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In other words, could a US University that already has a “primate sanctuary” complete (I believe) with all the bamboo & protections.

Just thinking about breeding assistance along with conservation education????

Can lemurs be reproduced through a USA program on one of the environments possible conducive to lemurs?

Hypothetically speaking? Or not! I am a human of action.

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Interesting. Is that one reason for the "dog like," noses?

Did programs like Zoboomafoo (Kratt Brothers generally) help or hurt conservation efforts?

I want them to have helped, but I know the general population gets weird around “exotic” animals.

What are your thoughts on the same people who've done such awful things to the humans of Africa going through great lengths to preserve the animals?

Why are lemurs not monkeys? What I mean is: what about lemurs makes them different enough from monkeys that they belong on their own branch of the primate family tree?

Are they squirrelly around humans, do they interact with you st all?

Primate cognition is not my field of study. However, it is true that lemurs have less developed cognitive skills than other primates, such as apes. On the other hand, lemurs use sensory modalities differently than other primates - for example, their olfaction is much more developed than those of apes or humans.

To trigger male mating behaviour I soack cotton strips with the chemical mixture and put the strips inside the enclosure, so the lemurs can smell the odour (but avoid it if they find it unpleasent).

Sorry, I have never been in Skansen in Stockholm

That is so funny as humans equate kissing to love, they kiss to see if their mate ate the last cookie.

No, unfortunately they don't host gentle lemurs

In addition to lemurs, I have also worked with cotton-top tamarins during my PhD work. I loved them!

Psychology is not my field of study, but clearly humans have much in common with other primates and so primatology can help us to improve our understanding of human psycology via comparative studies.

No, lemurs are not suitable as pets. For example in Europe it is illegal.

Hi there, what are some ideas for places with paid internships for US based BS Zoology majors?

I chose to use non-invasive methods to collect my data (behavioural data, feacal samples, and ano-genital odour samples via positive reinforcement training) both to avoid distress the study subjects (safeguard animal health) and to not affect the results. I avoided to use blood to analyse hormone levels and to capture animals to collect odour samples. In most cases I think we can opt for non-invasive methods, it is logistically more difficult but a better ethical choice - I believe.

Hi Dr Fontani,

you said the gentle lemurs are active day and night - in that case how does sleep work for them? When do they sleep? How much sleep do they need? Do they have a circadian rhythm equivalent to ours?

The fact that they kiss each other! They do it to understand if the other animal eat something that could be interesting, but anyway is lovely to see!

Hello CuriousReditor,

Shame is always tough one. Sorry you've feeling this, I know it's such an awful way to feel about ourselves.

I've worked on this with many of my clients and dealt with it myself (like I think we all do).

We're usually so much harder on ourselves than we are on others. So the first thing I typically ask my clients is: "what would you say to a friend that was feeling the same thing?". Usually what we'd tell a friend is much more kind, objective, and more constructive.

There's typically a big discrepancy between the client's self talk and what they would say to someone else that was having a hard time.

Once we've identified the kinder and more supportive things they would say to a friend, I ask them to turn these statements towards themselves, and make them "I statements".

For example, if the client is saying "I am a awful person", but would tell a friend "you are only human and made a mistake" for the same situation, I get the client to get into the habit of using this kinder response for themself.

Shame is often the result of repetitive negative self talk, but if we begin to slowly change our inner dialogue, our emotions and eventually our behaviors often begin to change as well. It's not an easy thing to do, and takes time, but it can be done and can make a huge change to how we feel about ourselves.

I would encourage you to find some kindness for yourself, the same way I'm sure you would find for someone you care about.

Do you work with anthropologist or offer internships? Are they in a grad program?

I’m a sex and relationships consultant, and I’d like to ask: do lemurs exhibit the same (or similar) sex-as-recreation behaviors as bonobos and humans?—masturbation, prostitution, homosexuality, group sex, etc.

Hi u/susitoni! Thanks for joining us today. These are great questions!

I definitely believe in the power of lifestyle changes in reducing mental health issues. I take a holistic approach to my therapy and believe that you need to treat not just the mind but also the body. Psychiatry too often tries to create an arbitrary distinction between the two areas, when the more studies that are done the more is revealed about how the things you put into your body affects how you feel. Did you know that there is an estimated 90% of our serotonin (which is one of the neurotransmitters responsible for positive mood) is located in our gut? Which means that the things we eat play a big role in how we feel.

Consuming caffeine can set off a lot of the symptoms that we typically associate with anxiety especially in folks who are more sensitive to it like a fast heart rate, jitteriness, racing thoughts, insomnia, stomach upset, etc. For my clients who have anxiety, I will ask them about their caffeine consumption and bring more awareness to the link between caffeine and anxiety. In terms of dietary changes, there is also an increasing body of evidence that eating a diet high in processed foods can contribute to low mood, low energy, and inflammation of the immune system over the long term. While I'm not a nutritionist, and don't make recommendations to my clients about specific dietary plans, I do discuss this in our sessions with clients who struggle with healthy eating and I try to help them bring more mindfulness to their food choices. There's a great book on this topic called Eating Mindfully by Susan Albers that I recommend.

In terms of the difference between intrusive thoughts and thoughts that have something to do with OCD: intrusive thoughts can be a component of OCD they are the "O" in the OCD because it stands for obsessions. However, intrusive thoughts can also be a component of a number of other mental health disorders including generalized anxiety, depression, trauma, among others. The key thing about how they operate with OCD is that people have intrusive thoughts and then they have some sort of compulsion they engage in that helps them momentarily try and make the thought go away. This can include rituals like handwashing, checking doors, counting, but can also be more subtle like googling symptoms or asking for reassurance repeatedly.

Hope that helps!

I did not know lemurs were primates. Thank you for expanding my knowledge today. They are so cute! I wish you the best with your work to help these little ones!