Download or read book Primate Ethology written by Desmond Morris and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1967 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a groundbreaking work in the field of ethology- the zoological study of animal behaviorwhich was rapidly gaining ground in the 1960s when this collection was first published. These specially commissioned papers bought together studies of monkeys and apes from both the laboratory and the field. All of the contributors had been trained in the Lorenz/Tinbergen school and included Jane Goodall, R. Hinde and Y. Spencer-Booth, M. Moynihan, T.E. Rowell, Caroline Loizos, John Sparks, Wolfgang Wickler, and J. van Hooff. Many broad aspects of primate life, including facial expressions, sexual signals, grooming, play, social organization and parental care, are covered by the contributors and provided a whole new approach to primate behavior. As Morris points out in his introduction: "Most primate research behavior workers have, in fact, been drawn from the worlds of psychology and anthropology, and too little attention has been paid to detailed observation and motor pattern description." From 1956 he became seriously involved in the making of films and television programs about animal behavior and began studying the artistic abilities of apes. This was followed by the authorship of a number of natural history books and by the hosting of a popular TV program Zootime over several years. In 1959 he was appointed curator of mammals at the London Zoo. Between 1959 and 1967 he was responsible for the authorship of many natural history books, sometimes in co-authorship with his wife. Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape and The Human Zoo was born in Wiltshire, England in 1928. In 1951 he graduated from the University of Birmingham with first class honors and moved to Oxford to pursue doctoral studies in animal behavior under the tutorship of Dr. Niko Tinbergen. In 1973 Desmond Morris returned to Oxford as a research fellow at Wolfson College. In this role he worked with Tinbergen's research group in the Department of Zoology and would continue to research human action-patterns. Over the ensuing years he has maintained his many interests in animal behavior research, the arts, and in making television programs and films. The more significant publications in these more recent years include Manwatching, a Field-Guide to Human Behaviour (1977), The Human Animal (1994) and Peoplewatching (2002). Darryl Bruce is professor in the Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax.