Comparative Primate

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Lemurs are known as the “before monkeys” in which they are native to the island of Madagascar.  As well as the neighboring Comoro islands. The diet of them in the wild includes fruits, leaves and other edible plant materials. Lemurs live in the tops of trees, which is a direct representation to their diet.  They are either at the top of a tree or at mid level in the middle of the forest. Although Lemurs are not usually awake during the day they are normally awake during the night. A type of Lemur called an Aye-Aye was able to use their middle finger which is claw like in order to dig insects out of the bark of a tree. This trait could have been evolved over time to allow the lemurs to eat at high levels without having difficulty. The claw is called a “toilet claw” which is extended. The claw allows them to get there specified diet when traveling from tree to tree.

Spider Monkeys live in South and North America in the tropical rain forests. They spend most of their time aloft with their long, lanky arms and gripping tails. The spider Monkeys travel in groups of two to three dozen. Although during the night they split p into separate groups. They are omnivorous, categorized as fruigivorous do to their fruit and seed based diets. They almost rarely feed on animal prey. Because of their eating habits, when they are in large groups it is not always a good thing because there food source is seasonal and very limited. The spider monkeys have two adaptations that allows them to eat the way they do and travel the way they do.  There thumb has adapted to their environment, which is a shrunken thumb. There thumb has become shrunken because it is not needed. Although their tails have developed a patch of skin with lines on it that enables a stronger grip when attached to trees that can also easily grip there food.

Baboons are from Africa or Arabia and range from 32 pounds to 88 pounds. They prefer savanna and semi-arid habitats although some live in tropical rain forests. Unlike other monkeys, baboons do not have gripping tails but they are still able to climb trees in order to eat sleep and do other things. They eat a lot of crops like fruit, grass, seeds, bark, roots, and they also occasionally eat meat. Meats such as birds, rodents, young of larger mammals and other animals. Traveling in large groups allows them to track their prey more easier and capture their prey. Large groups travel during the day and seek out there meals and smaller groups travel during the day to do the same. Baboons spend most of their time on the group which allows them track there pray and find their crops at a much easier rate.

Gibbons are from the dense forests of South Asia. They are adapted to life in the trees and rarely come down to the ground. They have long arms, used in arm swinging called brachiating. Hands and fingers are also very long. They have a short thumb, and their fingers are in the formation of a hook that is used during brachiating. Brachiating allows them to move at fast speeds throughout the forest. They feed on fruits which brachiating limits competition because they are able to grab fruits from the end of the branches. Gibbons are fond on figs but mainly favor on fruits in trees. There life in the trees allows them easy access to their appetite. Adapting over time hooks for fingers allows easy grabbing.

Chimpanzees local habitats are in African rain forests, woodlands, and grasslands. They are very versatile in which they can swing through the trees or walk on all fours on the ground. Although most of their food source comes from the trees. They are able to swing from tree to tree capturing there food. They eat fruits, plants, and sometimes eat insects, eggs and meat. The chimpanzees have a large range of a diet. They use resources from there environment to access their food such as using sticks to get insects from out of the ground or out of trees. Stones are used to crack open nuts or squash fruit that they eat. Chimpanzees adapt to their environment by what they eat due to the fact that what they eat  is consumed from environmental tools.

http://www.lemurs.us/basics.html

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/spider-monkey/

http://www.macalester.edu/~montgomery/spidermonkey.html

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/baboon/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/gibbon/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/chimpanzee/

Summary: Between all of the animals, they all seemed to vary in the same situations. Although they all had there own different ways of capturing there pray or food. For instance the monkey using there tails with grip to hang or there arms to travel at fast speeds. Each and every one had something that related them to the environment and allowed them to survive. Some traveled in large groups in order to protect themselves, they did what they had to do in order to survive. Some of the time it was not always good because some would gain food more than other but they did what they had to do in order to survive. The environment had a huge impact on a lot of there survival. The animals adapted there arms, legs, hands, and tails to there certain surroundings.