How do apes survive

Chimpanzees use more tools for more purposes than any other creatures except humans. A female chimp named Washoe knew more than signs. Chimpanzees in the wild rarely live longer than 50 years. Captive chimps can live more than 60 years.

Chimpanzees have a wide variety of tastes and are able to live in a wide variety of habitats, unlike gorillas and orangutans who have narrower diets.

Different chimpanzee groups use tools in different ways. Chimpanzees of the Tai Forest in Cote d'Ivoire crack open nuts with rocks, for example, while the Gombe chimps have never been seen doing this.

One of the chimpanzee calls is the "pant-hoot. Chimps groom each other. Grooming helps relations within the community and calms nervous or tense chimps. Male chimpanzees show their power in "displays. We carry within us physical evidence of the developmental processes and biological traits that humans share with all — yes, all — other organisms. What, if anything, unites primates as a single group, and how do primate adaptations reflects our evolutionary past? What did the earliest primates look like and how are they related to modern forms?

How has climate change influenced the diversification of different primate groups? How do primates navigate arboreal and terrestrial habitats?

What processes are involved in fossilization and in dating fossils from the distant past? Why do many primates live in groups? Why do some male primates commit infanticide? Why do some females form strong bonds? What do primates eat and how do they live in ecological communities with other animals? How do primates communicate? Do primates deceive each other? Unraveling the sociality and ecology of our closest living relatives, the non-human primates, can help us shed light on the selective pressures that shaped humans through evolutionary time.

Citation: Lambert, J. Nature Education Knowledge 3 10 Primates are conspicuous inhabitants of many ecological communities in the tropics. What impacts - beneficial or negative - do they have on other species, and vice versa?

Aa Aa Aa. Given the extreme diversity of living organisms on the planet many of which have not even been discovered yet , no one can study all species in a community.

Invariably, community ecologists study subsets of species within an assemblage. A taxocene , for example, is a subset of species sharing a common taxonomic classification. The monkeys and apes of Kibale National Park is an example of a taxocene: they are classified within the primate order Infraorder Catarrhini and live in the same forest in Uganda.

A guild is a subset of species within a community that use a set of resources in similar ways. An example of a guild is a nocturnal pollinating guild that might include prosimian primates, bats, and insects; these animal species are not closely related taxonomically, but are sympatric and consume the nectar of night-blooming flowers in similar ways. This essay focuses specifically on primates, and is thus an exploration into the community interactions in primate taxocenes.

Food webs in a community. Figure 1. A simple food web illustrating the sun solar energy source and the first, second, third and fourth trophic levels. Species interactions in a community.

Figure 2: A third trophic level predator-prey interaction carnivory. A third trophic level predator-prey interaction carnivory illustrated by a common chimpanzee Pan troglodytes consuming a red colobus monkey Procolobus badius it has just hunted and killed in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Primates in communities.

Community ecologists have investigated species interactions and community structure since the early 20th century e. However, these topics have only more recently been investigated in primates more specifically as historically primatologists have tended to emphasize population ecology. Nonetheless, we are increasingly gaining insight into competition, predator-prey, parasite-host, and plant-primate interactions e.

In the following paragraphs, you will learn about the competitive, parasitic, predatory, and mutualistic interactions that primates have with other species — both plant and animal. Competitive Interactions Within a community, all species — including primates — occupy their own, unique niche. Predator-Prey Interactions. Primates as predators. Figure 3: A second level trophic level predator-prey interaction herbivory.

A second level trophic level predator-prey interaction herbivory illustrated by a black and white colobus monkey Colobus guereza consuming leaves in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Primates as prey. Since group-living increases the potential for intragroup feeding competition — , — , if there were no advantage to being social, it would not be expected to occur so commonly. One hypothesis is that it is the threat of predation that selects for social living in primates.

Virtually all primates are prey species, including the largest bodied primates — gorillas and chimpanzees. Primates are consumed as prey species by both terrestrial and aerial predators, including cats e. In Africa, the African crowned hawk-eagle Stephanoaetus coronatus is perhaps the most commonly identified predator and has been called a primate specialist predator. Humans prey upon primates as well; indeed, commercial hunting bushmeat trade is an exceptionally serious problem threatening primates in South America, Asia, and particularly Africa.

Primate Mutualisms. Polyspecific Associations. Some primate species, for example, form polyspecific associations in which social groups of two or more primate species aggregate. Others, however, appear to be non-random. Short term polyspecific associations are those that occur for relatively short periods of time but are observed more frequently — and are of longer duration — than would be expected by chance.

Long term polyspecific are particularly well-known among sympatric species of Saguinus in the Neotropics and Cercopithecus species in Africa. The functioning of these relatively permanent polyspecific associations may be quite different from those of short term and passing endurance. If polyspecific associations are not simply chance phenomena, then an adaptive reason for the existence of these mixed groups is expected, with at least one species benefitting, and no aspects of parasitism without some other mitigating benefit.

For example, in Kibale, in polyspecific associations among Cercopithecus ascanius , C. Seed dispersal. Figure 4.

Allopatry : Not occurring in the same place or time. Angiosperms : Flowering plants. Biogeography : The study of the spatial and temporal distribution of species. Carnivores : Animals that consumer other animals. Community : An assemblage of sympatric same area , synchronic same time species.

Endoparasites : Internal parasites found typically the gut or blood. Folivory : Leaf eating. Frugivory : Fruit eating. Granivory : Seed eating.

Inter : Between. Intra : Within. Parasite : An organism that benefits at the expense of another organism host. Species abundance : Number of individuals of a species in an area. Though they mostly steal fruit and other food within reach, the apes occasionally snatch and kill small children.

Humans kill chimps in retaliation and to protect their families from future attacks. Bushmeat hunters target chimps because they provide more meat than smaller mammals, sometimes collecting their offspring as pets for themselves or to sell into the illegal pet trade.

And chimpanzees are susceptible to infectious diseases, too. Since the s, the Ebola virus has killed them in significant numbers. Chimpanzees are protected by national and international laws, including the U. Endangered Species Act. Some of their habitat is protected as sanctuaries or reserves, too. Conservation organizations are working to expand these protected areas, while also pushing for an end to the illegal killing and taking of the animals.

Key to securing the future of the chimpanzee, though, is improving its relationship with humans. All rights reserved. Animals Photo Ark. Common Name: Chimpanzees. Scientific Name: Pan troglodytes.

Type: Mammals. Diet: Omnivore. Group Name: Community. Size: Four to 5. The earliest fossil primates and the evolution of prosimians: Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Elton, S. Environmental correlates of the cercopithecoid radiations. Folia Primatologica 78 , Fleagle, J. Platyrrhines, catarrhines, and the fossil record. Kinsey, W. New York: Aldine de Gruyter Gebo, D. A shrew-sized origin for Primates. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 47 , Gingerich, P.

Environment and evolution through the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21 , Harrison, T. Late Oligocene to middle Miocene catarrhines from Afro-Arabia. Apes among the tangled branches of human origins.

Hooker, J. Eocene-Oligocene mammalian faunal turnover in the Hampshire Basin, UK: calibration to the global time scale and the major cooling event. Journal of the Geological Society , Jablonski, N. Fossil Old World monkeys: The late Neogene radiation. Primate diversity and environmental seasonality in historical perspective. Brockman, D. Janis, C.

Tertiary mammal evolution in the context of changing climates, vegetation, and tectonic events. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 24 , Katz, M. Stepwise transition from the Eocene greenhouse to the Oligocene icehouse. Nature Geoscience 1 , - Kay, R. The adaptations of Branisella boliviana , the earliest South American monkey.

Plavcan, R. Kay, W. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 25 , Kelley, J. The hominoid radiation in Asia. Lee-Thorpe, J. Passey, B. Stable isotopes in fossil hominin tooth enamel suggest a fundamental dietary shift in the Pliocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B , McNulty, K. Apes and Tricksters: The evolution and diversification of humans' closest relatives.

Evolution: Education and Outreach 3 , Meng, J. Faunal turnovers of Palaeogene mammals from the Mongolian Plateau. Morgan, G. Extinction and the zoogeography of West Indian land mammals. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 28 , Morris, W. Low demographic variability in wild primate populations: Fitness impacts variation, covariation, and serial correlation in vital rates. The American Naturalist , EE28 Potts, R. Evolution and climate variability.

Environmental hypotheses of Pliocene human evolution. Bobe, Z. Alemseged, A. Behrensmeyer Kluwer, New York Ravosa, M. Euprimate origins: the eyes have it. Journal of Human Evolution , 46 , Raymo, M. Tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic climate. Mediterranean and Paratethys.

Facts and hypotheses of an Oligocene to Miocene paleogeography short overview. Geologica Carpathica 50 ,