the Science Daily research
I chose the Science Daily research news article “Chimpanzees lose their behavioral and cultural diversity” dated March 7, 2019. A group of researchers wanted to know if chimpanzees’ behavioral diversity was affected by humans. In order to test this hypothesis, the team matched 31 chimp behaviors, like how they used tools, with the aspects of 144 wild chimp populations in 15 countries under various degrees of human interference. To measure the effects, they used different levels of disruption: population breadth, change in forestation where chimps live, etc. The results were overwhelmingly positive that chimpanzee behavior in their natural habitats was greatly affected by humans. In fact, the more human involvement there was, the less behavioral diversity by an average of 88 percent (Max Planck, 2019).
This article is a study of the behavioral diversity of chimpanzees and contributes to behavioral science, anthropology, and biology by allowing us to see our impact on the world around us. It also gives us the opportunity to see diversity in other animals besides ourselves. If we can find commonalities with other species, we will learn that much more about each other. It is not much different from looking at what impact the internet and social media, and technology in general, have had on us as a species (Miller et al, 2016).
References
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (2019, March 7). Chimpanzees lose their behavioral and cultural diversity: Human impact reduces the behavioral repertoire of chimpanzees. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 1, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190307141021.htm
Miller, D., Costa, E., Haynes, N., McDonald, T., Nicolescu, R., Sinanan, J., . . . Wang, X. (2016). Inequality. In How the World Changed Social Media (pp. 128-141). London: UCL Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/stable/j.ctt1g69z35.16
