Comparative Primate Post

Lemurs (Prosimians/ Strepsirhini)

1.  Lemurs are found only on the island of Madagascar off the coast of Africa. They prefer Madagascar because it was isolated from other smarter primates until humans came along. Rainfall varies with the monsoons blowing in from the Indian Ocean but temperatures are relatively staying the same. Madagascar is large enough to have preserved some of the different prosimian evolutionary radiation, from tiny dwarf lemurs to the terrestrial ring-tailed lemurs. The seasonal and temperature variations on Madagascar are quite mild compared to higher latitudes.
2. Their environment and their lack of competitors have allowed a degree of dietary specialization among the Madagascan prosimians. The lemurs as a group are picky eaters. Most large lemurs are diurnal and eat a wide variety of foods, such as leaves, fruits, buds, barks, and shoots. Tiny lemurs are nocturnal so they tend to eat insects. 
3.  On Africa, Lemurs were forced to go out at night to avoid the other primates.  Lemurs went to Madagascar to get away from the smarter primates. They crossed the islands probably on rafts of plants and wood.  On Madagascar, lemurs did not have any predators until humans came and hunted them.  Without predators, lots of different kinds of lemurs evolved.  Some lemurs could even be active during the day since it was safe for them without any predators. They were able to feed without care, so there was plenty of food there.  

Spider  Monkey (New World Monkey/ Platyrrhini)

1. Spider monkeys live in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America and live as far north as Mexico. These monkeys spend most of their time aloft, and maintain a powerful grip on branches even though they have no thumbs. They have long arms and prehensile tails that enable them to move gracefully from branch to branch and tree to tree. They almost never come to the ground. The tropical rainforest provides a comfortable environment for the monkeys to inhabit.
2. Nearly three-fourths of the spider monkey’s diet consists of fruit. Spider monkeys find food in the treetops and feast on nuts, fruits, leaves, bird eggs, and spiders. They often communicate with many calls, screeches, barks, and other sounds.They eat large quantities of food over a relatively short period of time and they tend to feed by suspension while hanging, climbing or moving. This species is known for its rapidly working digestive system. It will take only four hours for food to completely pass through the spider monkey’s digestive system.
3. If habitat is limited, hunting pressure light and other primate competitors are not present, they have more food to eat but they do not pick fruit and carry it to another location to be eaten so they are constantly eating while moving in the trees and their fast digestive system helps them eat more and often. They have adapted to eating only in the trees so that gives them an advantage from the territorial animals. 

Baboon (Old World Monkey/ Cercopithecidae)

1. They are found though out Africa and southern Asia from tropical jungles to deserts, even snow covered areas in northern Japan. Baboons tend to be more terrestrial and are extremely adaptable.The major requirements for any habitat seems to be water sources and safe sleeping places in either tall trees or on cliff faces.
2. Olive baboons are omnivores, meaning that they eat both meat and plants to obtain their energy.  Grass makes up a large part of their diet but they enjoy eating on fruits, grasses, vegetables, leaves, invertebrates, small mammals, birds, and other delectable, young animals. They have cheek pouches for storing food like hamsters. 
3. The baboon's major predators are humans. Knowing that humans can easily kill or injure them when they are in trees, baboons usually escape through undergrowth. Since they are hunted by humans, they tend to store food which benefits them when they are hiding from predators. The fact they are extremely adaptable helps them which makes their diet unaffected. They are not picky eaters which helps them when they have to keep adapting to new places.  

Gibbon (Lesser Ape/ Hylobatidae) 

1. Gibbons live in old growth tropical rain forests in southeast Asia. They are arboreal and are very rarely observed on the ground. Spending less than 1% of their time on the ground keeps gibbons safe from most of their ground predators. Gibbons are brachiators, meaning that they move from tree to tree by swinging from their arms between branches.
2. Gibbons are omnivores. They hunt for food in the forests during the day, eating fruit which is 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 placing their hand into the water or rubbing a hand on wet leaves, and then slurping up the water from their fur. 
3. They are adapted to feeding while hanging from tree branches. Since they spent their time in the trees, they are very good at moving about in the tress making it easy for them to reach fruits and leaves that are very high for other animals to eat which is an advantage to them.

Chimpanzee (Great Ape/ Hominidae) 

1. Chimpanzees live in a wide variety of habitats, including tropical rain forests, woodlands, swamp forests, and grasslands in western Africa. They are endanger because humans hunt then and humans invades their homes sometimes and cut down their trees and homes which makes them always moving to new homes when they feel danger is near. Chimpanzees are social animals that are active during the day . They live in groups of about 40-60 individuals. 
2. Chimpanzees eat a huge variety of foods, like fruits, leaves, insects, buts, birds eggs, caterpillars, and small mammals. Both male and female take part in group hunting to kill small mammals like antelope. They prey on monkeys like the red colobus and when they successfully catches their prey, the members of the hunting share the prey. Chimpanzees drink water, often by using a chewed leaf as a sponge to sop up the water.
3. Chimpanzees are very intelligent and can learn extremely complex tasks like catching prey. They live in groups which helps them hunt because hunting in groups is an advantage of catching a big prey enough for them to eat and share. Their predators and mostly humans so they have to be able to adapt to new nesting homes because trees are being cut down which limits their food supply because other animals they prey on are also moving to survive. 

Summary:

The level of influence the environment has on the expression of physical and behavioral traits is very high. It seems each primate is able to get by under different circumstances.  Most of these animals adapt pretty well to new habitats which gives them a higher percentage of surviving. Most of them spend their time in the trees so they have avoided their predators as much as they can. Physical most of them have the capacity to swing tree by tree with no problem and use their claws, fur, and tails if they have one, and their hands and legs. The environment has a huge influence on these different traits because they have to be able to adjust to the new climates, food source, and also new predators around them, if they are not capable of adjusting, they will not survive