Southern California Primate Research Forum (SCPRF) Nov 13th 2010
Southern California Primate Research Forum:
The Upcoming Forum
Primate disease transmission & conservation
13 November 2010
San Diego State University
Little Theater, Room 161
Directions and Parking
https://sunspot.sdsu.edu/map/
PROGRAM
- 8:30
- Sign in
- 9:00
- Welcome (Erin Riley, Norm Rosen)
- 9:15
- Ronald R. Swaisgood (ICR/San Diego Zoo)
We are the science of saving species? - 10:15
- Coffee Break
- 10:30
- David Morgan (Lincoln Park Zoo/WCS)
Consequences of Sustainable Forestry and Conservation Efforts on Western Lowland Gorillas and Chimpanzees in northern Republic of Congo - 11:30
- Erin Riley – Lunch directions
- 1:00
- Peter Scull (Colgate University)
Modeling infectious Disease in Uganda Mountain Gorillas - 2:00
- James H. Jones (Stanford University)
SIV Pathogenicity in Wild Chimpanzees - 3:00
- Break
- 3:15
- Crickette Sanz (Washington University, St Louis)
Ape Health in Northern Congo: Continuing Concerns and Emerging Threats - 4:15
- Close
ADMISSION: Free to SDSU students with ID; other students $7 (with ID); $12 general admission. Pay at the door.
Please RSVP to Erin Riley at epriley@mail.sdsu.edu for headcount purposes.
FREE PARKING at Parking Structure #4, Levels 1 & 2 ONLY. Directions: From these levels, go up to Level 4 and cross the pedestrian bridge towards the Starbucks at West Commons.
SCPRF Advisory Committee: Norm Rosen (SCPRF/CSUF), Raffaella Commitante(CSUF), Peter Fashing (CSUF), Lynne Miller(Mira Costa College), Jim Moore (UCSD), Nga Nguyen(CSUF), Erin Riley(SDSU)
Posters
Beginning in November 2006, SCPRF plans to host a poster session at the November Forum only; this will be a regular feature of the Nov. Forum, so participants can plan ahead. If you are interested, please see the guidelines below and direct inquiries to Lynne Miller.
The poster session is an excellent venue for Undergraduate and Master’s level students to present their research and gain experience in a friendly and low pressure context. The poster session will convene during the one hour afternoon coffee break.
Please note: poster content does not have to reflect the meeting topic; we will consider posters presenting information on a wide range of subject matter.
This poster session continues to be a great success and we would like very much to see it continue. If you are a student, or know of a student, who is ready to present, please submit names and proposed titles to
- Lynne Miller lmiller@miracosta.edu
Space will be limited, the earlier you respond the more likely we can include the poster.
Posters should be mounted on folding poster boards measuring 36″ X 48″ (when folded they measure 36″ X 24″) which can be purchased at most office supplies stores. General guidelines for how to put a poster together can be found atwww.asp.org/education/howto_onPosters.html or at http://faculty.ucr.edu/~maryb/poster.htm
Back to SCPRF Home
Programs of Past Forums
Wild Chimps Outwit Human hunters
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8962000/8962747.stm

Researchers have found male chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea successfully deactiving snares put out by hunters. This practice has not yet been seen in other chimpanzee populations.
Snares can seriously injure chimpanzees often causing them to lose limbs and can be fatal as well. The researchers are unsure how the chimpanzees learned the skill as trial and error would be almost impossible. It appears as if the animals “knew” which parts not to touch as they explicitly avoided them.
The Brain and Evolution: An Anthropology Symposium – SATURDAY 04/10/10
An Anthropological Exploration of the Brain, Language, Emotion, Culture, and our Evolutionary Past.
Tentative Outline of Talks:
9am – Coffee and Student Posters
10am – Georg Striedter – Principles of Brain Evolution (evolutionary neurobiology based talk)
11am – Michael Arbib -Mirror Neurons and More: Language and Tool Use
12am – Clark Barrett – (evolutionary psychology based talk)
1pm – Lunch
2pm – Katerina Semendeferi – ( Evolution of emotional and cognitive processes in hominoids)
3pm – Sang-Hee Lee – (Changes in brain morphology over evolutionary time)
4pm – Meet and Greet
Featuring guest speakers:
Georg Striedter, UCI Neurobiology & Behavior
http://striedterlab.bio.uci.edu/StriedterLaboratory/page4/page13/page13.html
Michael A. Arbib – Director, USC Brain Project
http://www.usc.edu/programs/neuroscience/faculty/profile.php?fid=16
Clark Barrett, UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/barrett/
Katerina Semendeferi, UCSD Anthropology/Neuroscience
http://anthropology.ucsd.edu/Faculty_Profiles/semendeferi.html
Sang-Hee Lee, UCR Anthropology
http://faculty.ucr.edu/~shlee/
In addition 2 PSA members as well as 3 other Anthropology students will be presenting posters at the Symposium so come out and support your classmates!
CSUF Anthropology Faculty Makes BBC Earth News! Bale Monkey of Africa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8587000/8587712.stm

Researchers from USA, Ethiopia and Norway (including CSUF’s own Dr. Peter Fashing) have helped to shed light on a relatively unknown monkey in Ethiopia known as the Bale monkey, named for the forests of the Bale massif and Hagere Selam regions of southeastern Ethiopia. The bale monkey had been considered to difficult to study due to environmental conditions such as fog and mountainous terrain. The big discovery was that the bale monkey relies on bamboo for its main sustenance. Only one other primate is known for this, the bamboo lemur of Madagascar. Check out the article for more info and look into the paper in The International Journal of Primatology if you are more interested!
Gorillas not Vegetarians?

A new study using DNA techniques found traces of monkeys and duikers in the feces of gorillas in Loango National Park in Gabon. While the news sounds exciting more research is necessary to confirm if the gorillas may actually be consuming meat as opposed to eating insects that feed on mammals or one of the animals contaminating the feces samples before they were collected. Interesting area for future research nonetheless!
Southern California Primate Research Forum: Mate choice in humans and nonhuman primates
Southern California Primate Research Forum:
The Upcoming Forum
Mate choice in humans and nonhuman primates
24 April 2010
Cal State Fullerton
Directions and Parking
http://www.fullerton.edu/campusmap/
PROGRAM
8:30 Check in, coffee, bagels
9:00 Opening remarks
9:15 Greg Grether (UCLA)
Mate choice and the evolution of indicator traits: insights from research on guppies and other animal model systems
10:15 Break
10:30 Joe Manson (UCLA)
New directions in non-human primate mate choice research
11:30 Lunch
1:00 Martin Muller (University of New Mexico)
Male sexual coercion and female choice in wild chimpanzees
2:00 Break
2:15 Jim Roney (UCSB)
New directions in the study of human mate choice
3:15 Elizabeth Pillsworth (CSUF)
Mate choice among the Shuar of Ecuador: Stated versus revealed preferences
4:15 Close
SCPRF Advisory Committee: Norm Rosen (SCRPF/CSUF), Raffaela Commitante (CSUF), Peter Fashing (CSUF), Lynne Miller (Mira Costa College), Jim Moore (UCSD), Nga Nguyen (CSUF)
ADMISSION: Free to CSU Fullerton students with ID; other students $7 (with ID); $12 general admission. Pay at the door.
To make sure there’s enough coffee & food, please RSVP to Nga Nguyen at amboseli@gmail.com, putting SCPRF RSVP in the email header.
Posters
Beginning in November 2006, SCPRF plans to host a poster session at the November Forum only; this will be a regular feature of the Nov. Forum, so participants can plan ahead. If you are interested, please see the guidelines below and direct inquiries to Lynne Miller.
The poster session is an excellent venue for Undergraduate and Master’s level students to present their research and gain experience in a friendly and low pressure context. The poster session will convene during the one hour afternoon coffee break.
Please note: poster content does not have to reflect the meeting topic; we will consider posters presenting information on a wide range of subject matter.
This poster session continues to be a great success and we would like very much to see it continue. If you are a student, or know of a student, who is ready to present, please submit names and proposed titles to
Lynne Miller lmiller@miracosta.edu
Space will be limited, the earlier you respond the more likely we can include the poster.
Posters should be mounted on folding poster boards measuring 36″ X 48″ (when folded they measure 36″ X 24″) which can be purchased at most office supplies stores. General guidelines for how to put a poster together can be found at www.asp.org/education/howto_onPosters.html or at http://faculty.ucr.edu/~maryb/poster.htm
PSA screening The Cove Feb. 24th 5:00 p.m.
The Primatology Students Association will be screening The Cove on February 24th at 5:00 p.m. in MH 428. The movie is about 90 minutes long and we will have a discussion afterwards. While not directly primate related, The Cove is a controversial documentary from 2009 that exposes some horrible things being done to dolphins and whales. We here at PSA certainly care about the well being and conservation of all animals, not merely primates. Here is the trailer and synopsis from the films website.. We hope you will come watch the movie with us!
Synopsis
The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.”
But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day — led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.
But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling — and the consequences are so dangerous to human health — they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.
Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world. With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an “Ocean’s Eleven”-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.
Meeting Wednesday Feb. 10th 5:00 p.m.
Hello everyone! Welcome to the Spring 2010 semester!
The Primatology Students Association will be holding meetings beginning this Wednesday, February 10th at 5:00 p.m. and will continue every other Wednesday. We should be holding the meetings in MH 428 but if we are not in there we will be in the Anthropology office in MH 426. We have an exciting semester coming up as the Southern California Primate Research Forum will be held at CSUF this term and we will also be doing some more fundraising. Please stop by and see what we are all about! If you love animals and/or primates this may be the club for you!
Movie made by chimpanzees!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8472000/8472831.stm
Primatologist Betsy Herrelkobegan a project using video technology to try and discover what sorts of things chimpanzees prefer to view. A portion of the project was the give her study chimpazees a “chimp-proof” video camera and see what the result was. The movie will be aired on the BBC but you can see a portion below.
Rare Cross River Gorilla Footage!
http://www.wcs.org/new-and-noteworthy/cross-river-gorilla-footage.aspx
Check out this link for a short video of the Cross-River Gorilla! This is the first time these rare apes have been caught by a professional camera as they are very hard to track and have not been habituated to human presence.

