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Anthropology

This guide is to help students and faculty access credible resources related to Anthropology.

Primate Observation Project: Tips

Read your Primate Observation Project instructions carefully, and always check with your instructor if you have questions!

Here are a few things Jamie would recommend as you work on this project:

  1. Use the database "All the World's Primates" to get an overview of the species you select, and additional scholarly references you can look up individually for more details.
  2. Before you finalize your primate, check for a livestream option to view them and/or make sure they have that species at the Hogle Zoo or other Zoo if you are planning to visit and observe in person. A simple internet search for "species name webcam" or "species name livestream" should guide you to live views of the species you choose. For example, I searched for "livestream zoo primates" and saw that there's a video stream from the Detroit zoo for their Snow Monkeys. I searched All the World's Primates for "snow monkeys" and nothing came up, but I saw in the Detroit Zoo link that they are also called Japanese macaque, so I searched that in All the World's Primates and found the species information. I verified that the zoo link worked, and now I could move forward with researching the species and conducting my observation.
  3. Look for additional information from scholarly articles as needed. If something didn't match your hypothesis related to social interaction, as an example, you may want to find additional research on social interaction for your selected species. You may even find research about social interaction variations when the observed primates are in captivity or not.

Looking for a live feed? The following terms may be useful as you explore zoo websites or do internet searches to complete your observation project:

  • webcam
  • live stream
  • live video
  • live camera
  • live cam
  • live streaming
  • video streaming
  • streaming video
  • live streaming video
  • virtual

Find Background Sources

Find Journal Articles

Library Databases

Open Internet Databases

International Journal of Primatology Access

General tips for finding sources

Search with most important terms

  • For a topic like "maternal instinct in alouatta palliata in Costa Rica", start your search with "maternal alouatta" or "mother howler"
  • Try different combinations of search terms
  • Search for articles by the same author you've already found useful

Be flexible with search terms

  • Try common names (mantled howler) and scientific names (Alouatta palliata)
  • Use synonyms/related terms (mother, maternal, infant, juvenile, etc.)
  • Look at terms used by researchers- try those too!

"Zoom out" for bigger picture

  • The perfect article may not exist
  • Consider looking for articles that are more broad (i.e. "howler" instead of "mantled howler", "primate maternal instinct" instead of "alouatta palliata maternal instinct")
  • Sometimes an article with a similar methodology to your approach can be useful to include in a literature review

Use your sources' sources!

  • Look at your current research sources for more sources!
  • Read literature reviews or skim reference lists
  • Also consider looking at "Cited by" lists (some databases, like Natural Science Collection and Google Scholar, have this option to follow the research forward in time)

APA references in Natural Science Collection

When using Natural Science Collection to find sources, select "Cite" and then "APA 7th - Sentence casing, DOI: empty" for a close draft of APA.

(You'll need to re-capitalize any proper nouns in the article title.)

Alternatively, you could select "APA 7th (basic) - No Case Changes (No Title Casing), DOI: empty". With this one you'll have to remove capitalization on non-proper nouns in the article title.