The Behavior of Aged Great Apes

Tarou, Loraine Rybiski; Bloomsmith, Mollie A.; Hoff, M.P.; Erwin, J.; Maple, Terry L.

doi:10.1159/000061467

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The lifespan of most higher-order animals is considerably longer in protective environments than in the wild -for example, chimpanzees live about 60 years when protected whereas their life span in the wild is only about 35-40 years (Tarou, 2002). In these protective environments the animals are provided with humane care that is not available to the animals in the wild.…”

Section: (B) Societal Wisdom (Protective and Supportive Environment)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and Societal Wisdom: Explaining the Paradox of Human Aging and High Well-Being

Jeste¹,

Oswald²

2014

Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes

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Objective: Although human aging is characterized by loss of fertility and progressive decline in physical abilities, later life is associated with better psychological health and well-being.Furthermore, there has been an unprecedented increase in average lifespan over the past century without corresponding extensions of fertile and healthy age spans. We propose a possible explanation for these paradoxical phenomena. Method:We reviewed the relevant literature on aging, well-being, and wisdom.Results: An increase in specific components of individual wisdom in later life may make up for the loss of fertility as well as declining physical health. However, current data on the relationship between aging and individual wisdom are not consistent, and do not explain increased longevity in the general population during the past century. We propose that greater societal wisdom (including compassion) may account for the notable increase in average lifespan over the last century. Data in older adults with serious mental illnesses are limited, but suggest that many of them too experience improved psychosocial functioning, although their longevity has not yet increased, suggesting persistent stigma against mental illness and inadequate societal compassion. Conclusions:Research should focus on the reasons for discrepant findings related to ageassociated changes in different components of individual wisdom; also, more work is needed on the construct of societal wisdom. Studies of wisdom and well-being are warranted in older people with serious mental illnesses, along with campaigns to enhance societal compassion for these disenfranchised individuals. Finally, effective interventions to enhance wisdom need to be developed and tested.

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Section: (B) Societal Wisdom (Protective and Supportive Environment)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and Societal Wisdom: Explaining the Paradox of Human Aging and High Well-Being

Jeste¹,

Oswald²

2014

Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes

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“…It has been suggested for anthropoids that aging females may become more socially disengaged [13,19,[70][71][72][73]. In contrast to monkeys and apes, old lemur females would be predicted to be socially engaged, as females have priority of access to fruit trees, as well as resting sites [47,74].…”

Section: Social Disengagement and Behavioral Senescencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, there is a large literature that attempts to understand the selective underpinnings of longevity in humans, with particular emphasis on the evolution of menopause [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Increasingly, however, it is understood that the relationship between reproductive and somatic senescence may be complex in many primate species, and that long lifespans are not unique to humans, hominoids, or even anthropoids [13]. The smallest-bodied (and some would argue, most primitive) primates are cheirogaleids (the mouse lemurs and their relatives), and studies in captivity show that mouse lemurs can live almost ten times longer than like-sized nonprimates such as mice or shrews [14].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging in Wild Female Lemurs: Sustained Fertility with Increased Infant Mortality

Wright

King

Baden

et al. 2008

Primate Reproductive Aging

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Understanding the way prosimian primates age can be helpful in inferring what the 'basal primate mode' of senescence may have been. Even though prosimians are known to be long-lived in captivity, relatively little is known about their reproductive senescence, and even less is known about how prosimians age in their natural habitats. Twenty years of observational data in Madagascar for four Propithecus edwardsi sifaka groups were used to analyze reproductive and behavioral trends of aging in the wild. Techniques using tooth wear were developed to establish ages of wild sifakas and to estimate the onset of their 'dental senescence', a proxy for the onset of decline in the ability to obtain nutrition. Estimated maximum longevity was 32 years for female sifakas. Based on the loss of dental functional morphology, and changes in tooth wear patterns and in chewing efficiency, dental senescence was estimated to set in at approximately 18 years of age. Of the adult females in the study groups, the yearly average of the number of dentally senescent females was 24%. There was no indication of a decline in fertility in the dentally senescent females (aged >18 years) compared to younger adult females (aged 4-18 years). The field data showed, however, that in years when rain was decreased during months of prime lactation, infants of dentally senescent mothers died before weaning. This may be because the nursing mother's worn teeth could not shear leaves and extract moisture, nor nutrition, both essential for successful lactation. Old females showed no clear signs of social disengagement, further suggesting that drought-induced stress plays a direct role in increased infant mortality. These data support earlier findings that prosimian females continue to cycle and give birth until death. The effect of environmental variation on infant survival, however, indicates an incipient age-linked decline in reproductive fitness. Therefore, whereas lemurs represent the condition of no menopause, changes in infant survival may uncover selective factors that have in part led to the evolution of menopause in other primates.

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“…This suggests captive apes may be a more appropriate aging model, yet research on aged captive apes is extremely limited. For gorillas, data are limited to a single behavioral study [Tarou et al, 2002]. With respect to age-related motor dysfunction, there is only a single study that was conducted with chimpanzees [Lacreuse et al, 2013].…”

Section: Why Apes?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to humans, captive primate populations are also aging [Corr et al, 2002;Tarou et al, 2002]. As with humans, providing necessary care for aged animal populations is of increasing importance and so we must also understand age-related changes specific to these species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age‐related motor dysfunction: Manual slowing in Gorilla gorilla gorilla

Mahovetz

Stoinski

2015

American J Primatol

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Aging in humans and rhesus monkeys is commonly associated with motor function decrements including dexterity, speed, and strength. Despite their longevity and phylogenetic relatedness to humans, the effects of aging on motor function in non-human apes have been minimally studied. We conducted two experiments with western lowland gorillas (11-54 years of age) to determine whether aged gorillas exhibit motor deficits similar to those seen in other species. In experiment one, gorillas extracted up to 12 food rewards lodged in holes of a Lexan board. Extraction rates were calculated for eight test sessions. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed no main effects of session or sex on extraction rate, but a significant main effect of age. Comparisons between the first and last sessions showed that experience significantly improved extraction rates in young but not aged gorillas. In experiment two, gorillas retrieved a hex nut from three differently shaped rods with each hand for a reward. Latencies of retrieval were calculated for 16 test sessions. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects of age class, sex, and session. There were significant interactions between session and sex, session and age, and session, sex, and age. These findings held when analyzing each rod shape separately. Post hoc comparisons revealed that young gorillas were significantly faster at the task than aged gorillas, and females were faster than males. This finding held only for the question mark shaped rod when analyzing each rod shape separately. Comparisons between the first and last sessions showed that experience did not significantly improve latencies in either age or sex class. The direction of these results are congruent with previous findings in humans and monkeys and suggest that aged gorillas experience deficits in bimanual coordination compared to younger gorillas and that age and sex influence fine motor ability in gorillas.

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The Behavior of Aged Great Apes

Cited by 15 publications

References 26 publications

Individual and Societal Wisdom: Explaining the Paradox of Human Aging and High Well-Being

Individual and Societal Wisdom: Explaining the Paradox of Human Aging and High Well-Being

Aging in Wild Female Lemurs: Sustained Fertility with Increased Infant Mortality

Age‐related motor dysfunction: Manual slowing in Gorilla gorilla gorilla

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