Comments for beast ape & the bleeding heart baboons

Comment on Contagious yawning in geladas by michellespidermonkey

michellespidermonkey — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:52:37 +0000

That’s really interesting… yawning contagion isn’t exactly an indication of empathy, but my understanding is that the contagious yawning in humans is associated with the firing of mirror neurons, which underlie empathy…. thus, if other primates “catch” yawns, this would suggest that they also have mirror neurons, and thus have some of the neural structures involved in empathy… thus perhaps some neural capability for it…

I do think that the multiple functions of yawns (ie, when tired, as a threat, etc) makes this a bit more confusing… I wonder if self-directed behaviors, like scratching, is also contagious… I would think it would be…

anyway, interesting post!

Comment on Contagious yawning in geladas by Beast Ape

Beast Ape — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:40:39 +0000

Yes, male geladas and other primates often yawn to show off their rather large canines. Interestingly, this study did not show a ‘matched response’ among males (females only). In my experiences, leader males often yawn when they are nervous and/or anxious (in the presence of rival ‘bachelor’ males) and bachelor males tend to yawn in similar behavioral states (after chasing/fighting with leader males). These yawns may or may not be vocalized, thus adding another dimension of variation to the behavior. In this study, they only looked a non-vocalized yawns.

Comment on Contagious yawning in geladas by Contagious Yawning in Geladas « Primatology.net

Contagious Yawning in Geladas « Primatology.net — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:28:16 +0000

[...] Contagious Yawning in Geladas Jump to Comments Over at Beast Ape & The Bleeding Heart Baboons blog, Beast Ape discusses about contagious yawning in geladas. [...]

Comment on Contagious yawning in geladas by Prancing Papio, FCD

Prancing Papio, FCD — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:27:48 +0000

I thing I wanna add though, don’t geladas “yawn” to express aggression (when they show their canines)?

Comment on Contagious yawning in geladas by Prancing Papio, FCD

Prancing Papio, FCD — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:19:35 +0000

Very interesting post!

Comment on Lost in translation: update from SMNP by Beast Ape

Beast Ape — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:30:13 +0000

Sadly, no. The hamadryas baboons that live in the park are exceedingly shy and its near impossible to get very close to them. On that day, they geladas decided to graze right towards them, upsetting the male hamadryas baboon. It was more of a tussle than a battle royale.

Comment on Lost in translation: update from SMNP by Raymond

Raymond — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:43:38 +0000

I love reading about your fieldwork. Per chance you have a video of that said hamadryas and gelada smackdown?

Comment on Magpie sees itself in mirror and realizes it is not a chimpanzee by sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:28:40 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

Comment on Lost in translation: update from SMNP by zacharoo

zacharoo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:41:33 +0000

I HAVE to hear about the hamadryas-gelada fight. When we get back, we must go to Grizzly or Ashley’s or ABC and you must–you will–tell me all about it. Sounds like a good experience so far!

Comment on About by zacharoo

zacharoo — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:32:44 +0000

I think ‘bipedal hominin’ is redundant. Unless of course we find out that bipedalism isn’t the true hallmark of the human half of the Pan-hominin split. And wouldn’t that be something!