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.

Baby Bonobo Born at Jacksonville Zoo

Kuni and Baby Bonobo – photo credit to Marian Brickner

November 12, 2009 – Jacksonville, Florida — Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens announced its fourth bonobo born at the Zoo—the first in five and one-half years. The female infant was born on the 6th of November to Kuni, a 24 –year-old female bonobo who came to the Jacksonville Zoo from the San Diego Zoo in 2003. The sire of the baby is unknown, but could be either Akili or Mabruki, resident males that are both recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP) to breed with Kuni. DNA tests will be done when the infant is older to determine paternity.

Kuni, born at the Wilhelma Zoo in Germany on February 24, 1985, is important to the Bonobo SSP population because she is unrelated to all other U.S. bonobos, except her daughter Johari. Johari is non-reproductive, making Kuni and this new infant that much more valuable to the population for increasing genetic diversity. Both Kuni and her infant will be monitored closely to make sure that they are healthy.

“The mother has wonderful paternal skills,” said the Zoo’s Director of Animal Programs, Delfi Messinger. “She seems so proud, and shows her baby to the ‘aunties’ in the group, as well as to her human caretakers. The pair will be on exhibit intermittently beginning this weekend depending on social grouping and the weather.”

Jane Goodall on The Daily Show

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-november-12-2009/jane-goodall

Watch this hilarious video of Jane Goodall’s appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Jane Goodall
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Food, Friends and Fun @ Mimi’s Cafe!

Monday, November 16th from 4 p.m. to 10:00 p.m

Primatology Student Association and Mimi’s Cafe Present:

Food, Friends and Fun

Mimi’s Cafe
18342 Imperial Hwy
Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Enjoy delicious food in a fun atmosphere along with your family and friends while earning funds for The Orangutan Conservancy

Please print flyer and present it to your server and Mimi’s Cafe will donate 15% from each sale to The Orangutan Conservancy!

Mimi’s Cafe Flyer

Mimi's Cafe Flyer

Cell phone drive Daily Titan article

http://www.dailytitan.com/2009/10/ape-lovers-collect-old-cell-phones-for-orangutan-conservancy/

By Eric Broude
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Cal State Fullerton’s
The Primatology Student Association, a club on campus, is asking for donations of old cell phones and ink cartridges.
The profits from this fundraiser will go toward the preservation of orangutans, said Julie Cash, the club president.
The phones and ink cartridges the club collects will be given to the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, which recycles the collections with ECO-CELL, a cell phone recycling program.
The zoo then donates all of the funds generated from the program to the Orangutan Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the “conservation of orangutans and their habitat,” according to its Web site.
The Conservancy channels this money into a general fund to be used by conservation groups centered on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, the only places on Earth where orangutans still live in the wild, said Raffaella Commitante, a Cal State Fullerton lecturer and one of the vice presidents of the Orangutan Conservancy.
ECO-CELL does not simply recycle all of the phones.
Phones that are still in working condition are donated to developing countries, many of them in Africa, where people can purchase them inexpensively, said Peter Fashing, faculty advisor for the PSA.
“The drive is a multi-tiered project,” Cash said. “It helps the environment and (people in) developing countries, as well as primates.”
Orangutans are the most at risk of the great apes.
“Studies believe that if the destruction to their habitat continues at the same rate, then they could be extinct in as little as 20 years,” Cash said.
The orangutans are in danger from logging, hunting, forest fires and the destruction of forests for the purposes of collecting palm oil, Fashing said.
A series of bad years regarding forest fires caused by small fires burning out of control, due to the fuel of underground coal has been a great concern, Commitante said.
“The fires have become a yearly problem,” she said.
Commitante also said that young orangutans are often taken from their parents for the pet trade.
In some countries, they are thought to indicate positions of power and it is seen as prestigious to own an orangutan. There are centers full of formerly captive orangutans that have grown too large to handle, Commitante said.
“They have very human faces, so they are seen as a human child substitute,” Commitante added.
She also said that orangutans are less protected than other endangered primates.
“Gorillas have a much more romanticized image,” Commitante said. “Of the great apes, orangutans always seem to come in last.”
One of the main reasons orangutans are endangered, Fashing said, is that they reproduce very slowly.
“They have the longest mother-child bond (of any primate),” Commitante said. “The mother will stay around the child anywhere from five to eight years.”
She added that female orangutans only have an average of three offspring throughout their lives and almost always one at a time.
The drive is an ongoing project.
A collection box has been set up in the anthropology office in McCarthy Hall room 426.
The club meets every other Thursday at 4 p.m. in MH room 420.
“I force myself to be hopeful (for the orangutans), even though it doesn’t always seem like things are going well,” Commitante said. “I think there’s so much to learn from them.”

Orangutan Awareness Week

Southern California Primate Research Forum 11/7/2009

New Directions in Studies of New World Monkeys

7 November 2009
Cal State Northridge, University Student Union (USU), Northridge Room

Directions and Parking

http://www.csun.edu/maps/

On-campus parking is $6; street parking next to campus is free.

8:30
Check in, coffee, bagels

9:00
Opening remarks

9:15
Christina Campbell (CSU Northridge). Spider monkey reproductive physiology and behavior: Current knowledge and future directions.

10:15
Break

10:30
Tony DiFiore (NYU). Behavioral ecology and social structure of spider monkeys: Insights from long term observational and genetic studies.

11:30
Lunch

1:00
Susan Perry & Irene Godoy (UCLA). Kinship and social relationships in Cebus capucinus: Insights from two decades of research at Lomas Barbudal.

2:00
Break

2:15
Jessica Lynch (UCLA). Capuchin evolution

3:15
Nancy Caine (CSU San Marcos). Behavioral consequences of individual differences in color vision in New World monkeys

4:15
Close

ADMISSION: Free to CSUN 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.

PARKING on campus is in LOT G4 for $6/day. Free parking can be found on the street around periphery of the campus.

http://www.csun.edu/maps/

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

Ian Redmond article in Daily Titan

http://www.dailytitan.com/2009/10/ape-conservationist-speaks-at-mihaylo-hall/

Conservationist Ian Redmond spoke to a full house at CSUF on Tuesday evening. While the talk was a bit depressing at times Redmond was an engaging speaker and appeared to hold hope for the great apes. There was a big stress on what we as consumers can do and what we are responsible for such as buying sustainable wood, offsetting carbon emissions, limiting purchase of products containing palm oil. Redmond suggests that writing to companies and our elected representatives is still a good way to try to make a difference.

Click and Save Gorillas!

Click and save gorillas! Vote for YoG project online

In just ten seconds online you could help YoG and the Gorilla Organization to continue funding a vital project that reduces pressure on precious Mountain Gorilla forests in DR Congo, helping them survive in the long-term.

Out of nearly a thousand nominations, the Year of the Gorilla ‘Jiko Stoves’ project in the area surrounding the Virunga National Park has been selected as one of only twelve finalists in the World Challenge 09 competition.

Online voters simply have to visit http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project04.php?
and cast a vote for the DR Congo ‘Jiko Stoves’ project. It takes only ten seconds and does not require registration. Please forward this to EVERYBODY to ensure the Stoves project wins the prize!

The area surrounding the Virunga National Park in DR Congo, home to the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla, is densely populated, with most families reliant on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating. The collection of firewood often has a detrimental effect on the gorilla habitat, and is also very time-consuming and physically exhausting for the villagers and children involved.

Partnering with local group AIDE-Kivu, the Gorilla Organization launched the fuel-efficient stove project in 2008, producing and distributing Jiko stoves which reduce the consumption of firewood and charcoal by at least 75%. Families with fuel-efficient stoves are now using on average just 1.5 sacks of charcoal a month compared to four sacks per month before.

The Director of The Gorilla Organization, Jillian Miller, says “The Jiko Stoves project in DR Congo has shown proven success in reducing the consumption of firewood and charcoal which is a huge threat to the critically endangered mountain gorilla. Winning the $20 000 prize money in the World Challenge competition would fund this vital project for an entire year.

Cell Phone/Ink Jet Cartridge Recycling!

We are beginning our cellphone recycling drive again for this year. Additionally we are also collecting ink jet cartridges as well. All proceeds benefit the orangutan Conservancy. Bug your friends with new iphones and blackberrys!

If you would like to mail them they can be sent to:

Department of Anthropology
California State University, Fullerton
P.O. Box 6846 Fullerton, CA 92834-6846