Saturday, February 13, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
The lion of Gabon is back on camera
More camera trap images of the Gabon lion & a great article too! A big thank you to our collaborators at this site!: Agence Nationale Des Parcs Nationaux Du Gabon, Panthera and The Aspinall Foundation
http://tinyurl.com/mr2kx8v
http://tinyurl.com/mr2kx8v
Monday, February 8, 2016
Why We Name Chimps
One of the unique aspects of volunteering on Chimp & See is the ability to give names to the chimpanzees that we discover in the camera trap footage. Naming primates in research is common, though it hasn't always been. Jane Goodall disrupted convention when she gave names to the chimps she studied in Gombe, rather than just numbers. But she knew, as we have all come to know, that each of these animals is an individual, with unique personalities and life stories that must be acknowledged in order to understand them.
In some research organizations, however, naming is still frowned upon, based on the idea that anthropomorphizing subjects can lead to misinterpretation of behaviors, or other biases. On the other hand, animal researchers who name their subjects are able to form closer bonds with them, which results in better care, just as we see with pets (or cars, or boats!).
Since we're trying to identify individuals at C&S, keeping track of which chimp is RWMale03 or RWMale23 can get cumbersome. So giving a chimp a memorable name is helpful for discussing matches, if nothing else. As for bias, our sharp citizen scientists don't let naming influence their judgment. For example, there is the case of Maggie-Ollie, previously thought to be 2 individuals, Maggie & Ollie. We've also encountered chimps where we initially believed the gender to be male (Charles) or female (Sherri), but closer inspection revealed the opposite. In all cases, the name choices didn't introduce assumptions that prevented our volunteers from continuing their objective evaluation.
As mentioned in a previous post ("Chimps as individuals"), volunteers have named well over 100 chimps so far! We've seen a few different methods for choosing names:
Regardless of how the names are chosen, they always seem to be a good fit! Plus, it's fun, and a bit of a honor for both the namer and namee! So much so that the practice has spread to other memorable animals we identify, such as Buster the one-tusked warthog (left tusk), Leroy - the other one-tusked warthog, (right tusk), Molco the green monkey with the broken tail, Rozalie the one-horned Jentink's duiker, and others.
See all our unique chimp (and other animals') names here. Then, head over to the discussion boards and jump in on the matching process. What do you think would be a good name for a chimp? If you can help us identify a new one, your name may be chosen for them!
In some research organizations, however, naming is still frowned upon, based on the idea that anthropomorphizing subjects can lead to misinterpretation of behaviors, or other biases. On the other hand, animal researchers who name their subjects are able to form closer bonds with them, which results in better care, just as we see with pets (or cars, or boats!).
Since we're trying to identify individuals at C&S, keeping track of which chimp is RWMale03 or RWMale23 can get cumbersome. So giving a chimp a memorable name is helpful for discussing matches, if nothing else. As for bias, our sharp citizen scientists don't let naming influence their judgment. For example, there is the case of Maggie-Ollie, previously thought to be 2 individuals, Maggie & Ollie. We've also encountered chimps where we initially believed the gender to be male (Charles) or female (Sherri), but closer inspection revealed the opposite. In all cases, the name choices didn't introduce assumptions that prevented our volunteers from continuing their objective evaluation.
| Chimps "Mario" and "Luigi" from the Crimson Dew site |
 |
| Character images displayed as fair use for educational/research purposes |
As mentioned in a previous post ("Chimps as individuals"), volunteers have named well over 100 chimps so far! We've seen a few different methods for choosing names:
- Some chimps are named based on a physical trait, such as Belle (a chimp with an especially "pretty" face) and Roux (French for red, to honor this red-haired lady), or a personality trait, such as King (a large older male who seemed respected in his group) and Abile (as in "clever," for a juvenile who was adept with tools).
- Others are named after real people or fictional characters, like Mario and Luigi (of video game fame), Greg (after TV character Greg House, for a chimp with an injured leg), and Christine (the name of one volunteer's wife) and Teddy (named after a volunteer's son).
- Finally, some volunteers opt for unconventional names with deeper meaning, for example, Ajali (meaning "chance" in Swahili), Deka (meaning "pleasing"), and Selve (meaning "forest" in French). These types of names are especially safe bets when the gender isn't certain!
Regardless of how the names are chosen, they always seem to be a good fit! Plus, it's fun, and a bit of a honor for both the namer and namee! So much so that the practice has spread to other memorable animals we identify, such as Buster the one-tusked warthog (left tusk), Leroy - the other one-tusked warthog, (right tusk), Molco the green monkey with the broken tail, Rozalie the one-horned Jentink's duiker, and others.
See all our unique chimp (and other animals') names here. Then, head over to the discussion boards and jump in on the matching process. What do you think would be a good name for a chimp? If you can help us identify a new one, your name may be chosen for them!
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Happy Chinese New Year - Its the Year of the Fire Monkey!
Our moderator AnLand writes "This night the Chinese new year is starting and it's the year of the monkey. To be more precise, the year of the fire monkey! To celebrate this, I post my favorite monkey video of a Western red colobus that is with its reddish-burnt fur coloration just in style for the occasion. ACP0004fpv and ACP0004fpw"
See her post here
See her post here
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Chimp&See on Civicus.org
Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation has done a really great write up on chimpandsee.org! Thank You!
Friday, February 5, 2016
Woodland Park Zoo ZooCrew students using Chimp&See
Woodland Park Zoo ZooCrew students have been using Chimp&See as part of their conservation work! Thanks to everyone involved for helping us identify animals on our camera traps!!! (and thanks to our moderator jwidness for finding this blog post!)
Monday, February 1, 2016
Guinea Baboon Social Behavior
As we work on finishing up Dry Lake, one thing that stood out at this site was the huge number of Guinea baboon videos. With so many videos, we got to see some really interesting behaviors and interactions!
Guinea baboon social behavior is quite complex and includes a lot of visual, auditory, and tactile communication. As mentioned previously on the blog, Guinea baboons will often formally "greet" each other by embracing, mounting, lipsmacking, presenting their rears, and/or manipulating each other's genitals (sometimes called "diddling"). These behaviors aren't sexual in nature, rather they seem to confirm the social bonds between the individuals. After greeting, they may sit next to each other, sometimes leading into a grooming bout. They may also emit some friendly grunting vocalizations.
Before we get to the videos, two notes of thanks: thank you to Adeelia Goffe (asgoffe) for helping us at Dry Lake and sharing her vast Guinea baboon knowledge, and thank you to all our Chimp & See participants for tagging various behaviors -- the tag collections were a big help in picking out these sample clips!
In the video below, there are three greeting clips. In the first clip, two baboons embrace, and then start grooming. They're also grunting during the interaction. In the second clip, we see both diddling and mounting. The third clip shows a very complex greeting that starts with the male presenting his rear, then the female presents hers and the male mounts her while she lipsmacks at him. Finally, they end with an embrace that is partially obscured by the tree.
Guinea baboons also frequently have agonistic (unfriendly) interactions. They may threaten each other using facial expressions like flashing their pale eyelids. This may escalate to lunges or chases, or even contact aggression like biting and kicking. The response to this aggression is often screaming and running.
In this video, there are three agonistic clips. In the first clip, two females in the middle of the screen threaten a target off camera by flashing their pale eyelids. The screams are coming from a baboon off camera. In the second clip, a male repeatedly lunges at another baboon, who responds by screaming. In the third clip, two baboons bite and grab at each other, then one chases the other off.
Other interactions are specific to infants and juveniles. Males and females of all ages find infants very appealing and may take infants from their moms. These interactions can be distressing to both the mom and the infant, though they can also be friendly in nature. During the weaning period, infants may also be distressed when their moms reject their attempts to nurse or be carried. They may express this distress by producing a special "weaning call". Finally, play is a behavior mostly seen between youngsters and can involve many of the same behaviors that adults do (chasing, biting, etc.), but done in a friendly context.
This video shows four clips with infants/juveniles. In the first clip, an infant is being handled by an adult male before running back to mom. She then tries to prevent anyone else from handling the infant. The second clip shows a more friendly infant interaction of an adult male with two infants, while the moms are calm nearby. In the third clip, a mom rejects her infant while the infant produces a weaning call. In the last clip, two youngsters play by grabbing at each other and hanging from vines.
Join us soon to help finish up baboon videos (and others) at Dry Lake! We look forward to seeing you at Chimp & See!
Guinea baboon social behavior is quite complex and includes a lot of visual, auditory, and tactile communication. As mentioned previously on the blog, Guinea baboons will often formally "greet" each other by embracing, mounting, lipsmacking, presenting their rears, and/or manipulating each other's genitals (sometimes called "diddling"). These behaviors aren't sexual in nature, rather they seem to confirm the social bonds between the individuals. After greeting, they may sit next to each other, sometimes leading into a grooming bout. They may also emit some friendly grunting vocalizations.
Before we get to the videos, two notes of thanks: thank you to Adeelia Goffe (asgoffe) for helping us at Dry Lake and sharing her vast Guinea baboon knowledge, and thank you to all our Chimp & See participants for tagging various behaviors -- the tag collections were a big help in picking out these sample clips!
In the video below, there are three greeting clips. In the first clip, two baboons embrace, and then start grooming. They're also grunting during the interaction. In the second clip, we see both diddling and mounting. The third clip shows a very complex greeting that starts with the male presenting his rear, then the female presents hers and the male mounts her while she lipsmacks at him. Finally, they end with an embrace that is partially obscured by the tree.
Guinea baboons also frequently have agonistic (unfriendly) interactions. They may threaten each other using facial expressions like flashing their pale eyelids. This may escalate to lunges or chases, or even contact aggression like biting and kicking. The response to this aggression is often screaming and running.
In this video, there are three agonistic clips. In the first clip, two females in the middle of the screen threaten a target off camera by flashing their pale eyelids. The screams are coming from a baboon off camera. In the second clip, a male repeatedly lunges at another baboon, who responds by screaming. In the third clip, two baboons bite and grab at each other, then one chases the other off.
Other interactions are specific to infants and juveniles. Males and females of all ages find infants very appealing and may take infants from their moms. These interactions can be distressing to both the mom and the infant, though they can also be friendly in nature. During the weaning period, infants may also be distressed when their moms reject their attempts to nurse or be carried. They may express this distress by producing a special "weaning call". Finally, play is a behavior mostly seen between youngsters and can involve many of the same behaviors that adults do (chasing, biting, etc.), but done in a friendly context.
This video shows four clips with infants/juveniles. In the first clip, an infant is being handled by an adult male before running back to mom. She then tries to prevent anyone else from handling the infant. The second clip shows a more friendly infant interaction of an adult male with two infants, while the moms are calm nearby. In the third clip, a mom rejects her infant while the infant produces a weaning call. In the last clip, two youngsters play by grabbing at each other and hanging from vines.
Join us soon to help finish up baboon videos (and others) at Dry Lake! We look forward to seeing you at Chimp & See!
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