Behavior and Ecology

This page retains existing categories and links from the old PIN and includes additional links as well. This is far from an exhaustive list but rather can serve as a starting point for fact-finding and research ideas. There is some overlap among categories. Please contact us if you have suggestions for this page.

Please also visit Primate Fact Sheets and Resources/Select a Primate to learn more about behavior and ecology in different primate species.

Behavior (social, reproductive, humor, fear, other)

• Binti, Interspecies Relations, and Wildlife Conservation (Diana Guerrero, Ark Animals, 2011)
• Archives for Gombe Chimpanzee Database Project (Leakey Foundation, 2019)
• Birth timing generates reproductive trade-offs in a non-seasonal breeding primate (Proc Royal Soc B, Dezeure et al, May 2021)
• Moral behavior in animals (de Waal, Ted Talks, Nov 2011)
• Ishasha (African Ape Study Sites: Ishasha River, chimpanzees, 1992)
• The Imitation Factor: Imo the Amazing (Imo the Japanese macaque, book review)
• Humor in Primates (from the old Primate Info Net)
• Do animals have humor? (Live Science, 2017)
• So two apes walk into a bar… Primates enjoy humor, too (NBC News, 2012)
• Humor in Apes (Jennifer Gamble, 2001)
• Kinds of Fear (Primate fear and anxiety research at UW–Madison, Why Files, April 1998)
• The Nature of Love (HF Harlow, Classics in the History of Psychology, Am Psychol, 1958)
• Frans de Waal on the Paula Gordon Show: Natural Goodness (1997)
• Primate Social Intelligence  (Preserved from the old Primate Info Net, by R. P. Worden, Cogn Sci, 1996)
• Primate Behavior  (lecture by Bill Sellers, University of Leeds, circa 1990s or 2000s?)
• Chimpanzee Cultures  (includes a database of chimpanzee behavior)
• Chimps R Us  (PBS: Scientific American Frontiers, 2001)

Behavior (normal and abnormal)

• Welfare of primates: normal behavior patterns (nidirect.gov.uk)
• Abnormal behavior in a captive chimpanzee colony  (Animal Welfare Institute.)
• Abnormal behavior in nonhuman primates and models of development (Novak and Suomi, 2008)
• Abnormal behavior definitions (nprcresearch.org)
• Stereotypic behavior in nonhuman primates as a model for the human condition (Lutz, ILAR Journal, 2014)

Cognition/Intelligence

• Chimpanzee Ai and Her Friends: The Studies on Chimpanzee Mind  (Kyoto University)
• EthoCebus Project
• MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (Wilson and Keil, 1999)
• Nova: Ape Genius (2008)
• Primate Cognition and Behavior Laboratory, University of Georgia
• Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: The Gentle Genius of Bonobos  (TED Talk; 2004)
• The Role of Language in Intelligence (Tufts.edu, 1994)
• Theory of Mind in Nonhuman Primates  (by C.M. Heyes, Behav Brain Sci, 1998)
• Working Memory of Numerals in Chimpanzees  (Inoue and Matsuzawa, Curr Biol, 2007.)

Communication

• A Conversation with Koko the Gorilla (Nature)
• ChimpFACS  (An observational, scientific tool to record and analyse facial expressions in chimpanzees)
• Die long calls der Callitrichidae: Ein Beitrag zu ihrer Phylogenie  (by Dr. T. Geissmann; PDF; in German)
• Human Communication as a Primate Heritage  (by Anne Zeller; University of Toronto)
• Language in Animals Lecture Course  (University of Exeter, 1999, includes primate references)
• Pointing Primates: Sharing Knowledge … Without Language  (By Frans de Waal, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 19, 2001)
• Calling in Wild Silvery Gibbons (Hylobates moloch) in Java (Indonesia): Behavior, Phylogeny, and Conservation (Geissmann and Nijman, Am J Primatol, 2006)

Comparative

• A Comparison of Some Similar Chimpanzee and Human Behaviors  (essay by James Q. Jacobs, 2000)
• Chimpanzees have Five Universal Personality Dimensions (Science Daily and Am J Primatol, 2013)
• Chimps, Humans and Monkeys: What’s the Difference? (janegoodall.org, 2018)

Ecology

• PIN Factsheets: Select a Primate
• Primate Ecology (Libre Texts, Social Science, 2020)
• The Socio-Ecology of Primate Groups (jstore.org, Terborgh and Janson, 1986)
• The Ecology and Evolution of Social Behavior and Cognition in Primates (Chapter 26, Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Pscyhology, 2012)
• Primate Socioecology: Development of a Conceptual Model for the Early Hominids (Williamson, University of London, 1997)
• African Ape Study Sites (ucsd.edu, 1999)
• African Ape Site Floral Lists (academia.edu, 1994)

Ethograms

• Do chimpanzees have culture? (Jane Goodall Institute, 2018)
• Ethosearch: A New Online Resource for Ethograms and Evaluating Behavior and Welfare (Ross, J Appl Anim Welf Sci, Sept 2013)
• Ethosearch: A Comprehensive Repository of Ethograms for Use in Animal Behavior Research (Ross, Ross and Clark, Proc Meas Behav, 2010)
• Compilation of Gorilla Ethograms (Gorilla Behavior Advisory Group, 1991)
• The pervasive role of social learning in primate lifetime development (Whiten and de Waal, Behav Ecol Sociobiol, May 2018)
• Standardized field methods: The Tuanan Orangutan Research Project (Universität Zürich, 2003)

Feeding

• Diet and ranging behavior of the endangered Javan gibbon (Am J Primatol, Kim et al, Oct 2010)
• Chimpanzees eat smart when it comes to mealtime (Bryce Carlson, Purdue University, Mar 2013)
• Nutritional characteristics of wild primate foods (Milton, Nutr J, 1999))
• Back to Basics: Why foods of wild primates have relevance for modern human health (Milton, Nutr J, 2000)
• Primate diets and gut morphology: Implications for human evolution (Milton, In: Food and Evolution, Temple University Press, 1987)
• Feeding Transitions in Wild Infant Chimpanzees (Iulia Badescu, for the Leakey Foundation, Oct 2016)

 Learning (Language, Problem Solving, Tool Use)

• Primate Learning in Action (University of Michigan educational website)
• The chimp that learned sign language (NPR, 2008)
• Primatech project on sign language in orangutans (Georgia Tech, 2003)
• Six talking apes (Smithsonian Magazine, 2011)
• The sounds of language (The Why Files, circa early 2000s, but no date)
• Lessons for Hope: A guide to the culture of chimpanzees (2001)
• Are nonhuman species capable of language aquisition? (Little Tree, 1996)
• Can chimps talk? (Luxorion, 1994 – typo in article title)
• Can chimpanzees talk? (Dr. Goodward’s Office, early 2000s)
• Chimp talk debate: Is it really language? (Santa Fe Institute, NYT article share, 1995)
• Can Chimps Talk? (Robert Beard, 1995)
• Koko the gorilla who talks/ (PBS, 2016)
• How to Speak Chimpanzee (BBC Earth, 2014)
• Chimpanzee language: Communications gestures translated (BBC News, July 2014)
• What can bonobos teach us about the nature of language? (Smithsonian Magazine, July 2020)
• Machiavellian Monkeys (National Geographic, June 2004)
• Tool Use (Bill Sellers, University of Leeds, circa 1990s or 2000s?)

Parenting

• Parent-Offspring Conflict in Primates  (Dario Maestripieri; Int J Prim. 234, 2002)
• Primate Parenting  (Kim A. Bard; In M. Bornstein (Ed.) 2002. Handbook of Parenting: Second Edition: Volume 2 Biology and Ecology of Parenting, pp.99-140. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.)
• Primate paternal care: Interactions between biology and social experience (Storey and Ziegler, Horm Behav. Aug 2015)
• Parenting and survival in anthropoid primates: Caretakers live longer (Allman et al, PNAS June 1998)
• Parenting for Primates (Smith, Harvard University Press, 2006)

Predation

• A Note on the Chance Preying by a Western Tarsier on Fruit Bats in Malaysian Borneo (academia.edu, MT Abdullah, 1998)
• Chimpanzee and Red Colobus monkey predator-prey ecology
• Chimpanzee and Red Colobus monkey predator-prey ecology (Craig Sanford, 2004 website) and Chimpanzee and Red Colobus: The Ecology of Predator and Prey (Craig Sanford, Harvard University Press, 2001)
• The Hunting Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees: Implications for the Evolutionary Ecology of Pliocene Hominids (Craig Sanford, jstor.org)
• Predatory behavior among wild chimpanzees of the Mahale mountains (Nashida et al, Primates, 1979)
• The Predatory Behavior and Ecology of Wild Chimpanzees (gambassa.com, Sanford, 2011)

Reproduction

• Table of reproduction data  (Includes mating system, age at first birth, gestation length, litter size, birth rate, neonate weight, age and weight at weaning; Supplementary material to: Lindenfors P. Sexually antagonistic selection on primate size. J Evol Biol 2002; 15 4: 595-607)
• Chronic marijuana use negatively impacts male reproductive health, may decrease testicular function (OHSU news: study “first to link daily use of edible THC with reduced testes size, lowered testosterone levels in nonhuman primates”, January 2022)
• Of monkeys, dating and flirting (UC Davis, California National Primate Research Center, November 2016)
• Primate sexuality (Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, Springer, January 2017)
• The Science of Sexism: Primate Behavior and the Culture of Sexual Coercion (Scientific American, July 2011)

Sleep

• Primate Sleep  (Transcript of PIN Primate-Talk discussion and general bibliography)
• Wild primate sleep: understanding sleep in an ecological context (KD Reinhardt, Curr Opin Physiol, June 2020)
• Environment shapes sleep patterns in a wild nocturnal primate (Slow loris, Sci Rep, KD Reinhardt et al, July 2019)
• Compared to other primates, humans get little sleep (sciencenewsforstudents.org, April 2018)

Page updates by Casey Ostheimer, WNPRC outreach intern, February 2022.