Course: Bioanthropology
Student Name: Wei-Yi Tsao
Professor: Neal Endacott
Observation Date: 10/26/2014

Zoo Report: Primate Observation
Introduction
I visited Woodland Park Zoo on October 26, 2014. The weather was rainy and due to the weather issue animals at the zoo mostly don’t have much of the movement and some of them are at their indoor area that cannot be seen by visitors. Even though the weather wasn’t the best for zoo visiting, I still found this experience very interesting. I observed six species including Patas monkeys, Orangutan, Black and white colobus monkeys, Red ruffed lemurs, Western lowland gorillas, and human from six different locomotor patterns and found out the relationship between their locomotor patterns and anatomy.
Discussion/Data Collection
Patas monkeys, also called red guenons, are terrestrial quadruped monkeys in the family Cercopithecidae and the only species found in the genus Erythrocebus. (Refer to Table 2.1.) Patas monkeys are primarily ground-dwelling primates found in African open bush and grass savanna, they have a narrow thorax, a reduced tail, restricted shoulder joints, shortened digits and lengthened tarsal and metatarsal like humans, robust radius and their ulna has a large insertion point of triceps brachii which provides them a powerful forearm extensor and allows them for terrestrial running with only fingers and toes making contact with the ground, they are fast runners. They can run 56 km per hour, and probably spend more of its life on the ground than any other monkey. Their forelimbs and hindlimbs are long and similar in length (refer to Figure 1.1). They can stand on their hindlimbs and see over grass. Patas monkeys are perfectly adapted to the savanna’s mix of grass and trees. They pluck much of their food from acacia trees- the leaves, seeds, flowers, fruit and even the gum. Insects, worms, and small lizards are also their food source. Patas monkeys live in small groups, often with one adult male and a few females and offspring. They search for food in the morning, rest in the shade of a tree at midday, then forages again in the afternoon. While traveling across savanna, one member of the group will climb a tree, shrub or large rock to watch for predators. They are colored red-brown dorsally and grey-white ventrally which is another protection from being eaten. Orangutans are brachiators that primarily reside in tropical and subtropical moist forest on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. They belong to the family, Hominidae. (Table 2.1) They have a broad thorax, short olecranon process long curved fingers, longer forelimbs, and shorter hindlimbs. Orangutan’s long fingers allow them to tightly hold the branches and their long forelimbs allow them to swing. The more powerful the arm movements, the energetic the stabilizing musculature must be. Orangutan can arm swing between branches of a tree while its body is suspended below branches. They can easily exploit the fringe of a tree canopy by dispersing its weight to the ends of several branches by using gravity they could convert their vertical height into speed. I didn’t get to see the orangutans swinging from branches to branches during my visit, but I saw the mother orangutan taking care and playing with her kid, which shows the high intelligence of this species. (Figure 1.2.) Red ruffed lemur has longer legs and shorter arms, human like hands but in a smaller size (Figure 1.3 and 1.4), and hand-like feet that allow them to climb and leap from tree to tree with no falling. A family of red ruffed lemurs moves through tall forest. Searching carefully for their favorite food such as figs and more than 80 kinds of fruit. Red ruffed lemurs are the largest members of leapers in Lemuroidea subfamily (Table 2.1); they reside in the rainforest along east coast of Madagascar. Usually 2 to 16 individuals form a group, they communicate through loud piercing calls. The average lifespan of lemurs is 15 to 20 years long. Colobus monkeys are found mainly in Asia, but both red colobus and black-and-white colobus are exclusively African. Colobine species have a narrower range of food preferences but primarily eating mature leaves, they are also called “leaf-eating monkeys”. Black-and-white colobus monkeys are mostly arboreal but they do come down to ground occasionally. They have deep ulna, long olecranon process, long tails, long phalanges on their feet and hands that are easier for them to grasp trees. They are colored majorly black and they have some white hair on their face, tail and around their neck. Western lowland gorillas are knuckle walkers; their arms are longer than their legs. Knuckle-walking is quadrupedal locomotion with the hands pronated and fingers flexed resulting in dorsal surface of middle phalanges contacting the ground, supporting the weight in the knuckles. (Figure 1.5) Gorillas are the largest of the entire living primate. Male may weigh 400 pounds and females weigh around 150 to 200 pounds. They are restricted to forested areas of western and eastern equatorial Africa. The social structure of western lowland gorillas is similar with mountain gorillas but in a smaller groups with one or two silverback male leader. Silverback refers to the saddle of white hair that appears at the age of 12 or 13. Both males and females leave their natal groups as young adults. Females join other groups; and males appear to be less likely to emigrate, they may live alone for a while or may join up with other males before they eventually forming their own group. According to the zoo panel at the gorilla exhibition area, gorillas are facing some crisis that is eliminating their population such as Ebola virus and the hunters in the forest. In the past 25 years, Ebola or human hunters killed more than half of the world’s western lowland gorillas. Bipeds like us, human, are walking on two legs. Our arms are shorter than our legs. We have shorter toes than orangutan and gorillas. The flexibility of our toes is lower than most of the primates, we hardly can grasp with our toes. Human’s fingers are completely the opposite, the flexibility of human fingers are the highest compare to the rest of the primates, this advantage helps us to do more complex activity such as peeling seeds, fruits even making tools and also help us to has a better chance to survive in the selection of nature in the past. Human skull is big especially the frontal area is obviously bigger than other primates. In the zoo, I observed children and listen to their conversation with their parents about the animals. Children’s learning ability is incredibility fast, the can pick up the movement and the sounds that made by the animal they are looking at, and learning each species’ name from their parents. Human is intelligence associates with the frontal lobe is high and promotes more complicated social needs.

Animal | Patas monkey | Red ruffed Lemur | Black-and-white colobus monkey | Order | Primate | Primate | Primate | Suborder | Haplorhini | Strepsirhini | Haplorihini | Family | - | - | - | Superfamily | Cercopithecidea | Lemuroidea | Cercopithecoidea | Genus | Erythrocebus | Varecia | Colobus | Species | E. patas | V. rubra | C. guereza |
Table 1.1 Taxonomy (Patas monkey, red ruffed lemur and black and white colobus monkey)

Animal | Orangutan | Western lowland gorilla | Order | Primate | Primate | Suborder | Haplorhini | Haplorhini | Infraorder | Anthropoidea | Anthropoidea | Parvorder | Catarrhini | Catarrhini | Superfamily | Hominoidea | Hominoidea | Family | Hominidae | Hominidae | Subfamily | Ponginae | Gorillinae | Genus | Pongo | Gorilla | Species | P. pygmaenus | gorilla |
Table 1.2 Taxonomy (Orangutan and Western lowland gorilla) Figure 1.1 Patas monkeys Figure 1.2 Orangutans

Figure 1.3 Red ruffed lemur Figure 1.4 Lemur hand print

Figure 1.5 Western lowland gorillas Figure 1.6 Foot of a gorilla

Conclusion
Locomotor pattern is related with the anatomy of a species. Patas monkeys have a strong forearm extensor that allows them to terrestrial run on the savanna. Brachiators like the orangutans have long fingers allow them to hold the branches tightly while swinging from branch to branch, the design of their body portion can converts their vertical height into speed during such movement. Red ruffed lemur has their hand like feet that helps them to grasp during leaping (Figure 1.4). Colobus monkeys also have long fingers like orangutans that help them to grasp trees, and branches safely secure them from falling while they spend most of the time on the trees. Hand pronation and finger flexion allow knuckle walkers like western lowland gorillas to walk and support their weight on the knuckles. The similarities between human and these five primates are the design of out finger, and variety of food choices. Because of the finger flexibility, most primates are not limited to food like seeds, shells, the center of bamboo, fruits on the tree and so on, they are tend to have a better chance to survive when the food chain is changed due to climate or other factors. The anatomical design of the species has a huge impact on the abilities that a species can perform, and higher ability can results in a better chance of survival in the nature.