Movie Screening: Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History

Chimp news from Gombe

Want to know what's going on in Gombe National Park 50 years after Jane Goodall began studying the chimps? Check out graduate student Kara's blog: http://dukeprimate.wordpress.com/category/from-the-field/

Primate Palooza 2011

The second annual Primate Palooza begins March 21!

We are still calling for art and film submissions. There will be prizes!

Check out www.primatepalooza.com and Facebook: Primate Palooza 2011 for more information.

SCHEDULE:

March 21-30 Conservation is…Art
Duke University Bryan Center

Monday, March 21 Performing Biodiversity, Dance and music showcase.
7-9pm Reynolds Theater, Duke

Wednesday March 23 Global Health and Biodiversity
6:30pm (Bingham 301, UNC-CH);

Thursday March 24 Gombe National Park: A Case Study in Research and Conservation, 5pm (BioSci 111, Duke);

Friday March 25 Strategies for Protecting Tropical Forests
4:30pm (Love Auditorium, Duke).

Saturday, March 26 & Sunday March 27 Lemur Center Tours
3:30-5pm. Sign up online at primatepalooza.com

Sunday March 27 On the Edge, Public Service Announcement screening.
7-9pm, Griffith Film Theater, Duke

Why do conservation?

Many of us are concerned about conservation issues. We care about primates. We worry about hunting and deforestation. We worry about environmental degradation. We want to protect biodiversity. But what exactly are the goals of conservationists? Is it to preserve biodiversity? To protect habitats? To save certain species from extinction?

What do you think are the goals of conservation? What does conservation mean to you?
Define any terms you use (such as biodiversity).

To determine effective strategies, it is important to understand what we are trying to do!

Workday with Ubuntu

On Saturday, the Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots hosted our largest service day yet at the Duke Lemur Center. Twenty-five volunteers spent their mornings transporting trash to a dumpster or tearing down an old enclosure. The difference in just an hour and a half’s work was dramatic. Where a building once stood, remained only fragmented pieces. The space once occupied by a tonnage of wooden beams and other parts was now empty save the separated metal bits.

Ubuntu, Duke’s civic engagement themed living group, organized the day’s event with the help of Roots & Shoots as part of their annual ‘rush.’ Members and prospective members of Ubuntu volunteered. Fortunately, the tasks at hand were appropriate for such a large and enthusiastic group.

After the work segment, the Duke students broke up into smaller groups to receive tours of the center. The day’s terrific weather brought out the sifakas, ringtails, and other prosimians. As per the group’s focus on social change, Roots & Shoots got to talk especially about the center’s important contributions to conservation and the role of research in preserving biodiversity.

The Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots group is now developing our calendar for spring service-days at the Duke Lemur Center. If you are interested in volunteering or hosting a group of volunteers, please contact nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com

High schools Skype to save bonobos (and humanity)

Yesterday Aaron Sandel and Kara Schroepfer had a discussion about bonobo conservation with a high school in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The biology club had questions about Friends of Bonobos and bonobo cognition and conservation. After discussing research by Dr. Brian Hare's research team on bonobo cooperation, empathy and cognition, we discussed general conservation issues. We brainstormed the threats to bonobos, the problems facing humanity/the world and realized the solutions to both are the same (decrease poverty, increase education, facilitate empathy among people, etc.).

Reaching out about primates

The Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots group has been keeping busy doing outreach and awareness about primates, working with Dr. Brian Hare and Dr. Anne Pusey in the Evolutionary Anthropology department at Duke.

October 23-24 Dr. Brian Hare and members of his lab, including a handful of Roots & Shoots members, went to Washington, D.C. for the National Science Festival.

Ben Finkel sees if people are as smart as other apes (photo: Chris Adamczyk)

We have also been leading discussions with high schoolers about primates and evolutionary anthropology.

Ben Finkel and Aaron Sandel led a discussion with the high school at Carolina Friends School about bonobos and human behavior. Aaron also led discussions on primate cognition and conservation at Brookline High School in Brookline, MA.

Understanding the biology and evolution of humans and our closest relatives gives an important perspective on who we are and why we behave in the ways that we do. That is why evolutionary anthropology outreach and education is so important. Also, since so many primates are endangered, we need to raise awareness and brainstorm innovative ways to protect biodiversity. If you would like us to come lead a discussion at your school in the Durham area, please send an email to nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com.