Cheng, Steven Matthew - Reaction Paper: Life of Mammals

Cheng, Steven Matthew 2010-11134 

Reaction Paper: Life of Mammals 

In the film “Social Climbers”, it showed the different communities that monkeys live in. There were many different species of monkeys, each have its own unique properties. Capuchins, saki, douroucoulis, pygmy marmosets, tayra and howler monkeys were some that were discussed. Their different abilities, sizes, and behaviour give each species an advantage and disadvantage. From the process of getting food to that of a complicated socio-political structure, many similarities were observed. The brain size of the monkey depends on the social group size it travels and lives with. Some monkeys cooperated with one another in order to survive and fight their predators. Seniority among them was also distinguished. Some groups of monkeys like the toque macaques have already established a class system. Travelling of monkeys towards open grasslands could have led to the baboons; furthermore, led to the introduction of the evolution towards human.

On the other hand, the film “Food for Thought” focuses on apes and its hypotheses towards humanity. The video shows the different possibilities that the apes might have undertaken that forced them to evolve into humans. Topics on the orangutans, chimpanzees, and ancient human civilization were broadly discussed. The apes that have seen humans were able to imitate what the humans were doing. The film showed sock washing, use of tools such as saws, and cracking of nuts. A group of chimps was seen hunting for food. They are different from the others for this group of chimps were much violent. Afterwards, the process and difficulty of the persistence hunt method was shown. During early times, when there were no weapons, this was the primary method of hunting used by humans. Finally, a more civilized nation was shown, people began to build houses and communities of their own. Arts and sciences can also be seen in the architecture of the buildings built by this early civilization and this was the Mayan civilization.

It is interesting to see that other than the human species, the monkeys and apes also has a profound way of thinking. There are also political statuses that are being established in each of their communities. Although these creatures need more time to learn new things; nevertheless, the very idea that they are able to imitate what they see is very fascinating. Cooperation is also a very important thing. It was shown that monkeys of different species work together in alarming each other that danger is coming. Each individual has his/her own unique talents. To achieve a certain goal, people must work together in order to further improve what one can do. We must be aware of how we utilize the environment around us. As technology improves, there are certain trade-offs that are happening. Balance of nature can be broken as we continue improving without taking proper caution of our society. As can be seen in all the monkeys, apes, and early human civilization, all of them weren’t able to sustain their own societies when natural calamities strike. We may learn to adapt to a new environment; however, not all of us will be able to adjust to it and continue with it.