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This project involves observation of non-human primates. Your assignment is to go to the zoo or to view an online web cam and collect data on the primate species of your choice.
Goal: You are to study a group of primates and record data on social interactions, locomotion, feeding practices or some other aspect of primate behavior (your choice). You can compare behavior of individuals within a species or compare behavior two or more species of primate.
1) Start by planning a trip to the zoo or finding a primate web cam that is working and active. Here are a couple of reliable ones to check out:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/apecam/index.html
http://www.blankparkzoo.com/index.cfm?nodeID=21078
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ (be sure to choose a primate cam)
You can try some of the cams listed above or find your own online. Just make sure you are viewing a primate web cam.
2) Develop a hypothesis on what you expect to find, based on what you have learned about your species through the class, text, journals, online, etc. You may want to skip ahead in your text and read the chapters on primates, if you want to get an early start.
3) Record Your Data: Primatologists record behavior by scanning the primate group at regular intervals. Scan your group every ten seconds and record what each individual is doing.
If you go to the zoo you will be able to keep track of individuals and will be able to determine the sex and age of the individuals. Name each individual and write their names across the top of the page. Every ten seconds record what each individual is doing. For example:
If you use a web cam you most likely will not be able to distinguish between individuals. You may be able to tell juveniles from adults, but determining the sex of a moving animal may be difficult on screen. Instead record behavior as a group rather than individually. For example, during each scan you might record:
Scan 1: 3 are resting, 1 is eating, 2 are using terrestrial quadrupedalism
Scan 2: 2 are resting, 3 are using terrestrial quadrupedalism, 1 is out of view
Scan 3:etc.
You can use abbreviations for each behavior while recording; this will make it easier to keep up. The behavior you record should be related to the hypothesis you are testing.
Why use scans? Primatologists use scans to control for time. If they do not use timed scans they may tend to over record some behaviors at the expense of others. By controlling for time, the researcher can develop activity budgets that will show what percentage of time is spent for each activity.
4) Primate Activity Budget Chart
Once you have completed your scans, you are ready to determine your activity budget. An activity budget shows the percentage of time spent doing each activity.
For example, lets say you recorded scans every 20 seconds for 30 minutes. That would give you about 90 scans. And lets say you observed 3 individuals. That is 270 actions recorded. Let’s say that for the entire group you recorded 36 incidences of a primate resting (R). Simply divide the number of times resting by the total number of recorded actions and multiply by 100:
(# of recorded Rs) divided by (total actions recorded) X 100 = % time resting
For this example you would plug in:
36 divided by 270 X 100 = 13%
So, 13% of the time the primates were resting. Once you have determined the percentage of each behavior, you can represent your data visually by making a chart, graph, or other diagram. If you do not have a program with which to do so, there are many websites where you can easily generate a chart or graph and save it to your computer, such as, Create A Graph
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