Book Description

Since 1950, there has been a sharp increase in interest among comparative anatomists, physiologists, biochemists, ecologists, and behavioral scientists in research on non-human primates. Recent advances in the study of genetics, evolution, and human prehistory have focused scientific attention on man's close relatives, the apes and monkeys. At the same time, the value of the naturalistic field study as a research tool and an adjunct to laboratory study has been increasingly recognized. This book brings together for the first time eight classic naturalistic field studies of non-human primates that have long been out of print. Because these pioneer investigations in primatology have been unavailable, contemporary scientists have undertaken research into many naturalistic behavior characteristics originally observed and described by the author in the 1930's and 1940's. His basic monographs on the howler monkeys of Panama, the gibbons of Thailand, the orangutans of Sumatra, and other monkey colonies are included, as well as discussions of the significance of the results of his research for human behavioral adaptations. These important monographs, with new introductions and conclusions by the author, will not only be of extreme interest to psychologists, zoologists, ecologists, anthropologists, and other life scientists but will also help to advance the scientific productivity of current field investigations.