Comparative Primate

Lemurs

(Prosimians/Strepsirhini)

Lemurs are small primates. They live in on the island of Madagascar. They live mostly in trees, spending most of their time at the top of the rain forest, while ring-tailed Lemurs spend most of their time on the ground. Most lemurs, such as the ring-tailed lemurs, the brown lemurs, and the sifakas, are awake during the day and asleep at night. Excluding the small and dwarf Lemurs, which are very active during the night.

 

Female Lemurs are dominant. They are the leader of the packs. They control the movement of the Lemurs, they have first choice of food and of the mates. Mating takes place in mid-April and the baby lemurs are born around September. With the mating process, the males compete for the females by daubing their tails with scents from their wrist glands and waving the odor at their opponent. This usually establishes rank, but if need be, a physical altercation will occur.

 

The female Lemurs don't leave the groups that they are born into, which is about 3-25 animals each group. But when males hit maturity they leave their groups. They rotate to different groups every few years.

 

 

Spider Monkeys

(New World Monkeys/Platyrrhini)



Spider Monkeys are from the tropical rain forests of Central and South America, occurring as far north as Mexico. They spend most of their time aloft and even though they have no thumbs, they maintain a powerful grip.

 

They gather in a group of up to two or three dozen animals. At night the split up, half a dozen or smaller to sleep. The food that they eat are mostly found in treetops, which are nuts, fruit, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders.

 

Spider Monkeys are very noisy animals. They communicate in such ways as screeching, barks and many other sounds. Females give birth to one baby every two to five years. Females usually choose their mate, sometimes mating with a number of male Spider Monkeys in a single day. Male Spider Monkeys sexually mature at the age of five, while the females mature at the age of four.

 

 

Baboon

(Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)

There are five different species of baboons, all of them living in Africa and Arabia. Baboons are some of the world's largest monkeys. They prefer savanna and other semi-arid habitats, with few of them living in tropical forests. Even though they spend most of their time on the ground, baboons do climb trees to eat, sleep, and be on the lookout for trouble.

 

Males use the show of their physical power to dominate their rivals. Troop members spend hours grooming one another to remove insects and dead skin. There group has up to 50 baboons, having seven to eight males and twice as male females and babies, which are the core of the groups.

 

Female's bottoms attracts males, it swells during ovulation. Males think the bigger the bottom, the better the mom. Females that have a bigger bottom, reached puberty the earliest and gave birth to the most offspring.

 

Gibbon

(Lesser Ape/Hylobatidae)

Gibbons reside in the forests of  Southern Asia, living in trees, rarely being on the ground. There are fifteen  recognized species of gibbons ranging from northeastern India to Southern China to Boreno. The largest of the gibbon species being known as the siamangs.



 

Gibbons live in family groups that consist of an adult pair and their young offspring. Gibbon mates usually stay together for life. a Female gibbon will give birth to one baby after a seven month period. They usually stay with their parents fro about six years and then the venture out to start a family of their own. At about twelve to thirteen years, they are ready to reproduce.

 

 

Chimpanzee

(Great Ape/Hominidae)

Chimpanzees live in a variety of African habitats, differencing from rainforests, woodlands and grasslands. They are humans closest living relatives, they have ninety-eight percent of our genetic blueprints.

 

Mating can happen whenever females are receptive. Meaning female chimpanzees can give birth at any time of the year to a single infants, which will cling to them until the age of two. Females reach their reproductive stage at the age of thirteen. Males are considered adults at the age of sixteen.



 Conclusion



In Conclusion, I do believe that the environment plays a big part in physical and behavioral traits. Being that most of the animals lives and spends most of their time in trees and travels in groups, they aware of predators and they protect each other. I think it is really amazing that they travel in groups, its a survival skill and they are protecting each other. They have adapted so well to their habitat.