• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Territorial, expert navigators: The black howler monkeys of Mexico

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
January 29, 2021
in Health
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Researchers uncover advanced skills of black howler monkeys

IMAGE

Credit: Dallas Levey

An international team of researchers led by Oxford Brookes University shows that black howler monkeys in Mexico not only remember where important events took place in their habitat, but also when to return to such locations.

The researchers recorded the behaviour of five groups of black howler monkeys accumulating over 3,000 hours of field observations at Palenque National Park, southern Mexico.

Expert fruit foragers

Black howler monkeys were observed navigating deliberately towards out of sight fruit trees that were ripening. Fruit is a desired food by many animals in rainforests so being able to anticipate when fruit is going to be available and where, is a great strategy to forage ahead of competitors. The monkeys selected a small subset of fruit trees with easy-to-remember ripening cycles – showing, like humans, a tendency to minimise information processed during navigation.

Lead researcher Dr Miguel de Guinea expert in Evolutionary Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University said: “In the same way that we remember the location of our favourite restaurants, primates remember the locations of their favourite fruit trees in rainforests. But there is a clear difference: fruit trees, instead of following established opening hours, can produce fruit at different times of the year during very specific windows. It is fascinating and impressive that a relatively small-brained primate can memorise the ripening patterns of many different trees and anticipate the emergence of fruits.”

Vocal warning at set locations to ward off rival troops

The research found that black howler monkeys travelled in long, straight lines, before reaching a location where they had previously encountered a neighbouring troop. After reaching these locations, the monkeys used loud calls to warn neighbouring primate groups of their territorial range. The groups of monkeys started travelling in a completely different direction afterwards, indicating that they purposely navigate to these set locations.

Co-researcher Dr Sarie Van Belle from the University of Texas at Austin, USA commented: “We already know that in howler monkeys, loud vocalisation plays a central role in defending their home ranges. With this study, we have learned that they return to areas where neighbouring groups had breached the home range border, to vocally announce that the area was occupied.”

###

You can read an abstract of the paper from the journal Animal Behaviour: Disentangling the importance of social and ecological information in goal-directed movements in a wild primate

Find out more about Primate Conservation in the Oxford Brookes University School of Social Sciences

Pictured: Group of howler monkeys feeding by Dallas Levey

Media Contact
Pauline Brandt
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/news/territorial–expert-navigators–the-black-howler-monkeys-of-mexico/

Tags: Animal Research/RightsEcology/EnvironmentEducationEvolutionForestryNatureNutrition/NutrientsZoology/Veterinary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

IMAGE

Greater tobacco use linked to higher levels of inflammation in HIV-positive people

March 8, 2021
IMAGE

Canadian innovators use video games to help children with neurodevelopment disabilities

March 8, 2021

Speeding treatment for urinary tract infections in children

March 8, 2021

Assessing regulatory fairness through machine learning

March 8, 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    Terahertz accelerates beyond 5G towards 6G

    709 shares
    Share 284 Tweet 177
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Global analysis suggests COVID-19 is seasonal

    39 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Scientists model a peculiar type of breast cancer

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

cancerCell BiologyClimate ChangeTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceInfectious/Emerging DiseasesChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesEcology/EnvironmentGeneticsMedicine/HealthBiologyMaterialsPublic Health

Recent Posts

  • Engineering platform offers collaborative cloud options for sustainable manufacturing
  • Research pinpoints unique drug target in antibiotic resistant bacteria
  • How fast is the universe expanding? Galaxies provide one answer.
  • Young white-tailed deer that disperse survive the same as those that stay home
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In