Monkeying Around Wins Young Naturalist Award for California Student

Wednesday, September 08 4:07 pm

2010 Young Naturalist Award winner Athman studied friendship bonds between adult male macaques. Photo courtesy of Athman

Can male monkeys develop friendships?

That was the question Athman, an eighth grader from San Jose, California, asked as he observed bonnet macaques during his family’s annual visit to southern India. Over the years, Athman had followed, played with, observed, and fed his monkey friends while learning more and more about their social behavior and interactions. Now he wondered if males in the group had developed friendships with other males and how strong these bonds might be. His thorough research and unique topic earned him one of this year’s 13 Young Naturalist Awards.

Before beginning his investigation, Athman read the latest research relating to friendship among primates. Then he chose seven male macaques for his study. First, he observed them to determine a dominance hierarchy among the individuals, then focused on each macaque to study his behavior. An analysis of his data showed that male bonnet macaques do enjoy varying strengths of social bonds of varying strengths with others in the group.

Athman’s essay, Ethology of Friendship Among Adult Male Bonnet Macaques, Macaca radiata, at Arunachala Hill, India earned high marks from contest judges, which include Museum scientists and staff. Nancy Simmons, chair of the Museum’s Division of Vertebrate Zoology and curator-in-charge in the Department of Mammalogy, noted that Athman “carried out a lot of original fieldwork, collected appropriate data, and analyzed it in a fully satisfactory manner. The essay itself is mature and well written, with a structure following that of real scientific papers. In short, this is a spectacular piece of work!”

To read about Athman’s project and those of the other 2010 winners, visit the Young Naturalist Awards website.

The Young Naturalist Awards is a nationwide, science-based research contest for students in grades 7 through 12 presented by the Museum. Since 2006, the program has been made possible through the exceptional generosity of Alcoa Foundation as part of its commitment to supporting student achievement in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

The deadline for the 2011 Young Naturalist Awards is March 1, 2011.