NEWS - PREGNANT MONKEYS MISSCARRY TO AVOID INFANTCIDE

Pregnant Monkeys Miscarry to Avoid Infanticide

Joseph Castro, LiveScience Contributor

Date: 23 February 2012

When a new male gelada monkey takes control of a reproductive group, he will typically kill off the babies of his predecessor. Now, new research shows that pregnant females have an adaptive strategy to minimize their losses: They spontaneously miscarry.
In 1959, biologist Hilda Bruce first demonstrated the so-called Bruce effect in mice, where recently pregnant females miscarry after being exposed to novel males. Since then, researchers have documented the phenomena in other rodent species. However, until now, the Bruce effect seemed to be something restricted to the laboratory, as nobody had conclusively shown that it exists in wild animal populations. Moreover, studies have not shown that there is any evolutionary advantage to miscarrying when confronted with new males.
To see if the Bruce effect exists in gelada monkeys (Theropithecus gelada), Jacinta Beehner, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan, and her colleagues tracked 110 females across 21 groups of wild geladas living in the Simien Mountains National Park in Ethiopia. [Gallery: Photos of Gelada Monkeys]
"We saw that as soon as a new male came into a group, there were no births for the next six months," Beehner told LiveScience. In fact, the researchers documented only two births in these replacement groups in the five years of the study. "We get this big gap, screaming out that something is going on — it's statistically almost impossible to get this by chance."

To be sure what they were seeing was indeed the Bruce effect, the researchers also took hormonal data from the fecal samples of females before and after a new male arrived. Out of the 10 cases of pregnancies the researchers looked at, eight of the females miscarried within two weeks of a new male coming on to the scene. Most surprising to the researchers, the miscarriages happened the same day the male took over.
Of the two females that didn't miscarry, one quickly showed signs of fertility swelling and eventually mated with the new male while still pregnant. The other didn't, and probably as a result, the male killed her infant, but didn't kill the infant of the female with whom he mated. This behavior suggests that the males figure out which babies are theirs simply by knowing which females they mated with, Beehner said.
Females that miscarried as soon as new males arrived also became pregnant again, and the researchers saw a twofold increase in births during the seven to 12 months after new males took over. They also found that females that experienced such primate infanticide took longer to become pregnant again, suggesting these miscarriages are evolutionarily advantageous to the mama monkeys.
Peter Brennan, a physiologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who was not involved in the research, said that the study was quite convincing. "It's a great example of pregnancy block being demonstrated quite convincingly in the wild," said Brennan, who has studied the Bruce effect in lab mice. "And there's good evidence that it's adaptive in evolutionary terms."
Brennan is curious as to exactly how the females miscarry. In lab mice, he notes, females miscarry after picking up on chemical signals put off by the new males. "The actual physiological mechanism [in geladas] may be different," he said, adding that the miscarriages might be a response to social stress.
Beehner said that the next step is to pinpoint this mechanism, though this research cannot be conducted on a threatened wild primate like the gelada. Domestic horses may be good candidates for further research, as scientists have seen the Bruce effect in the species before, she said.
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

NEWS - FEARS RESEARCH MONKEYS ARE ILLEGALLY TAKEN FROM WILD

Fears research monkeys are illegally taken from wild 

 

Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie

February 13, 2012

AUSTRALIA'S importation of primates for research has sparked an investigation into allegations that the little-known trade breaches international agreements on animal welfare.
The Deputy Speaker of Federal Parliament, Anna Burke, has asked the Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, if monkeys imported from Indonesia, classified as bred in captivity, have been taken from the wild, in breach of Australian and international protocols.
Ms Burke has also questioned why Australia has had to import at least 368 pigtail macaques from Indonesia for research since 2000, when it has three long-established, government-funded primate breeding centres in Victoria and NSW.

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Australia and Indonesia are signatories to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, which bans the export for research of primates caught in the wild.
An undercover investigation by a British animal rights group found Indonesia was classing monkeys from an island off West Java as being bred in captivity rather than in the wild. The island is home to the monkeys imported by Australia.
The pigtail macaque is in danger of being added to the threatened species list unless trade is strictly regulated. The European Union recently suspended imports.
In a letter to Mr Emerson, Ms Burke said importing primates was irresponsible because of uncertainty about their origins.
"The unethical importation of these creatures is not necessary as we have the capacity to supply primates for research in Australia through our three domestic primate breeding facilities,'' she said.
Ms Burke wrote to Mr Emerson after meeting the animal rights group Humane Research Australia last year.
The push for a ban on importing primates for research is gathering momentum, with a federal Labor MP, Mike Symon, last year presenting a petition with 10,300 signatures to Parliament.
Indonesia's Garuda airline said last year that it would no longer transport primates or other animals destined for use in research, toxicity testing and other experiments.
The Health Department is reviewing its policy on primate imports for research and has called for public submissions. The present policy bans research on monkeys captured in the wild.
The Environment Department, which along with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service oversees the importation of the monkeys, said it relied on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species' Indonesian officials to verify the accuracy of information provided in export permits.
Indonesia's Tinjil Island is the source of the pigtail macaques exported to Australia.
An Environment Department spokeswoman said the department was not aware of any Australian officials visiting Tinjil Island to assess Indonesia's claim monkeys are bred in captivity.
Presenting the petition to Parliament in November, Mr Symon said the Indonesian authority responsible for ensuring the country's obligations to the international convention on trade of endangered species were met had classified the monkeys as "born in captivity", and therefore exempt from export bans.
A report by the British Union Against Vivisection rejected the claim that island breeding could be considered captive breeding.
"True captive breeding comprises a closed environment where variables can be strictly controlled … one where monkeys are excluded from other wildlife and placed in an environment where they have no direct impact on the ecosystem," it said.
The chief executive of Humane Research Australia, Helen Marston, said Australia should aim to end the use of primates in medical research rather than import animals.
''Banning the importation of further animals should not be of any detriment to Australian research," she said.
The secretariat of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species did not respond to questions about allegations its Indonesia-based management team was failing to stop the improper export of monkeys.

NEWS - RAPID URBANISATION PUTS LIVES OF MONKEYS IN DANGER

Rapid urbanisation puts lives of monkeys in danger

 

Animal rights group rescues pregnant primate beaten by residents

• By S. Narendra, Correspondent
• Published: 00:00 February 12, 2012

Mumbai: Animal rights activists rescued a pregnant monkey which was badly bruised after being beaten up by local people in a town near Mumbai. The monkey is recovering in a veterinary hospital.
However, another female Rhesus monkey died from burn injuries. The Thane Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) tried to save it after it came into contact with a high-tension electric wire.
Both animals were victims of loss of habitat through rapid urbanisation, Thane SPCA president Shakuntala Majumdar said.
The Rhesus macaque that got electrocuted fell on a high-tension wire in the industrial area of Kolshet in Thane on February 4 and got badly burnt, Majumdar said.
"Having entered the urban area, the Rhesus monkey was swaying from height to height and got electrocuted ... She was thrown down more than 70 feet. She sustained more than 70 per cent burns on her body, before she was rushed our hospital on February 4," Majumdar told Gulf News yesterday.
"What moved us most is that even after having sustained critical internal injuries as well as burns, she was never aggressive for even one day when she was dressed or treated by our doctors, while she lived. She died on Tuesday, after being in our care for three days," she said.
The second female monkey was relatively lucky. "On Monday, we received information that a female monkey was beaten up by some dwellers of a slum located on Pokharan Road-II of Thane for having entered their area. When we rushed to the spot, she could hardly move. She is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Without losing any time we brought her to our nearby hospital.
Vision lost in one eye
"She was so badly wounded that for the first few days she was not in a position to keep her head up or open her mouth. She had lost vision in one eye and the other was swollen and closed. She had to be hand-fed pureed fruits and water through a syringe," Majumdar said.
"Today our wildlife surgeon gave us a good progress report about this monkey. Though it will be many more days before we can even think of rehabilitating her, but chances are good. Maybe by then, she will have given birth," Majumdar said.

NEWS- MONKETS WITH LARGER FRIEND NETWORKS HAVE MORE GRAY MATTER

Monkeys with larger friend networks have more gray matter

 

November 4, 2011 by Lin Edwards\

New research in the UK on rhesus macaque monkeys has found for the first time that if they live in larger groups they develop more gray matter in parts of the brain involved in processing information on social interactions.

The researchers, led by Jerome Sallet of Oxford University, said the results of the new study bear some similarities to research by other groups working with humans, that related brain size to the extent of social interactions. These studies include recent work that suggested a link between the volume of some regions of the brain and the number of online friends people have in social networking sites such as Facebook.
The new study observed 23 macaques in a number of groups of different sizes. The monkeys were kept in their groups for an average of over a year, and a minimum of two months. One monkey was alone in its cage, but in all the other groups, which had from two to seven individuals, a heirarchy developed in which an individual's rank depended on the monkey's ability to form successful social interactions, such as friendships and partnerships.
The study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of the monkeys, and the results showed that in the temporal areas of the brain associated with social interaction skills, around a five percent increase in the volume of gray matter was found for each additional group member. The regions of the brain that increased in volume included the temporal pole, temporal cortex, and the inferior and rostral temporal gyri.
The researchers also compared the brains of male monkeys at various levels in the dominance-based heirarchy and found a number of brain areas, particularly the prefrontal cortex and inferior temporal sulcus, were enlarged in males of higher rank.
The research demonstrated that the social networks caused the changes in the brain (rather than enlarged brain areas influencing position in the social network, or the size of the network) because the scientists manipulated the size and makeup of the groups over a period of several months, and observed the changes in the brains of the monkeys.
Earlier research has shown that the brain shows plasticity, which means it can change in volume in different regions in response to environmental changes or acquisition of new skills or knowledge. Research had not previously shown brain plasticity in relation to social networking skills.
The paper was published in the journal Science on 4th November.

NEWS - SPRING HAS SPRUNG WITH ZOO BABIES

Spring has sprung with new zoo babies 

 

September 2, 2011

Spring has sprung quite literally at Taronga Zoo.
An endangered Francois langur monkey, seven koala joeys and a glossy black cockatoo chick (the first at Taronga in seven years) have all been born in recent months.
Many of them are taking advantage of the warmer weather to make their first entrance into the world, the zoo said in a statement yesterday.

The birth on August 20 of the male Francois langur monkey, named Tam Dao, is a particularly welcome addition as his species is critically endangered.
Only 1000 Francois langurs - also known as Francois leaf monkeys - are known to exist in the wild, and Taronga is the only zoo in Australasia to care for the Asian species.
Another young male, Kei-co, was born this year.

Meanwhile, Taronga's koalas have been busy this breeding season, giving birth to seven joeys.
Some of the young, which are born the size of a grain of rice, are still tucked up in their mother's pouches.
But a few proud mothers - Maggie, Wanda and Freya - are showing off their infants.
"We've had quite a baby boom in the zoo this year, which is fantastic," Taronga Zoo spokeswoman Danielle McGill said.
"The warmer spring weather means the animals are getting a lot more active, and a few of the young are beginning to poke their heads out of their mother's pouch."
Taronga's wildlife hospital is also busy at this time of year, caring for newborn animals who have been left orphaned.
A seven-month-old red kangaroo joey and a mob of little possums are being raised by carers who mind them 24 hours a day.
Zookeeper Megan is as busy as a new mum, bottle-feeding the female joey every four hours and carrying her around in a little backpack.
Two of the young possums were brought to the hospital after they were found in their dead mother's pouch after she was hit by a car.
They too are cared for 24 hours a day by a dedicated zookeeper, Bobby-Jo, and Swiss has the distinction of sporting the world's tiniest splint after she fractured her wrist.
The zoo has also bred a glossy black cockatoo chick, which is the first of its kind for seven years at the zoo.
The youngster was hatched by first-time mother Gloucester.
"It is fully feathered now and really quite beautiful," Ms McGill said. "Now is a lovely time to get down to the zoo and watch the animals as they get more active in the warmer weather."
AAP

NEWS - TWO COTTON-TOP TAMARIAN BABIES REUNITED AT ZOO

Two cotton-top tamarian babies reunited at zoo
2:42 PM, Aug. 12, 2011

SALISBURY — The Salisbury Zoo is the first institution to successfully re-introduce a rejected infant Cotton-top Tamarian monkey with its family.The young-male was born in May and immediately rejected by his mother -- who embraced the other baby. The primates weight less than one pound and are considered on of the “world’s 25 most endangered primates.”
Zoo workers collaborated with the Cotton-top Tamarian Species Survival Program to hand raise and slowly reintroduce the primate. The family group is now living together 24 hours a day with separate nest boxes for sleeping

.

NEWS - GROWN ADULTS REUNITED WITH THEIR PRECIOUS STUFFED ANIMAL

Grown Adults Reunited With Their Precious Stuffed Animal

 The couple that lost the stuffed monkey that they've been raising like a son for ten years was reunited with Bongo over the weekend, and the NY Post has the exclusive! And check out those exclusive photos, too! They seriously make it even more impossible to figure out if this whole thing is heartwarming, or just depressing. (or a little weird, maybe..lol)

Upper East Side couple Jack Zinzi and Bonni Marcus were reunited with Bongo after a week apart from him, having lost him on an outing in Park Slope last Sunday. Turns out 61-year-old Luis Barreto found the little guy on a parking meter in the neighborhood, and took him home, totally unaware of his backstory... and the bedbug epidemic? Or do people just pick up old stuffed animals and bring them home these days?

While hanging fliers, the couple happened to approach Barreto and some of his friends on the street to tell them about their lost monkey, and next thing you know they're in the man's apartment having "an emotional reunion." Marcus even says she "felt Bongo’s presence" as they got closer to the apartment. But they had to practically beg Barreto to turn him over, apparently he "fell in love with Bongo and wanted to keep him," noting he "looked real" to him.

The couple paid the $500 reward, took Bongo and Barreto to dinner, then bar hopped in Manhattan. Man, that little guy must have been tuckered out by the end of the night! And once home he had to reunite with his Beanie Baby brothers, who were reportedly “also suffering" with him gone.

NEWS - NYC COUPLE RECEIVES RANSOM DEMANDS FOR STUFFED TOY MONKEY BONGO

2 words- even wierder..lol

MICHELLE
-------------------------------------------------------

NYC couple receives ransom demands for stuffed toy monkey Bongo

• From: NewsCore
• August 05, 2011 10:30PM

THE Manhattan couple separated from the stuffed toy monkey they raised as a son said that they were inundated with ransom demands after offering a reward for the Beanie Baby's safe return, the New York Post reported today.

"If you ever want to see Bongo alive again, leave $1 million under the Brooklyn Bridge," one caller threatened on Bonni Marcus' voicemail.
Others veered from menacing to vulgar, leaving such messages as "I have your monkey, and I cut it up and took out his stuffing" and "I have your monkey - it's in my pants."
But Marcus and her boyfriend, Jack Zinzi, who for the last decade kept their beloved Bongo at their side, were not laughing. Instead, they said they were still praying that someone would heed the cries of the "parents" of the ape.
Marcus, 47, who teaches English as a second language at a private school, and Zinzi, 58, a building manager, never tried to have children, they said. Instead, they showered unconditional love on the $5 doll and his identical brothers - Do, Ray and Me.

"It's like losing a child," Zinzi said.
Marcus already received more than 100 phone calls and text messages on her cell phone, and most of them were "sympathetic, offering condolences or offering new dolls," she said.
But she has faith that there will be more bedtimes for Bongo. "I'm totally confident we will find him," she added.

NEWS - DUO GOES APE OVER LOST TOY MONKEY`

 one word-wierd, lol

MICHELLE

----------------------------------------------------------

Duo goes ape $#!+

Bonkers for Bongo - a lost toy monkey

By RICH CALDER

, August 4, 2011

The loss of a child is every parent's worst nightmare, a grief-stricken Upper East Side couple said yesterday -- even when the "kid" is a stuffed toy monkey.
Jack Zinzi, 58, and Bonni Marcus, 47, went bananas with grief after their beloved Bongo vanished in Brooklyn this week, plastering Park Slope with signs offering a $500 reward for his return.
"It's heartbreaking," Zinzi told The Post yesterday. "It's like losing a child. We take him everywhere we go, we talk to him. We even love to stand him up and make him dance and come alive."
Bongo is always by their side, accompanying the couple on trips to Coney Island and around the world, Zinzi said.

But their constant companion mysteriously vanished at around 7 p.m. Sunday as the couple headed to their favorite Park Slope restaurant, El Viejo Yayo. They suspect poor Bongo fell out of Zinzi's pocket.
"Please Help Me Get Home," read fliers Zinzi posted.
The apartment-building manager described the 8-inch tall Beanie Baby as having furry peach skin, a tail, black eyes and a stitched smile.
Marcus, who teaches at a Manhattan private school, Rennert Bilingual, says she and Zinzi have a "spiritual connection" with Bongo and that losing him put a strain on their relationship.
She said Bongo's three siblings -- three Beanie Babies identical to Bongo named Doe, Ray and Me -- are also suffering. "The head of the family is gone," she lamented.
Zinzi bought the monkey 10 years ago for $8 at a discount store in upstate Binghamton.
The doll stood out from other stuffed animals in a barrel, and he "knew it would be a great gift for Bonni," he said.
Even when temporarily broken up a few times, they shared joint custody of Bongo.
"I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry," said Ralph Mallone, a security guard in Park Slope. "But, really, I feel bad for them . . . Buying another stuffed animal probably won't make up for their monkey."

ARTICLE - ZOOLOGGER: THE MONKEY THAT REALLY GET BROTHERLY LOVE

Zoologger: The monkey that really gets brotherly love 

•   August 2011 by Cian O'Luanaigh
• For similar stories, visit the Zoologger

Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals – and occasionally other organisms – from around the world

Species: Saguinus geoffroyi

Habitat: Tropical forests in Panama and Columbia, hanging with the family

They're cute, they're helpful, they'll carry your babies. What's more, several males are happy to club together in order to serve a single female. Female Geoffroy's tamarins sure do have it easy.

The monkeys live in groups of three to nine, in which multiple adult males mate with a single breeding female and then cooperate to raise her young. This mating system, called polyandry, occurs in less than 1 per cent of bird species, and is even rarer in mammals.

Here's why: if you're a male, you can make lots of sperm cheaply and quickly, so to maximise your chances of reproducing, it makes sense to mate with as many females as possible.

Females, on the other hand, invest energy in making few eggs and have to bear the energetic costs of pregnancy. They evolve to be picky, choosing only the best males to fertilise their eggs. So you might expect mating systems where males mate with many females, rather than the other way around. Not in tamarins.

Male Geoffroy's tamarins provide everything an infant wants except milk. They carry the young more than the females do, which is a considerable burden as infants weigh 25 per cent of adult body mass at birth and bulk up to 50 per cent before they can move independently at 10 weeks of age. Carrying the youngsters slows males down as they forage for fruit and insects, and makes them vulnerable to predators. Which raises the question: why care for offspring that are not your own?

Paternity test

Sam Díaz-Muñoz, then at the University of California, Berkeley, observed six groups of wild tamarins in two rainforest sites in Panama and Columbia to find out.

He tested two possibilities. If males were closely related, they would gain an indirect benefit by helping related offspring – they would ensure that genes they shared with the father of the infants were passed on to the next generation. Or males might cooperate simply because if they stick around they could have a reasonable chance of siring offspring themselves.

Díaz-Muñoz needed to collect DNA samples to establish the groups' family trees. But a quirk of tamarin biology complicated the process.

Extreme bromance

80 per cent of tamarin births are fraternal (non-identical) twins, formed from two sperm fertilising two separate eggs. As fraternal twins come from different eggs and sperm, they have different DNA profiles.

But even though tamarin twins develop as separate embryos, they grow within the same chorion – the outermost membrane surrounding the embryo, which contributes to the placenta.

Blood vessels connect the embryos within the chorion and exchange cells between them early in development, so even though most parts of the two embryos have their own unique DNA profile, their blood profile is identical.

"People starting doing genotyping and found that with blood you get an identical profile," says Díaz-Muñoz.

The solution? "If you go to tissue types that are blood-cell-free – such as hair – then you get different DNA fingerprints," says Díaz-Muñoz.

Keep it in the family

DNA showed that males were related at the levels expected for brothers or half-brothers, or fathers and sons. But males in some groups also shared paternity, even within the same litter – there were fraternal twins with different fathers.

Males walk a balance between the indirect genetic benefits they enjoy from caring for young animals they are related to, and the direct benefits of siring their own offspring, says Díaz-Muñoz.

Ejaculates at dawn

It's not all happy families, though. Tamarins undergo seasonal change in testes size, with very large testes for their body mass. Usually one group member has much larger testes than the other males. So though males cooperate, their sperm still competes within the female to fertilise her eggs – the male with the biggest ejaculate may sire the most offspring.

"If you have to share matings, you might as well do it with someone you're related to," says Díaz-Muñoz. "And then you duke it out in the sperm competition."

Outside of tamarins and their close cousins the marmosets, only one other primate practises polyandry: humans. In the ethnically Tibetan Nyimba population of north-western Nepal, brothers share wives, though marriages can break down when there are too many brothers.

Perhaps tamarins have something to teach us about brotherly love. Captive tamarins spend most of their time in monogamous pairs, says Díaz-Muñoz. "You can keep them in trios – but only if they're related."

Journal reference: Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.06.013

TECHNOLOGY - NEW SOFTWARE DEVELOPED TO RECOGNIZE MONKEY FACES

New Software Developed to Recognize Monkey Faces 

by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil on 08. 1.11

Science & Technology

Photo: TheBusyBrain / cc
Computers are already better than humans at games like Chess and Jeopardy, but soon they may best us at recognizing monkeys, too. For researchers studying great ape populations in the wild, learning to distinguish between faces is key to ensuring that no individual is counted twice -- and that often takes a keen eye and months of working closely with the animals. Now, thanks to a new facial-recognition software being developed, soon computers may be able to identify primate mugs much in the same way current technology can spot human faces, allowing primatologists to more accurately gauge the health of the world's most imperiled primates.
According to a report from The Engineer, researchers from Germany are developing a method of distinguishing between individual chimpanzees from photos and videos of the animals taken in the wild as a way of allowing a more accurate census in a particular area. In turn, conservationists employing this technology could easily determine how effectively protection programs are safeguarding chimpanzee habitats.

'The biologists [looking after apes in the wild] have to evaluate whether a management strategy is efficient or not,' Alexander Loos from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology told The Engineer. 'They have to know the number of individuals of a specific species, whether a population is declining or increasing and which factors influence the population.'
Remotely operated cameras and audio equipment are already used to help monitor animal populations in the wild, but they often produce more data than can be manually processed.

Facial-recognition technology has been around for a while in human contexts, though similar methods are finding an increasing number of applications in the world of conservation as well. Algorithmic programs are currently being used to identify individual members of a species from its physical traits, like the coat patterns of penguins and the dorsal fins of dolphins -- though this may be the first time an animal face is used as the distinguishing feature of an animal.
Researchers tell The Engineer that they're hoping to pair this technology with other smart programs, like those which can classify primate vocalizations, as well. Together, these tools could revolutionize the way researchers understand both wild chimpanzee populations and the emotional state of the group.

NEWS - RARE LITTLE PRIMATE FOUND ON SASTRI NAGAR TERRACE

Rare little primate found on Sastri Nagar terrace

A Selvaraj, TNN Jul 31, 2011

CHENNAI: Forest department officials rescued a slender loris, a rare primate normally found in dense tropical rainforests of south India and parts of Sri Lanka, from a house in Sastri Nagar, Adyar.
The rare one-year-old animal is now at the forest range office in Velachery. A few days ago, a cat-eyed snake was found in a parcel destined for Slovakia at a courier company in Nungambakkam.
On Friday, the animal was spotted by the wife of a businessman, Kannan. She had gone to the terrace to hang out clothes to dry. As she was going about her work, she suddenly noticed the animal sitting at the far end of the terrace. Screaming with fear, she called out to her husband. Upon hearing her screams, Kannan immediately ran to the terrace.

Soon, Kannan called the police, who in turn alerted the forest officials. The forest officials rescued the animal and kept it safely at their office in Velachery.
Forest ranger Dr S David Raj said, "We will release it in the forest in a couple of days. The animal may have crossed the forest borders in search of food and finally landed on the terrace of the house. We are feeding it a few insects. A veterinary doctor will also inspect the animal to check its condition."
"It sprays its urine all over its body to attract small insects. It normally lives in dense forests hanging on the barks of the trees. The Theosophical Society in Adyar, very close to Sastri Nagar, has a huge forest and the animal may have come from there," he added.
Forest officials say the slender loris prefer thick, thorny vegetation wherein they can easily escape predators and find insects, the mainstay of their diet,to eat. They also eat slugs, young leaves, flowers, shoots, and occasionally eggs and nestlings.
Another forest official said, "The slender loris is about the size of a chipmunk, with long, pencil-thin arms and legs. It is about 15–25 cm long and has a small, vestigial tail. The round head is dominated by two large, closely set, saucer-like brown eyes. They flank a long nose which ends in a heartshaped knob. The eyes are surrounded by dark-brown to black circles of fur. The ears are large and round. Its coat is light red-brown or gray-brown on its back and dirty white on its chest and belly. The second digit on the hand and foot are very short. They move on the same plane as the thumb, which helps them grasp branches and twigs."

ARTICLE - CRASH DIET FOR CHUNKY MONKEY

Crash diet for a chunky monkey

 31st July 2011

• By Arron Hendy

AN OBESE ape is seeing the benefits of a crash diet and exercise regime.

Oshine the Bornean orang-utan arr-ived at Monkey World last summer morbidly obese at twice the weight she should have been after living as a pet on sweets and processed food.

But her new diet has helped her lose fat while exercise has boosted her fitness and staff at the sanctuary and tourist attraction near Bovington have been delighted to see her adopt an orphaned orang-utan.

Dr Alison Cronin, director, said: “With Monkey World’s help Oshine has turned her life around.

“When she arrived at the rescue centre she was morbidly obese and ran the risk of developing heart disease, blood clots, high blood pressure and diabetes.

“We have been quite strict with her diet and have removed all sweets and processed foods that she used to get in addition to her normal diet and it has worked.”

Oshine weighed 100kg when she arrived but the team at the sanctuary have helped the 14-year-old lose 20kg by changing her food and giving her a 20m climbing fame to scale and exercise on.

Monkey World is home to Europe’s orang-utan crèche where orphaned babies are sent to grow up with others of their own kind.

Oshine has adopted an orphaned baby orang-utan named Silvestre and it is hoped that they will be integrated in with the other orang-utans soon. Silvestre is a male Sumatran orang-utan and was born in 2009 at Santillana Zoo in Spain.

His mother abandoned him so keepers at the zoo cared for him for the first 11 months of his life and in December last year he was brought to Monkey World to join the orang-utan crèche. Dr Cronin added: “Oshine still has a long way to go and needs to lose another 20-30 kg before we will be happy with her fitness and health.

“I hope that by the end of this year Oshine will have lost enough weight that we can introduce her to one of our adult groups of orang-utans where she will be able to have her own baby but until she loses more weight it would not be healthy for her.”

Oshine’s diet includes fruit and vegetables, eggs, chicken, breakfast cereal, rice and couscous.

Her rescue and rehabilitation will be featured in a new series of Monkey Life due to be launched on the Animal Planet television channel starting on August 29th.

As members of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme for orang-utans Monkey World breeds the apes and offers a home to any babies born in European zoos that are orphaned.

NEWS - MONKEY THIEF JAILED FOR A YEAR IN RAS AL KHAIMAH

Monkey thief jailed for a year in Ras Al Khaimah

By

• Staff

Published Thursday, July 28, 2011

A criminal court in Ras Al Khaimah sentenced a man for one year in prison for stealing a monkey and a parrot at gunpoint from a private zoo in the emirate, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.
The man, identified only as MR, had used a gun to force the zoo guard to hand over the monkey and the parrot before fleeing, Emirat Alyoum said.
Police later seized the man on descriptions given by the guard at the zoo, owned by an Emirati in Awafi area.

NEWS - RARE BABY MONKEY REMOVED FROM MOMS CARE-DOING FINE

Rare Baby Monkey Removed From Mom's Care

One-Week-Old Silver Leaf Monkey To Be Hand-Raised At The San Diego Zoo

POSTED: 3:28 pm PDT July 27, 2011

UPDATED: 4:23 pm PDT July 27, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- The first silvered leaf monkey to be hand-raised at the San Diego Zoo was doing well Wednesday.According to San Diego Zoo, the one-week-old female named "Thai" was born July 3 to a first-time mother.Sadly, Thai's mother was not holding her correctly for nursing, animal keeper Janet Hawes said, she needs to be bottle-fed several times daily."The small, orange monkey continues to spend time with her family between feedings so that social bonds remain strong," San Diego Zoo said.The monkey is a rare Asian species that is born with orange fur that becomes silver as they age. Females have some white patches.They're generally found in coastal mangrove forests in Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, in habitats considered to be threatened by deforestation.

NEWS - HOLLYWOOD MONKEYS AROUND THIS SUMMER

Hollywood Monkeys Around This Summer

By GLENN WHIPP For The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES July 25, 2011 (AP)

Movies have been messing with apes since a Hollywood director captured and chained that great gorilla on Skull Island and brought him to Broadway in 1933's "King Kong."
The reason, of course, is as plain as the image in the mirror. Apes and monkeys: They're like us, but they're not us. That's the fascination. And it's a great starting point for all kinds of storytelling, be it comic or cautionary.
This summer, movies have served up quite a bit of both, offering a barrel full of monkeys that, at the risk of offending Bonzo and Mighty Joe Young, eclipses all previous comers, not to mention the rumbling robots, pirates and wizards currently littering the multiplex.
Monkeys and apes are everywhere, from Crystal, the crazy capuchin seen in "The Hangover II" to the bromance between Kevin James and the Nick Nolte-voiced silverback gorilla in "Zookeeper."
Then there's this story of human hubris: Scientists perform experiments on a young chimp and, afterward, abandon it, leaving the animal caught halfway between man and monkey.
It's the premise of not one, but two summer movies: the upcoming reboot "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and the Sundance Film Festival documentary sensation, "Project Nim," which chronicles a Columbia University professor's radical attempt in the 1970s to teach a chimpanzee sign language by raising it as a human child.
"They're science-fiction and we're science-fact," says "Project Nim" producer Simon Chinn, whose film is currently expanding its North American run.
"The fascination in our movie comes from watching the similarities between chimps and humans, yes," Chinn adds. "But if there's any lesson to take from the film, it's that, while there may be a lot of overlap, chimps are very distinct and should be left to live among their own kind."
Or risk, in the case of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a primate rebellion that its makers liken to the classic Roman slave revolt epic "Spartacus."
What separates this "Apes" movie from the 1968 Charlton Heston sci-fi adventure, its sequels and the 2001 Tim Burton remake is both its present-day earth setting and its point of view.
"The ape is the star of the film," says 20th Century Fox chairman Tom Rothman. "The movie starts out relatively conventionally, but, after something unfortunate happens and the ape is put in a 'sanctuary,' which to the ape is just jail, the movie stays with the ape. The rest of the movie is his story, told from his perspective."
"The key," adds "Apes" director Rupert Wyatt, "is in the telling for you to understand whose side we're on. And it's not the Romans."
Maybe that's OK. Humans have a "deep, intrinsic attraction to primates," says San Diego Zoo animal care manager Greg Vicino, that goes beyond the mutual owning of opposable thumbs. Like people, monkeys and apes (how to tell the difference: most monkeys have tails) maintain intense relationships through sophisticated social behavior.
"They follow physical signals, gestures, postures and vocal behavior in order to dictate how they behave," Vicino says. "They're fascinating because they appear so human in so many ways. Yet, it's also the subtle differences we find irresistible. You can't predict what they're going to do."

Those mercurial mood swings entice screenwriters to create wild scenarios for their monkey characters. Take the super-smart capuchin Crystal: She plays a cigarette-smoking drug dealer in "The Hangover II" and then, voiced by Adam Sandler in "Zookeeper," dishes out relationship advice to Kevin James. ("Throw poop at her!")
Over the past eight years, several capuchins have played Jack the Monkey, a screeching mischief maker seen in all the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, including this year's "On Stranger Tides."
"Monkeys are childlike and can act on just about every impulse and nobody judges them for that," ''Zookeeper" director Frank Coraci says. "Add in that they're 20 times stronger than us, and they're living the dream life for a lot of dudes."
Should filmmakers decide to pursue a more serious route, apes and monkeys can hold up a mirror so humans can examine their own behavior. As we watch the chimp in "Project Nim" being shuttled between various homes and facilities, it's easy to view the film as an allegory for parenting.
Says producer Chinn: "I first saw it as a story about how we as adults in society sometimes discharge our responsibilities to those who are more vulnerable, be they chimps or children."
Not that the message always needs to be profound.
"Sometimes you just want to monkey around with your persona, with your image," Clint Eastwood tells The Associated Press, talking about his surprising, mid-career comedic turns opposite an orangutan named Clyde in 1978's "Every Which Way But Loose" and its sequel, "Any Which Way You Can." ''Or maybe I just got tired of riding a horse and needed something new."

NEWS - HANGOVER 2 MONKEY IS "HOLLYWOOD TROLLOP"

Hangover 2 monkey is a “Hollywood trollop"

***

Posted by hearworld 26 July 2011 16:40 

While this isn’t actually a story about a celebrity, it is story about a celebrity monkey. Plus, it made us laugh so we thought we’d share…
Anyway, you know the cute monkey from The Hangover 2? Apparently not only does she get around a bit, but she’s a bit of a diva, too. Current co-star and King Of Queens actor Kevin James tells Digital Spy,
“Her name is Crystal and she's a bit of a Hollywood trollop right now. She's kind of in a lot of movies, but she's doing well. By the way, I'm thinking of becoming her agent. I'd like to quit my job acting and just get jobs for her. She's got a little bit more demanding, she won't go onto set unless I'm there already. She has to wait for me, I get there and then she'll leave her trailer. I can't make direct eye contact with her and she can pee on me whenever she wants."
We could be going a bit soft in our old age, but the thought of a diva monkey really makes us chuckle.
Crystal has already appeared in the Night At The Museum movies and will be seen next in Zookeeper with Kevin James and the new Cameron Crowe flick We Bought A Zoo, so she’s one to watch.

NEWS - MONKEY JOCKEYS RIDE INTO LAKE COUNTY FAIR

Article updated: 7/27/2011 4:51 AM

Monkey jockeys ride into Lake County Fair

 Horns blew, music blasted and the crowd cheered as the banana derby racing with “America's Favorite Monkey Jockeys” was under way at the Lake County Fair.
Featuring monkeys riding dogs, it is one of the new attractions at the 83rd annual Lake County Fair that started Tuesday at the fairgrounds in Grayslake. It runs through Sunday.
The monkeys are dressed in brightly colored jockey outfits riding dogs around a track in a competition format.
Gilligan, Bobo and Bert where the three capuchin monkeys that competed for the title.
Philip Hendricks, who calls himself the “top banana,” has been traveling across the United States for four years with his wife and daughter putting on the show.
“I like to watch the monkeys on the dogs. I enjoy seeing it. My show isn't educational, but it's definitely informative. I'm doing it because I believe in entertaining people with the monkeys,” Hendricks said.
Sharing the banana derby with Lake County Fair visitors is something Hendricks feels passionate about and hits close to home for him. He grew up in Hinsdale.
“I have had a passion for dogs since my daughter's age. The draw between animal and human is amazing. I have loved dogs since I was young,” said Hendricks, who added he rescued all four dogs in the show.
After the banana derby ended, a fair goer even shook Hendricks's hand to thank him for rescuing the dogs he uses in the show.
Hendricks received the monkeys from his wife's father, who was originally training them for use by people with disabilities.
That idea never panned out, so Hendricks started training the monkeys to ride dogs by giving them treats.
Fair organizers say the derby is part of the variety of shows, games, food, rides and many more traditional attractions at this year's fair, which they say got off to a good start Tuesday.
“There is an increase in attendance. We are feeling very good about the fair. We think it will be a great fair. We are expecting over 100,000 people at the course of the fair,” said Sheri Vyfvinkel, business manager for the Lake County Fair Association.
The banana derby's first show Tuesday drew a large crowd that seemed intrigued by the concept.
“They were pretty funny. It isn't every day you see a dog with a monkey on its back,” Lake Villa resident Sharon Schmeda said.

NEWS - TAKING MONKEY BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Taking monkey business to the next level

By: Carlo Ledesma

Philippine Daily Inquirer  July 23rd, 2011 

I’ll be honest and say that movies with monkeys and apes hardly ever make it to my must-see list. I’ve stumbled into enough man-primate buddy flicks on HBO (“Ed,” anyone?) to make me scratch my head and wonder why films with chimps in human clothes pass for entertainment. Yet despite that, I still found myself excited to be in a screening room in Sydney with a small group of journalists to witness the birth of a chimp named Caesar, who not only headlines “Rise Of The Planet of The Apes,” but is also the current flagbearer of a certain type of technology that continues to reinvent cinema as we know it.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is the story of a group of medically-enhanced apes who revolt against the human race. The film aims to inject new life into a franchise whose last installment in 2001 featured actors like Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter in elaborate prosthetic makeup designed by Rick Baker.
This time around, the filmmakers chose to use the technique known as performance capture to channel their apes.
The gist of performance capture is this:  an actor (in this case Andy Serkis, unarguably the patron saint of performance capture) dons a suit fitted with several dotted markers. A helmet camera points at the actor’s face, which is also dotted with markers, allowing the camera to pick up even the slightest nuance.
Array of cameras
The actor’s movements are captured by an array of cameras mounted all across the studio (also known as the “volume”). The data is then fed into the visual effects artists’ computers, who go about rendering the captured information into the characters that we see on screen—Gollum, King Kong, Neytiri, and now, Caesar.
The whole process is much more complex than that, of course, and is one that’s taken a great deal of time and effort to figure out. There is perhaps no better authority on the subject than the man who stepped onto the podium during our secret Sydney screening: Joe Letteri.
He of the  four-Oscars pedigree (two for the “Lord of The Rings” series, one for “King Kong,” and one for “Avatar”) and currently the Senior Special Effects Supervisor of WETA Digital, Peter Jackson’s house of movie magic.
During his presentation, I got the sense that this wasn’t just your typical press junket for Letteri. There was a calm yet slightly giddy vibe about him as he showed us several clips from the film, explaining in detail how much visual effects work went into each scene.
Letteri said that the challenge was to create an ape that still behaves very much like the real apes that we know, unlike the ones in the previous “Planet of The Apes” films, where actors in suits would work simply because the apes they were playing were already evolved, talking versions.
Whereas Avatar’s performance capture sequences were filmed in a studio rigged with hundreds of cameras, the Apes team was able to stage scenes in real, practical locations thanks to a portable version of the performance capture rig. This enabled them to shoot Serkis in real time, almost anywhere. It also allowed Serkis to act alongside lead actor James Franco without having to recreate his performance in a studio later on.
Looking at the footage, it was pretty clear that this portability allowed for much more realistic performances. Eyelines were consistent, and whenever Franco had to carry or push against Caesar, there was a real sense of “weight,” and the absence of pantomime acting (which you normally get when actors act opposite a tennis ball mounted on a pole) was refreshing.
No dead-eye
What I found most impressive was the complete absence of the dreaded “dead-eye” effect that plagued older motion capture films. Take a look at the Tom Hanks film “The Polar Express,” and you’ll see that while the essence of Tom Hanks is there, there’s just something unsettling about the whole thing until you realize that it’s the lack of depth and soul in the eyes that keep the character from being 100 percent convincing.
There were absolutely no dead eyes as we watched Caesar’s evolution from an innocent chimp, to a confused adolescent trying to make sense of his abilities, to a defiant leader who rallies his fellow primates. It all required subtle shifts in performance, and thanks to the combined efforts of Andy Serkis and Letteri’s team, Caesar is a chimp that feels astonishingly human.
As a filmmaker who works in projects that don’t even come close to a studio film’s catering budget, I did have questions about whether this cutting-edge technology could someday be accesible to independent filmmakers.
In the same way, cameras such as the Canon 5D have begun to narrow the chasm between indies and studios; surely it must be a matter of time before performance capture will be scaled down and simplified enough to be available to the rest of us.
This is something that’s definitely on the horizon, said Letteri, whose goal is to keep developing the technology to make it “even simpler, less intrusive.” That optimism made me excited by the possibilities to come. And then, who knows, I may just put my man-ape buddy flick bias aside and make a hard pitch to direct “Ed 2.”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is released worldwide on August 4.
Carlo Ledesma is a filmmaker based in Sydney, Australia. His feature film “The Tunnel” is available online at www.thetunnelmovie.net.

NEWS - BABY LEOPARDS, PANTHERS, MONKEYS,AND BEAR FOUND IN MANS SUITCASES AT THAI AIRPORT

Baby Leopards, Panthers, Monkeys And Bear Found In Man's Suitcases At Thai Airport 

 

AP/The Huffington Post
05/13/11

BANGKOK (AP) -- Authorities at Bangkok's international airport arrested a first-class passenger Friday whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai.
The man, a 36-year-old United Arab Emirates citizen, was waiting to check in for his flight at Suvarnabhumi International Airport when he was apprehended by undercover anti-trafficking officers, who had been monitoring him since his black market purchase of the rare and endangered animals, according to the FREELAND Foundation, an anti-trafficking group based in Thailand.

When authorities opened the suitcases, the animals yawned, said Steven Galster, director of FREELAND, who was present during the bust. There were two leopards, two panthers, an Asiatic black bear and two macaque monkeys – all about the size of puppies.
"It looked like they had sedated the animals and had them in flat cages so they couldn't move around much," Galster said. Some of the animals were placed inside canisters with air holes.

Authorities believe the man was part of a trafficking network and were searching for suspected accomplices. "It was a very sophisticated smuggling operation. We've never seen one like this before," Galster said. "The guy had a virtual zoo in his suitcases."
Thailand is a hub for illegal wildlife trafficking, but authorities typically find rare turtles, tortoises, snakes and lizards that feed demand in China and Vietnam. Finding such an array of live mammals is unusual.
"We haven't seen this mixture (of animals) before," Galster said. "It's amazing. We were really surprised."
In Thailand, leopards and panthers fetch roughly $5,000 a piece on the black market, but their value in Dubai is presumably higher, Galster said. It was not known if the animals were destined to be resold or kept as exotic pets, a practice popular in the Middle East.