Five Species

Three species of monkeys and two apes living in their natural habitat in Africa are compared in this video. The monkeys include the veret, the blue monkey and the black and white colobus, while the apes are common chimpanzees and eastern lowland gorillas. This footage, shot by a primatologist, includes nuances of behavior and social interaction which are not usually included in more commercial productions. Many sequences are long enough to allow the observer to watch behavior unfold between animals and learn what kinds of details to look for in live observation. The same types of behavior are recorded for each species (as much as possible) to permit comparisons to be drawn between diet and foraging patterns, infant care, locomotion and predator defense mechanisms. The videos are intended to allow the audience to see the same types of behavior by different species in different habitats and to draw the comparisons themselves. This format provides a condensed view of the life of several species thus emphasizing the variability and the adaptive nature of primates rather than focusing on the details of one form. This is a useful teaching device. The particular areas of interest in this video are the inclusion of the rarely filmed blue monkey, black and white colobus and eastern lowland gorilla, as well as the division of a monkey carcass by the chimpanzees and the interactions between humans and blue monkeys in a park in Nairobi.