Lemurs
Lemurs are small primates known as "prosimians," which,
roughly translated, means "pre-primates" or "before
monkeys." Native only to the island of Madagascar and the neighboring
Comoro Islands, lemurs resemble the oldest ancestors of primates which existed
tens of millions of years ago
Physical
Traits
Lemurs all have relatively long and slender limbs, a longer muzzle
than later primates do, and a slightly smaller brain. They all have a dental
‘comb’ comprised of the lower incisors, which they use for grooming. Lemurs use
scent marking in addition to vocalizations as a means of communication and
territorial marking… a behavioral trait rarely found in later evolving primates.
Diet
The diet of a lemur consists mostly
of all vegetarian food, common parts of a lemur diet in the wild
include fruits, leaves, and other edible plant materials. Insects may also be
on the menu, especially for the smaller lemurs. Lemur’s diet depends up on their breed. The small species
mainly eat fruits and insects, while the larger species are herbivorous eating
only fruit and plant materials.
Spider Monkey
Spider
monkeys (of several species) live in the tropical rain forests of Central and
South America and occur as far north as Mexico. The spider monkey is more primitive than old
world monkeys. Their brains are less complex, their thumbs are not opposable
and their nostrils are further apart. They have slender bodies and limbs with
long narrow hands.
Physical Traits
They have
long, lanky arms and prehensile (gripping) tails that enable them to move
gracefully from branch to branch and tree to tree. These nimble monkeys spend
most of their time aloft, and maintain a powerful grip on branches even though
they have no thumbs.
Diet
Spider
monkeys are primarily omnivorous find food in the treetops and feast on seeds, nuts,
fruits (they eat the inside of fruits, and prefer them ripe), leaves, bird
eggs, and spiders. They can be noisy animals and often communicate with many
calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds.
Baboon
There are
five different species of baboons. All of them live in Africa or Arabia.
Baboons are some of the world's largest monkeys, and males of different species
average from 33 to 82 pounds (15 to 37 kilograms). Baboons generally prefer
savanna and other semi-arid habitats, though a few live in tropical forest. Baboons
are very social in nature, applying facial expressions, hand gestures, and a
wide range of different vocal sounds from low-sounding grunts to high-pitched
screeches when communicating. Baboons are also very adaptable to change and are
able to interact with humans very well
Physical traits
They are two
most common baboons that can be found in East Africa; the olive baboon and the
yellow baboon. The Olive baboon is larger and darker and is found in Uganda,
west and central Kenya and northern Tanzania. The Yellow baboon is smaller,
more slender and lighter in color, and inhabits the southern and coastal parts
of Kenya and Tanzania. Both types are "dog faced," but the Yellow
baboon's nose curls up more than the olive's. In fact, along with the muzzle,
the animal's tail (38–58 cm) and four-legged gait can make baboons seem very
canine. The tail almost looks as if it is broken, as it is held upright over
the rump for the first quarter, after which it drops sharply.
Diet
Baboons are
opportunistic eaters and, fond of crops, become destructive pests to many
African farmers. They eat fruits, grasses, seeds, bark, and roots, but also
have a taste for meat. They eat birds, rodents, and even the young of larger
mammals, such as antelopes and sheep.
Gibbon
Gibbons are
rare, small, slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling apes. These very acrobatic
primates live in Southeast Asia. Gibbons are arboreal; they spend most of their
lives in trees. Because they are so dextrous while moving in the trees, almost
no predators can catch them. These arboreal primates are found in the forests
of Southeast Asia and Sumatra, from lower Burma south through the Malay
Peninsula and east throughout Thailand.
Physical
traits
They exhibit many of the general
characteristics of primates: flat faces, stereoscopic vision, enlarged brain
size, grasping hands and feet, and opposable digits; and many specific
characteristics of apes: broad chest, full shoulder rotation, no tail, and arms
longer than legs, but they are relatively small, slender, and agile. They have
fluffy, dense hair. Gibbon has very long arms, which they use in a spectacular
arm-swinging locomotion called brachiation. Their hands and fingers are also
very long. The relatively short thumb is set well down on the palm, and their fingers
form a hook, which is used during brachiation. Gibbons have very good bipedal
locomotion, which they use on stable surfaces too large to grasp. When walking biped
ally, arms are held up to keep from dragging and to assist with balance.
Gibbons are sometimes observed putting their weight on their hands and swinging
their legs through as if using crutches. Gibbons do not build nests like the
great apes. They sleep sitting up with their arms wrapped around their knees
and their head tucked into their lap.
Diet
Gibbons are
omnivores (eating plants and meat). They forage for food in the forests during
the day, eating fruit (which constitutes about 75% of their diet), leaves,
flowers, seeds, tree bark, and tender plant shoots. They also eat insects,
spiders, bird eggs, and small birds. Gibbons drink water, often by dipping a
furry hand into the water or rubbing a hand on wet leaves, and then slurping up
the water from their fur. Gibbons sometimes do this while dangling above the
water from a thin tree branch.
Chimpanzees
Wild chimpanzees
have demonstrated the most extensive tool manufacture and use of all the great
apes, except for humans.
Physical Traits
Infant
chimpanzees have light faces and a white tuft of hair on their behinds to
signal their special status as a youngster adult male chimpanzees are
moderately larger than adult females (contrast with the extreme size difference
between adult male and female gorillas and orangutans.
Diet
Chimpanzees
have the most varied diet of all great apes in the wild. Chimpanzee diets are
composed mainly of ripe fruits but vary according to the time of the year and
abundance of specific food items. They will spend many hours a day eating about
20 different species of plants and up to about 300 different species during a
one year period. They do not store food
and will eat it at the place they find it.
They also enjoy eating young leaves particularly in the afternoon. In
long dry seasons when fruit is scarce, tree seeds, flowers, soft pith, galls,
resin and bark become an important part of their diet. They also eat many
different types of insects; some chimpanzees regularly hunt and eat meat, such
as the red colobus monkey.
After all
these research I found that that gibbon, like the gorilla, chimpanzee and
orangutan, are ape, not monkeys. The
chief characteristics distinguishing apes from monkeys are the absence of a
tail, their more or less upright posture and the high development of their
brain. Primates share characteristics—such as five-fingered hands with opposing
thumbs, forward-facing eyes, and color vision—but they do vary greatly,
especially from prosimian to monkey to ape. The environment plays an important
fact in their behavior as well as their diet. Great Apes are thinking,
self-aware, intelligent beings.
