As non-human primates such as chimpanzees and bonobos are our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom, they are the key to learning more about ourselves and our place in nature. Aside from the cosmetic, many qualities of non-human primates are vastly similar to those of human primates and by studying traits deeper than just on the surface we can learn about our evolution and how we came to be the species that we are today. I found the lecture slides on primate behavior and socialization to be very fascinating. Because primates rely so heavily on learned behavior, it takes a much longer period of time for them to grow up. In the film “The New Chimpanzee” we get a glimpse at what this looks like for young chimpanzees growing up in large social groups. Chimpanzees rely heavily on the teachings of their mothers and learn everything that they need to know to survive from their mother. In much the same way, humans must learn everything they need to know from their parents or parental figures to survive in the world we live in. Although raising a human to participate in human culture is a much more complex task, studying how non-human primates bond with and learn from their mothers reveals many parallels between our two worlds. The experiments run by Harry Harlow on infant monkeys shows just how important the bond between a mother and her child is to non-human primates. When an infant monkey grows up without its mother to learn social behavior from they develop a range of abnormal behaviors, are incapable of sexual reproduction, and become aggressive and socially inept. When a human grows up without parents or is neglected by their own parents, the life they lead has built-in difficulties due to their lack of a model for behavior. Children who are neglected by their parents are more prone to anxiety and depression which, if not addressed, leads to a life of heightened stress and difficulty interacting in society. It fascinates me to find that this is shared among all primates and what a centerpiece social behavior has become in the evolution of all primates. By studying this aspect of non-human primates, we can better understand the human need we all have for satisfactory social interaction and what a key role it plays in our development as a species. I was also very intrigued to learn about chimpanzees’ use of tools in their every day lives. In the film “The New Chimpanzee” there was much documentation of chimpanzees using tools such as sticks, tree branches, and rocks all as ways to obtain food efficiently. As humans, we often look to our numerous inventions and great ability to think critically into the future as things that set us apart, but in studying the tool use of chimpanzees we see that this is just another one of our many similarities. For an animal to recognize that one rock would work better than another and to use information from past experiences to affect future outcomes must take an incredible amount of thought, one which humans have always held dear to our own species. In studying the tool use of non-human primates we can better understand that our use of tools reaches much further back into our evolution than some may think and that our use of tools has evolved throughout the evolution of humankind.