Comparative Primate Blog Post

Lemurs:

Environment - Lemurs reside in Madagascar, an island South East of Africa and in the Comoro Islands. The climate in Madagascar is very tropical but at some times very dry. Madagascar consists of beaches, lagoons, mountains, rivers, grassland and even desert. The island use to be mostly forest but unfortunately most of that is gone. Most Lemurs live on trees and spend most of their time at the top of the rain forests.

Sociality and Mating Patterns - Lemurs are social primates and love to interact with others of their own kind. They usually live in groups of 25. It is said that lemurs who live in larger social groups are smarter and best at social cognition. A lemurs mating season is very short, about less than three weeks per year. The smaller the species the more that can be born at once. A bigger lemur species can only have about 1 or 2. Depending on the resources available to the lemurs (like food) would be if they reproduced or not. When they choose not to reproduce it is due to the fact that they cant provide and they also want to survive. The time of year that the lemurs mate can also be a big factor because that affects when their baby is born which could be during winter, spring or summer. I think this is a big factor of that the Lemur has to adapt to that relates to the trait because they have to be smart for example when there is no food supply the lemur adapts and doesn't mate because it does not want to reproduce.

Spider Monkey:

Environment - Spider Monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of central and south America and up as north to Mexico. They use their long arms to swing from tree to tree.

Sociality and Mating Patterns -Spider Monkeys live in groups of approximately 35 members, usually led by females and they are the ones who decide how large the group will be. If there is plenty of food to be found in their habitat then they won't mind if their group grows a little. When the group gets to large to even handle she breaks them up into small groups and each group goes their own way. They believe that they have a better chance of surviving that way instead of being in one large group. Spider Monkeys are very vocal and depend on it a lot to warn each other, to protect their young or even the environment. Spider Monkeys do not have a specific mating season. They will just let it happen whenever they want to, but they will only mate if and only if there is enough food in the environment. Female spider monkeys are very picky when it comes down to picking a mate.

I think spider monkeys have been influenced by the environment mostly when it comes down to mating, because they don't have specific times to do so but if they see that there is not enough resources then they choose not to reproduce and that is what to me seems like the spider monkey adapting.

Baboon: 

Environment - Baboons are found to live in Africa and Arabia. Baboons prefer to live in the Savanna and/or other semi-arid habitats, some do choose to live in rain forests.

Sociality and Mating Patterns - Baboons usually live in groups or so called "troops" consisting of 15-150 members. In the groups there are adult males and adult females and their offsprings. Females usually always remain in the same group for the rest of their lives. But Males tend to leave and go to other troops in order to mate. The baboons create relationships whiting the groups and usually their friendship consists o grooming each other, or if they like each other and choose each other to be each others mating partner. 

I think they use their trait and adapt because they live in large groups I believe they do so to protect each other from hard since they do live in a area where there are all kinds of animals.

Gibbon:

Environment - Gibbons live in the forests of southern Asia, and perfectly adapt to their life in the trees. They rarely ever come to the ground, they spend most of their time up in the trees.

Sociality and Mating - Gibbons live in small stable family groups, unlike the other primates they have a stable family that they stick to ( a ale and a female that mate for life and their offspring who is most likely younger than 7 years old). When they reproduce Gibbons are pregnant for 7 months, and have one baby at a time.

I think that their trait is influenced by the environment because they are stable and always up in trees they only stick to one mating partner for life.

Chimpanzee : 

Environment - Chimpanzees are found in Africa, they inhabit 22 African countries. They live in rain forests which use to be equatorial forest belt of Africa. Chimps are both terrestrial and arboreal.

Sociality and Mating - Like humans, Chimpanzees love social interactions with others. They live in social groups known as communities or unit groups that usually consist of 40 to 60 members. They split up into groups of 10 when they travel or go out to look for food. When it comes down to Mating a female chimpanzee who is known to be attractive may be accompanied my many of the males in her group or sometimes even all of them. Sometimes there is a dominant male in the group who possesses over her and shows violent actions that prevent other males from mating with her.

I think that their trait gets influenced by the environment because they split up into smaller groups to go look for food, I think that if the resources were available or if it was easy to travel in large groups then they would not bother to split up.

In conclusion, what I found to be the biggest influence by the environment was the resources found in the habitat. A lot of the primates would not reproduce if they did not have food around them that was available for when they have their baby.