From the very beginning of human civilization, the habitats of humans and primates have overlapped. It is easy to imagine how much influence their first contact with them had on the philosophical ideas of our ancestors.
Long ago, some people regarded non-human primates as mutated humans, based on a seemingly scientific view. Others see them as different, seeing them either as gods or as demons.
In Pharaonic Egypt, science and religion were not yet completely separated. The priests saw the Egyptian baboons living around them and thought they were guarding their temples like "baboon brothers." In fact, the Egyptian god Tot is a composite god that mixes the characteristics of monkeys and other wildlife living in the rice fields near the temple; if a thief lurks nearby, these animals can sound the alarm.
The ancient Egyptians portrayed their god Thoth with the characteristics of the god Ibis and the Egyptian baboon.
Originally, the baboon symbolized a local god in the Nile Delta who guarded the Holy Land. Subsequently, believers spread this belief to central Egypt. Finally, the god was absorbed into their mythology by the Greeks and became the messenger of the gods, Hermes Trismestheus. Hermes is the God who measures and explains time, the messenger of God's faith. One of the results of deification is that after the death of these animals, they are mummified in honor.
The Indian "holy monkey" (Indian long-tailed langur) is revered by the Indian people for being regarded as the embodiment of the sacred monkey Hanuman
In northern India, there is a distinctive monkey (Semnopithecus entellus) known as the "Holy Monkey", which is regarded as the embodiment of the sacred monkey Hanuman. Legend has it that Hanuman and his army helped Prince Rama (Vishnu's incarnation) rescue his fiancée Siddhartha, who had been kidnapped by the Demon King. As a result, the Indian long-tailed langur has lived in certain temples in this area from the past to the present and is highly revered. They can even enter the residence at will and wander the streets. Although their appearance has caused a lot of inconvenience to humans, the locals still protect them.
The Japanese macaque (Japanese monkey), a character in local mythology and fables, is revered and protected in Japan.
Just as the baboons of ancient Egypt and the macaques of Japan (Macaca fuscata) were protected, so were many macaque populations in different parts of the world. However, there are also some places that believe that macaques are ancient humans who were punished by Allah, no doubt because macaques have similar postures and behaviors to humans.
All over the world, people have a high respect and primitive faith in local primates. Although primates compete with humans, they already have a privileged position compared to other local animal populations.
In the cultural tradition of the island of Madagascar, the great lemur (Indri indri) is considered the ancestor of humans because of its upright body when moving.
In Africa and Asia, monkeys and apes are already protected. Some ape populations in the forests of South and Central America, even the large lemurs of Madagascar (such as the great lemur) are the same. The great lemurs of Madagascar are known for their ability to stay upright when jumping. Even today, they are often thought to be the ancestors of humans who lived in forests. From time to time in the forest, their mournful cries and long howls as they compete for territory were heard, and people thought that they were telling their lonely existence.
Female black american lemur
Our generation is fortunate compared to those who came after us, because we are still able to witness everything before they are destroyed. There are some things left behind in nature that can help us to have a little understanding of our origins. If we don't protect our "brothers"—monkeys and apes—it's impossible to observe them anymore. According to many judgment standards, they are almost no more primitive than ours.
According to the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, primates are the first of all mammals, and their main characteristics are: increased brain volume; omnivorous tooth patterns, without any unique specialization; and in most cases, flat nails on the fingers at the ends of the forelimbs. In fact, the group cannot be defined by any unique characteristics.
Initially, people intuitively classify, and then researchers study it in detail to come up with a more precise definition, which in turn separates us from another group of groups. In the hierarchy of living organisms, this classification and definition is correct at all levels. Recent classifications have relied on studies of the chemical structural similarity of proteins and increasingly rely on the comparison of DNA sequences.
I'll start by looking at the primates of Asia
We are in Japan, on the border of Japan's "Alps", where the northernmost primate on Earth, the Japanese macaque, lives. They're not the only species to fend off the harsh winter cold. In the branches of the world's tallest mountain range, the Xishan long-tailed langur lives, and in the Qinling Mountains in central China, the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey wrapped in orange and reddish-brown fur is also fending off the cold.
However , most primates live in places with mild climates , i.e. tropical or subtropical regions. There, seasonal changes are almost non-existent. There is no winter, only dry months and wet months, which rotate in a very regular way. As a result, temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius are maintained almost all year round, and trees, vines, and flowers grow particularly luxuriantly.
Rain and heat combine to form a perfect tropical "equation." In Borneo and Sumatra, a large proportion of forest species is dipterocarp, a tree species that is particularly recognizable due to its growth cycle being out of sync with other tree species. Every 4 to 7 years, this tree produces a lot of fruit. This allows fruit and grain-eating animals – many primates, such as orangutans and gibbons – to eat particularly well and store some of their seeds in trees and soil to ensure forest regeneration.
Asian primates are listed
Tarsiers are nocturnal animals with rounded heads, very flexible, and can rotate more than 180 degrees. In addition, their eyes are large and spherical; their ears are also very large.
Plate 32
1. Tarsius bancanus
2. Tarsius syrichta
3. Tarsius spectrum
Macaques are shorter and stronger than other cheek-cheeked monkeys. The nose is more prominent, but the nostrils do not reach the upper lip. Differences between species are very limited, mainly in the details of coat color. Only a few species are very distinctive, such as the lion-tailed monkey with its striking mane and the macaques that live on Sulawesi (such as the Tonkey macaque, the black-crowned macaque, etc.). Macaques live entirely in Asia and are widely distributed in Southeast Asia, India, China, Sri Lanka and Japan. The only exception is the Barbary macaque, which lives in North Africa.
Plate 34
1. Guinea-tailed monkey (Macaca nemestrina)
2. Macaca pagensis
3. Lion-tailed Monkey (Macaca silenus)
The golden snub-nosed monkey (Snub-nosed Monkey) is easily recognizable for its colourful face, short nose with nostrils sloping upwards, and broad lips that often appear bright pink. Three-quarters of the species have thick hair to withstand the harsh winter colds and inhabit the wooded mountains of China at 6,000-9,000 feet above sea level.
Plate 40
Rhinopithecus bieti
2. Rhinopithecus brelichi
3. Rhinopithecus roxellana
4. Vietnamese Golden Snub-nosed Monkey (Rhinopithecus avunculus)
White-browed gibbons were previously classified in the genus Gibbon, and now belong to the genus Bapteraria. The difference lies in the number of chromosomes, with 38 in the genus Blaucon and 44 or 52 in other genera. The fur of males is black and the females are copper-yellow. Both male and female have two bands of white hair above their eyes. The pups of the white-browed gibbon are completely white at birth, and subsequently, its coat color becomes grayer and grayer, eventually turning black in adulthood. Females change coat color again in adulthood.
Plate 47
1. Black-palmed gibbon (Hylobates agilis)
2. Bornean white-bearded gibbon (Hylobates agilis albibarbis)
3. Hoolock hoolock
More primates
Read The Human Cousin
Covering nearly 300 of the world's 509 living primate species, each of the images is exquisitely illustrative of their subtle appreciation.
In this popular naturalist popular book in Europe and the United States, the world's top primate experts have joined hands to tell us about the evolutionary trajectory of primates, their territory, social organization, lifestyle and communication methods, etc., and describe their species distribution on our planet according to continents.
The book is equipped with more than 400 naturalist paintings of 298 species of primates painted by the famous naturalist François DeBold after ten years of field sketching, which perfectly presents the physical appearance, form and lifestyle of various primates. What is particularly rare is that it also contains interesting and adventurous behaviorist fieldwork notes, vividly recreating the real picture of fieldworkers' exploration.
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A wonderful naturalist masterpiece, an epic of primates
The world's top primate experts have joined forces to provide a comprehensive and comprehensive guide to the world primates, a veritable "primate encyclopedia".
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