137-07:00Rainforest Redux virtual seminar series with Dr. Ammie Kalan<div>On Wednesday, June 24th 2020, Chimp&See science moderator Dr. Ammie Kalan gives an online talk about Chimpanzee diversity across their range and her research within the PanAf (which Chimp&See is a part of) at the Max Planck Institute for Science of Human History (MPI-SHH) in their Pan-African Evolution Research Group Monthly Virtual Seminars. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>You can listen online via zoom. You need to register (please be aware that it is a two-step registration process) via e-mail: pan-ev.seminars@shh.mpg.de. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It’s at 5 p.m. CEST <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Here a link to the flyer: https://www.shh.mpg.de/1738610/rainforest-redux-2020.pdf <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #d52c1f;"><b>Update (2020/06/29) </b></span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>
If you missed this talk by Ammie Kalan, there is a second chance to listen to her on Tuesday, June 30th, also at 5 p.m. CEST, on youtube. There will be a livestreaming at the Primate Conversations Seminar Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sGVAaXo0nw. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>No registration needed. Just tune in! <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>A Pan-African Perspective: Chimpanzee Behavioural Diversity across their Range </b><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The Pan African Programme: the Cultured Chimpanzee ('PanAf') began in 2010 and has used a standardized protocol for collecting data on wild chimpanzees at more than 40 sites across equatorial Africa. All chimpanzee communities studied to date were unhabituated to researchers at the time of data collection therefore remote camera-trap devices were the primary method for recording behavioural observations. Using such an approach, the PanAf has identified new behavioural variants in wild chimpanzees and has recently described unprecedented cultural complexity in community-specific termite fishing techniques. By combining PanAf data with what we already know about chimpanzees, we also demonstrated that just as wild populations are declining, both behavioural and cultural diversity are similarly threatened across their range due to increasing anthropogenic disturbance. Combined, this research highlights the need for widespread conservation efforts to encompass a variety of wild populations if we are to ever know the true extent of chimpanzee cultural diversity. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>
The talk will be available later at the same URL in case you can't make it to the livestream.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="color: #d52c1f;">Update (2020/07/04)</span></b></div><div><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4sGVAaXo0nw" width="560"></iframe></div>Anja Landsmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07364309477578991385noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-23131250437052363442020-06-18T01:52:00.001-07:002020-06-18T03:18:54.769-07:00Facebook AI/PanAf collaboration update - Densepose: AI for orienting humans (and chimps) in spaceWe're happy to announce the results from our first collaboration with facebook AI where they used the PanAf chimpanzee videos to test whether their Densepose algorithm could retrain itself to identify the planes of a new species. Originally Densepose was trained on human videos and can identify an individual's horizontal and vertical planes - so it can identify what is the front and the back, the left side and right side, and the top and bottom of various body parts, which all move together to document how a person (or chimp) is moving.<br />
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In the example below you can see:<br />
Top left panel - a still from the original video with 2 chimps<br />
Top right panel - each of the body parts that can be detected by Densepose, head, hand, forearm, upper arm, torso, etc each coded in a different colour.<br />
Lower left panel - the horizontal plane is coded for each body part. For example, the left side of the head is yellow, the right side is blue.<br />
Lower right pane - the vertical plane is coded: the top of the head is yellow and the bottom is blue.<br />
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Put all together, the animal can be oriented in space!<br />
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For more information, check out their blog post: <a href="https://ai.facebook.com/blog/dense-pose-for-animal-classes-using-transfer-learning">https://ai.facebook.com/blog/dense-pose-for-animal-classes-using-transfer-learning</a></div>
Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-2486746710485385872020-05-31T03:06:00.000-07:002020-05-31T03:06:05.793-07:00New PanAf paper: Chimpanzee Ethnography Reveals Unexpected Cultural Diversity<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">How complex are chimpanzee cultures?</span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Chimpanzee groups each have their own unique termite fishing cultures</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The transmission of cultures from generation-to-generation is only found in a few species besides humans. Chimpanzees are one such species and exhibit a large diversity of cultural and tool use behaviours. Although these behaviours have been well documented at a handful of long term research sites, the true cultural repertoire of chimpanzees across populations is still poorly understood. To better understand this diversity, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, initiated the ‘<a href="http://panafrican.eva.mpg.de/" target="_blank">Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee’ (PanAf)</a> in 2010. Using a standardized protocol, researchers set up camera traps, collected samples and recorded ecological data at over 40 temporary and long-term research sites across Africa.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Prior to this study, termite fishing was thought to occur in only two forms with one or multiple tools, from either above-ground or underground termite nests. By carefully observing the techniques required to termite fish at 10 different sites, lead author Christophe Boesch created a catalogue of behaviours (or ethogram) for each chimpanzee in the study.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0890-1" target="_blank">What was found</a> was 38 different technical elements making up the various termite fishing techniques, all of which were combined in different ways in each of the chimpanzee communities. In addition, individuals in the same community shared more of the termite fishing technical elements, and unique combinations of the technical elements, when compared to chimpanzees from other groups. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“The diversity of techniques seen in chimpanzee termite fishing was a huge surprise to me. Not only does each community have a very unique way of fishing, they also combine a number of different elements into specific termite fishing etiquettes” explains Dr. Christophe Boesch “the most striking examples of this are how the Wonga Wongue chimpanzees of Gabon usually lie down on their sides to termite fish, while the Korup chimpanzees in Cameroon lean on their elbows, and the ones from Goualougo in the Republic of Congo sit while fishing”.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6oaj8jFpsEG_9Ml7UjHMvBL22upPSJrWdcyBB0LxjDmq_ZzURmkRgtLTB-tN6mWZPiwkJLisnXnnxcVwIQnnk3p9O05DMHCtIgSt3gnHnrLWWsWSZWQ5SXK2vQQ94pmmw5O9UGpwTGE/s1600/wongawongueGIFgph.is_g_4bjMePn.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6oaj8jFpsEG_9Ml7UjHMvBL22upPSJrWdcyBB0LxjDmq_ZzURmkRgtLTB-tN6mWZPiwkJLisnXnnxcVwIQnnk3p9O05DMHCtIgSt3gnHnrLWWsWSZWQ5SXK2vQQ94pmmw5O9UGpwTGE/s320/wongawongueGIFgph.is_g_4bjMePn.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wonga Wongue, Gabon</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sVHidcJi6tV7ZjC6O0IaK0zmtmgY296aAxj6V7EUPnm7970hl_8lYKryjjvS3jq0H2h4HA71rnfwZ6wSP-kz7L6YmuqfF75nR9kLrSaxpcotpRxJ8X0qMbkKsj5sg4dpy9KcunqCwOo/s1600/KorupGIFgph.is_g_Zdd97b8.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3sVHidcJi6tV7ZjC6O0IaK0zmtmgY296aAxj6V7EUPnm7970hl_8lYKryjjvS3jq0H2h4HA71rnfwZ6wSP-kz7L6YmuqfF75nR9kLrSaxpcotpRxJ8X0qMbkKsj5sg4dpy9KcunqCwOo/s320/KorupGIFgph.is_g_Zdd97b8.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Korup, Cameroon</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBTrnEwLUatbAaVJtdr-WcsMBOO1H7zM3ONjBHauDqFSQuYP51j29kKDQj0pZbyJVm-1-RFK4fvuoc14s1fsUviJcDXm4jXQcWBvHsj8gZyDlREClKIPefe1RettAAOPEjcJi_WryGGY/s1600/goualougoGIFgph.is-g_EBrwObl.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="480" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvBTrnEwLUatbAaVJtdr-WcsMBOO1H7zM3ONjBHauDqFSQuYP51j29kKDQj0pZbyJVm-1-RFK4fvuoc14s1fsUviJcDXm4jXQcWBvHsj8gZyDlREClKIPefe1RettAAOPEjcJi_WryGGY/s320/goualougoGIFgph.is-g_EBrwObl.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Goualougo, R-Congo</span></td></tr>
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Because the communities of chimpanzees live in similar habitats with access to the same resources, ecological differences could mostly be ruled out to explain the observed differences. “This supports the idea that chimpanzees are capable of imitating social techniques in ‘how to termite fish’ which goes beyond alternative explanations such as each individual reinventing termite fishing each time they learn it” explained co-author Ammie Kalan.<br />
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Much like in human etiquette, not everything is about increased efficiency but rather about conforming to what the rest of the group is doing. In humans, this is observed in the different chopstick cultures across Asia. “For example, in Thailand and Japan not only are chopsticks somehow shaped differently, but the way they hold them differ as well, and this is very reminiscent of what we see here with chimpanzees. In La Belgique in Cameroon, chimpanzees fashion their stick by opening the fibers to obtain a long brush and then rest the termite-covered stick on their wrist while they eat. On the other hand, at another site in Cameroon called Korup, the chimpanzees do not make a brush at all and use their mouth to shake the inserted stick while it is in the mound”, explains Christophe Boesch.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0hfsghJ2UZEtNjBMVnDZv3OCbj3JdEPLSEZFtO_bwhWh3n7FROFpKb0RemDhsRCxJ5biS2i1G7x2eTmNRJeBF_BHq1n17Vi82cnDpaIPm2DMtxjuk5FoDLwgj0j3lAmDBc3oIq3Qtgs/s1600/LaBelgiqueGIFgph.is_g_ZlRKQgL.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir0hfsghJ2UZEtNjBMVnDZv3OCbj3JdEPLSEZFtO_bwhWh3n7FROFpKb0RemDhsRCxJ5biS2i1G7x2eTmNRJeBF_BHq1n17Vi82cnDpaIPm2DMtxjuk5FoDLwgj0j3lAmDBc3oIq3Qtgs/s320/LaBelgiqueGIFgph.is_g_ZlRKQgL.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">La Belgique, Cameroon</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;">In humans, cultural variation has been documented in hundreds of different populations which is one explanation for why chimpanzee culture seems so limited in comparison. “What we knew before about chimpanzees came from at most 15 communities” noted co-author Hjalmar Kuehl, “through the PanAf we have been able to study many more communities and by this we are able to learn more about the richness of chimpanzee diversity and culture and could demonstrate that there is so much more to discover out there.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Further analyses of videos and other data collected from the PanAf are currently underway. “Termite fishing and other cultural behaviours of wild chimpanzees can be observed first hand by signing onto our citizen science platform <a href="http://www.chimpandsee.org/" target="_blank">Chimp&See</a>”, says co-author Mimi Arandjelovic. At <a href="http://www.chimpandsee.org/" target="_blank">Chimp&See</a> citizen scientists can watch the over 1 million video clips the PanAf has recorded from all across Africa of chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants, buffalo, leopards and many more species. Visit <a href="http://www.chimpandsee.org/">www.chimpandsee.org</a> and you could be a citizen scientist contributing to analyzing data and help with further discoveries in the wild!</span></span><br />
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citation:<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Boesch C, Kalan AK, Mundry R, Arandjelovic M, Pika S, </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dieguez P, Ayimisin EA, Barciela A, Coupland C, Egbe VE, Eno-Nku M, Fay JM, Fine D, Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Hermans V, Kadam P, Kambi M, Llana M, Maretti G, Morgan D, Murai M, Neil E, Nicholl S, Ormsby LJ, Orume R, Pacheco L, Piel A, Sanz C, Sciaky L, Stewart FA, Tagg N, Wessling EG, Willie J, Kühl HS (2020) </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Chimpanzee Ethnography Reveals Unexpected Cultural Diversity</b>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nature Human Behaviour </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;">doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-0890-1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0890-1">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0890-1</a></span><br />
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<li><b><a href="https://www.mpg.de/14857361/0525-evan-019609-how-complex-are-chimpanzee-cultures" target="_blank">Press release in English</a></b></li>
<li><b><a href="https://www.mpg.de/14861350/0525-evan-019609-wie-komplex-sind-schimpansenkulturen" target="_blank">Pressemitteilung auf Deutsch</a></b></li>
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Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-15340489735198151872020-05-30T06:07:00.000-07:002020-05-30T06:07:19.662-07:00Commentary: Chimpanzee termite fishing etiquette<span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A fantastic commentary on our new paper by Dr. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Kathelijne Koops: </span></span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0895-9" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Chimpanzee termite fishing etiquette</a><br />
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Summary:<br />
<i>Human culture is unique. Or is it? A new study reveals unexpected cultural diversity in the fine-grained details of chimpanzee termite fishing behaviour. These novel findings shed light on the richness of chimpanzee cultural diversity and reveal a narrower gap between the cultures of humans and other apes</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SR65ewRWavMDN7TLTWqi8VwTRl_dVboiMUDEkGlAB0cOrSpgVZjtdeWQAqhHHqDM3ifWFszjWD9v-hmlLrVii48D9Q1ONB8pTFvhDWaR_QQ0EofgYpfCElaXcb9PWzNYDBSIZJvfl-s/s1600/LaBelgiqueGIFgph.is_g_ZlRKQgL.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="480" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SR65ewRWavMDN7TLTWqi8VwTRl_dVboiMUDEkGlAB0cOrSpgVZjtdeWQAqhHHqDM3ifWFszjWD9v-hmlLrVii48D9Q1ONB8pTFvhDWaR_QQ0EofgYpfCElaXcb9PWzNYDBSIZJvfl-s/s320/LaBelgiqueGIFgph.is_g_ZlRKQgL.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">original citation</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Boesch C, Kalan AK, Mundry R, Arandjelovic M, Pika S, </span></span><span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dieguez P, Ayimisin EA, Barciela A, Coupland C, Egbe VE, Eno-Nku M, Fay JM, Fine D, Hernandez-Aguilar RA, Hermans V, Kadam P, Kambi M, Llana M, Maretti G, Morgan D, Murai M, Neil E, Nicholl S, Ormsby LJ, Orume R, Pacheco L, Piel A, Sanz C, Sciaky L, Stewart FA, Tagg N, Wessling EG, Willie J, Kühl HS (2020) </span><span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Chimpanzee Ethnography Reveals Unexpected Cultural Diversity</b>. </span><span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nature Human Behaviour </span><span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-0890-1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fafefb; color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0890-1" style="color: #22b170; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0890-1</a></span>Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05476516327593285993noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101869424809380354.post-24226915046107641802020-04-26T13:24:00.001-07:002020-04-26T15:21:33.226-07:00Algae Fishing Chimps on BBCOne's docuseries 'Primates'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qNvNHxP-gqQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qNvNHxP-gqQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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BBCOne's new show primates features our algae fishing chimp camera trap videos on episode 3 - Episode 1 airs tonight<br />
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You can watch it here: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hrfv/primates-series-1-1-secrets-of-survival">https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000hrfv/primates-series-1-1-secrets-of-survival</a></div>
Mimi Arandjelovichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11053231478359501631noreply@blogger.com0