Oo, Oo, Oo, I Wanna Be Like You

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to determine whether or not monkeys have a hand preference. I predicted that the primates in this experiment will use one particular hand more naturally than the other. Since humans and monkeys are both closely related in terms of dexterity, visual appearance and intelligence, I believe that the monkey results will be similar to that of humans. Since 85% of all humans demonstrate a right handed preference, I predict that the monkeys will also be right handed. My goal is observe 12 monkeys and tally which hand they use to perform various skills. Methods/Materials Materials needed include - annual pass to the zoo, digital and video camera, computer, notebook, pen, 12 monkeys (4 Capuchin, 2 Gibbon, 2 Colobus and 4 Spider), natural zoo habitat (including ropes, branches, shelves to sit on, trees, cage bars), variety of enrichment supplies (such as phone books, PVC tubes, hanging toys, paper tubes)and treats (raw vegetables, branches of leaves, shelled peanuts, monkey chow). Methods included - select species of monkey to study, observe/video each cage for 15 minutes, at the same time over 4 days, record observations, review video and tally hand preference for each skill for each monkey. Results According to my experiment, the primates used their right hand MORE than half of the time, over 4 observation periods. The trend was for all monkey groups to prefer their right hand 55-65% of the time. Conclusions/Discussion My experiment measured the number of times a non-human primate, a monkey, used its right hand compared to its left hand. I predicted that monkeys used their right hand more than their left. Specifically, I looked at which hand they used first because that was their preferred hand. The data I obtained did support my hypothesis. My research showed me that chimpanzees were 96-98% identical to humans, so I expected the monkeys and humans to be very similar. In fact, monkey DNA is more similar to human DNA than a rat is to a mouse. I discovered that 85% of the people on earth are right handed so I expected monkeys to be right handed. The data showed that monkeys prefer to use their right hand more than their left. In my study, monkeys used their right hand 55% of the time. Mathematically, this proves that my hypothesis was correct because the monkeys preferred their right hand the most.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1213

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Animal Sciences projects
• CSEF Animal Sciences projects
• Every CSEF 2012 project