I don't know enough Japanese to understand what the narrator is saying. I'm not even sure what's going on, this doesn't look like a normal mating scene. The monkeys are probably acting weird because they are in a cramped space and the keepers have been trying to get them to mate for hours. There is clearly some creative editing taking place.
Also, these are mandrills, another member of the PapioniniTribe, but they are not baboons. And a final word of warning: this video is NSFW.
A macaque monkey in Indonesia took a camera from a wildlife photographer before snapping himself in a variety of poses.
The black macaque, one of the more eerie looking monkeys around. I say this a lot, but there's something about those eyes. However, one must remember that while these two pictures are quite a sight, there are probably seventy more of the monkey rubbing his fur against the lens. I'd really like to see all of those, actually.
The picture I've selected is almost certainly an example of aggressive behavior, however. It would be easier to tell with a few more frames, but the bared teeth and the lifted eyebrows. This monkey is looking into a dark, reflective lens, and does not realize that this mirror image is him. He believes it is a different monkey, at least something that is being threatening right back at him.
This reminds me of an idea we had among the researchers. We were out there all day, and as I have noted, the baboons have a particular liking for cars. Since the baboons would swarm over a car, whether new or old, we've been able to witness some interesting behaviors. A slightly reflective windshield does not differ much from a camera lens, and if the monkeys looked into the windshield, one could assess whether or not they were self-aware based on their reaction to seeing their own image.
This also could have yielded an extra effect over the range of ages. A car is sort of like a trophy for certain baboons. The adults give a damn one way or the other about the cars as long as they aren't trying to run the troop over. The largest of the juveniles, even subadults, quickly lay claim to the highest point on the car (the roof), leaving the hood, side mirrors, trunk, and bumpers for the smaller baboons to ensconce themselves on.
The mirrors and windshields created interesting effects from what I did observe on the side. For the young ones, the mirrors were clearly frightening, so there's no theory of mind there. I never determined if the older males reacted in the same way, as they messed around with the mirrors much less. The potential exists for something bigger, however. Put some big mirrors under the windshield, and watch all the monkeys react. You could even introduce a laser pointer to the experiment and to take a kind of mirror recognition approach.
I do not think that an experiment like that would yield positive results, though. A little evidence exists that macaques can pass mirror self-recognition tests, but the majority of research has indicated that they cannot. Baboons might be a different story, but baboons are even more socially adept than macaques, which means that their intelligence is focused on understanding conspecifics, but not necessarily themselves.
Properly controlling this experiment would be kind of a nightmare, but it might have been well suited enough for a pilot study. The large sample size and strong spread of individuals in different age groups is a major strength of working with baboons in general. To my knowledge, not much longitudinal work has been done in wild baboons where the focus has been on the juvenile years. This is a time where social bonds are more malleable, and less clear to everyone. It would be great to better understand social and cognitive development during these formative years, but I freely admit that several lifetimes of work would probably be required to lay the foundations of this research.
The author, PaoloV is in osteology, which means he might well be working with different primate species all the time, but I just can't bring myself to consider working with dead primates to being on the same footing as working with live primates. We all have our flaws.
Truthfully, the distinction between monkey and ape is a handy one to have. There are too many people I meet (smart people, too) who do not understand the vast difference between a chimpanzee and a spider monkey, thinking of them both as "monkeys." Maybe I ought to devote an entire Human Ethology post to this, but I don't think people are naturally inclined towards understanding the distinction between inclusive and non-inclusive sets. Its definitely easier to think, "okay they're closely related, but a monkey is one thing and an ape is another." And its even easier to think "anything that swings around and makes hooting noises is a monkey."
I really like the word "monkey," however. Its such a fun pair of syllables, so I would not be opposed to being given more opportunities to use the word. Its unfortunate that there the two main distinctions within are Old World and New World Monkeys. In that case, shouldn't we be assigned some kind of monkey subtitle?
In conclusion, I have no strong opinion one way or the other, though I may wind up changing the name of this blog to Lord of the Monkeys at some point, to promote greater journalistic integrity.
Don't tell anyone, but I've been trying to stick to a Wednesday posting schedule lately. I'm midway through a full post, but I've been writing an awful lot of important stuff lately, and Firefox is making it a bloody difficult job to finish this one.
Here's another sweet youtube video to excuse my need for an extension till tomorrow.
Don't mess with the macaques. I've got footage of squirrel monkeys crawling all over me, but they're no where near that size, and there weren't even anywhere close as many, either.
Thanks again, Japan. I have been watching this video several times a day, and after such exposure, I could not help but begin to think (also thanks to the prodding of others) how this combination of behaviors could come to pass.
At its core, this is a straight-forward example of imprinting. It helps to look at the original video source, which is here. If the comments are to be believed (and I know I am asking a lot for anyone, anywhere, ever, to believe youtube comments), then the pig and monkey were without mothers, and imprinted on each other. Part of this is very reasonable, and quite obvious. The monkey is clearly treating the pig like its mother. I'm not sure about the pig, as I am not much of an armchair swine ethologist.
There are a few oddities about this video, which I intend to discuss. The story probably is not so clear as "akeminxx" would lead us to believe.
Returning to the pig for a moment, I don't know how I feel saying that the pig is imprinted with the baby as its mother. I also don't even know how old the pig is. Imprinting on adults is astronomically difficult in most animals, though. A telling moment in the video comes when the monkey falls off, and the pig bolts. From this, I would guess that the pig and the monkey were put together at some prior date, and the monkey imprinted on the pig. The pig is effectively domesticated, and when placed in such close quarters with the monkey at all hours, there really wasn't much to do but submit. Pigs are smart creatures, too.
And how about that monkey? Like I said, the monkey is clearly treating the pig like as mother. I'm not experienced enough to identify the species from the infant's appearance alone, but if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say this is a Japanese Macaque, seeing as they are popular critters... and this is in Japan.
These monkeys (as do baboons) ride their mothers on the belly, usually, but as they grow older, they will often ride on-top, in a very similar hold as they would on the belly. But they cling to their mother, and generally their mother only. I do not think a screaming fit like that put on display by this baby monkey would ensue unless the animal was separated from its "mother." So there you go: pig-mama it is.
The backwards part is very strange, though. In the baboons, one would occasionally see very young infants climb aboard their mother's bellies backwards, but this behavior was quickly rectified by the mother before she started to carry the baby anywhere. I've not yet thought of a good reason for why this baby monkey would ride backward. It might be that the animal began riding backward by chance, or some small reason, and since the pig was unable to adjust this behavior like a monkey mother, the backwards behavior stuck. Maybe there's even a semi-legitimate reason for the monkey to hold on backwards, perhaps the position affords a better hold on the pig's flanks. I would think that at this age, the monkey would much prefer to look forward than get a slightly better handhold on some tufts of pig hair, but hey, imprinting is a powerful and strange thing. There are just too many thing I don't know and cannot infer from watching two minutes of youtube.
I was once an avid reader of Fuck You, Penguin, but that blog faded into the ether for me a number of years ago. Now he has a bloody book! It took a particular post like this being sent my way to recapture my attention of a brief moment.
Honestly, it might be this picture that I found to be the most captivating aspect of the post. The photo manages to capture the silliness of monkey behavior via the stick in the mouth, as well as the sleekness of the animal in its seemingly perfectly groomed coat. And the eyes. Always the eyes. They've got that perfect intensity I've gotten so used to seeing among the males of my troops.
The mandrill was once thought to be a type of baboon; categorized under the same genus: papio. In more recent years, the mandrill and the drill have been given their own genus, but they're still recognized as being close relatives of the baboons, and if you ask me, the resemblance is clear in spite of the vibrant color differences.
...plus you know, the shots that the author takes at the mandrill are also quite amusing.
But, its a moot point, since gorillas aren't monkeys. What am I blabbering about, you may say? Well, Molly sent me a highly amusing link about apes from Gizmodo of all places.
Real Life Donkey Kong Playing With His Nintendo DS "Donkey Kong plays Donkey Kong while Donkey Kong Jr. watches. OK, maybe he's not playing DK, but it's just as good. The story involves a kid, a couple of real gorillas at the San Francisco Zoo and a happy ending."
Go read the story, watch the movie, and look at the pictures. Pretty great stuff. I just keep finding more and more little things that make me like Gizmodo.
There's more interesting stuff to be said about the baboons. I have a coda for the woeful tale of Trish in the works, but then I went and of all things, injured my wrist, so I'm trying to keep my keyboard strain to a minimum. But if I had nothing but gorillas and video games news to read about, I'd be happy.
Buzz unwittingly did me a solid yesterday by sending me a link to this video from The Onion. I haven't made a humor entry in a little while, and I'm hosed out of my mind, plus the internet is still wonky. My theory is that everyone is in the same boat where we run out of internet at the end of the month, and are conserving for the necessities, and then when the new month hits and your limits are reset, people go ballistic and max out the tired old tubes we have to make due with.
Real posts again soon I totally swear. My main two secondary tasks are coming back under control, so I should have more time for awesome biz like this thing.
I've had a long and tiring week, so I will divert the planned substance, and give you something lighter.
I saw Invictus in theaters a couple weeks ago. It was enjoyable. If you haven't heard, it is directed by Clint Eastwood and is an adaptation of Playing the Enemy by John Carlin. The movie was better than Eastwood's previous movie, Gran Torino, yet despite being set in transitional South Africa, it manages to display fewer racist characters. Its really light on the racism I thought - it was as if Eastwood decided to he didn't need to worry about it since the movie was "clearly" about a racist struggle.
The movie cost me about 4 dollars. I was ecstatic. Blue Route Mall is amazing, but true explanation of its glory shall be saved for another time. The show was definitely worthwhile, solely so I could see Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon tromp through baboon poop in the scene filmed right in the middle of where I work everyday.
In related news, hoppzor sent me this link to an amusing blog, and a particular relevantly amusing post.
Also, try playing the "Where's Diapadion's Comment" game while you're browsing.
Baboons like cars. Its probably their novelty that attracts them. You've all seen what they've done on YouTube. Those incidents are outliers, as you've probably guessed. Normal baboons don't want bras, they want food.
Or they want a fun new playground. Cars are like a giant toy: they have all this stuff sticking off of them that you can break, plus some entertaining moving parts. Look at it from a baboon's perspective: they spend all day romping through the forest, jumping up and down on logs, rock, and branches, breaking anything they want, and of all those thousands of objects, no one cares a lick.
Rainer and I ran into an isolated car while following the baboons, one innocent day. As I said, baboons like cars, so the juveniles were already swarming over the automobile. Then I noticed something odd going on... or at least I perceived it to be odd that the time.
These baboons really liked licking this car. I'd never seen this before.
I'm not sure what the baboons got out of this exchange. The car was covered with dirt and dust from the park, and soon to be covered with baboon feces and urine. The all that the car brought with it that was not already readily available to the baboons were particles from the streets. And of course, the paint itself... I wonder...
When baboons lay down, they move heard first, so that the forehead or cheek bumps into the surface before the rest of the body plops down by it. One of them sat on the roof and half-lay down so his head was pressed into the top of the roof and his tongue fell out of the corner of his mouth, furiously licking at the paint job.
"Depraved is the only applicable word which can satisfactorily describe this baboon," I narrated. "He looks as if he were a fiend under the influence of this car's hallucinogenic paint, and his mind is centered on one thought: More."
The baboon raised himself from his half seated position and stared at me indecipherably.
"I don't think he liked what you said," commented Rainer.
Circling around to the rear, I saw a baboon had torn a sticker free from the back windshield, and had begun to eat it. "Congratulations," I offered the absent owner, as the sticker was slowly devoured. "You're been promoted. You're no longer a learner driver."
And now, the truth. I've still got no better idea why they lick cars. They lick the windows too. Novelty is about all I can imagine, and baboons have no concept of disgust. They look at the new cars, touch them, smell them, hear them, so why not taste them?
One day I was driving through the southern suburbs on a roundabout route back to my house and I happened to roll past a very salient stimuli situated just outside my passenger side window.
Just to be clear, I haven't seen anylegitimate American chains out here... till now. No McDonalds, no Best Western, no Sears, nadda. This is definitely a first.
After parking in the most dysfunctional single level lot in the world, I walked around the corner to behold the wonder I had... well, already beheld.
It makes sense to sell your electricity in advance rather than billing later if you're afraid half of your customers are going to pick up and scatter in order to avoid paying their bills. Apparently very few of them pay rent, too.
After pausing to snap the above photo, I entered. Alack! There were no toquitos or twix bars so I had to make due with buying a fifty cent (R3.50) "fresh" chicken samosa. Much better than a toquito, though somehow lacking in that stale grease flavor they have going on.
Upon leaving the establishment, I saluted in proper fashion.
Of course, what truly makes 7-11's special are their unintuitive trading hours. I don't know what they are for this particular establishment, but the nice thing about Cape Town, unlike Boston, is that restaurants and bars stay open late. So if I'm really desperate for some food at 3AM I have the option of getting an American style diner burger nearby, or a gatsby. Seriously if I can't get a twix at this place then what is the point?
I recently was checking my statistics and found that my writings has been noticed by a South African bloke who I had the pleasure of seeing perform recently. His name is Warren Robertson, and he is was one of the guys doing stand-up at the Daisies festival. He noticed what I wrote about the comedy parts of the festival, and since I didn't have the presence of mind to mention it in the original post, I'll do it here.
I stopped by to see most of the improv portion which Warren talks about in his own Daisies Festival summary. It was a real pleasure to watch. Now being able to put the name to the face, I can verify that he (and all of them, honestly) was on fire. During the "Famous Last Words" segment I almost felt bad for the other comics since Warren was nailing the lines one after another. Great stuff.
I think I'll diverge onto a tangent, briefly. To me, improv (if it really isn't planned like they say...) seems to be one of the most impressive forms of comedy. I have seen some amazing improv shows and when they go well, I can't help but be amazed. This is a big reason why I kept coming back for more of Roadkill Buffet but not so much Plush Daddy Fly.
Anyway, Comedia put on just such a stellar improv show at Daisies. Kudos to Warren and the rest. I hope I'll get a chance to catch one of his shows the next time he comes down to the Cape. But enough gushing.
I found this at the local market the other day. No way I could not buy it. The question is if I can ever bring myself so eat it. The package at least is must-save material. I spoke to one South African acquaintance about it, but I was left with a particular nagging question.
Is the sauce made from monkey or is it made to be used on monkey?
Sorry about the continued lack of updates and fixes - life is keeping things very busy. That just means there will be more and better material when I am afforded the opportunity to write it.
I am a trained neuroscientist and ethologist, though I sometimes fancy myself an anthropologist. I have studied animal behavior in many different contexts over the years. I'm currently involved in research on natural vocalization in the wild with troops of baboons in South Africa.
Take a look at my first post for some more details.
The content on this blog in no way reflects the opinions of UCT, BRU, or anyone else but me.
Any opinions offered on this site are mine and mine alone, and have been gleaned from my own personal observations, the news, and conversations with different, random people who I have met. I have neither met nor spoken to any of the individuals from BRU.
For official discussions on these topics, please see the BRU Blog.
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