Canada is beautiful - the photo above shows the stunning mountain ranges that greeted me as I landed in Vancouver - and also the setting of a film I'll probably never get out of my head, Into The Wild. I was in Canada (Calgary, Alberta) to give a presentation about the behavioural ecology of Japanese insect collection and consumption (at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists). Here are the first few slides of my presentation:
…& I'll try and post the rest on the Research page of this site.
I saw a lot of very inspiring presentations at the conference, especially those with new data on insectivory in chimpanzees, and on the nature of human social networks; I was also given the opportunity to introduce some people to Japanese insect foods (general consensus = delicious. No kidding. Although the majority of 'tasters' work with wild primates, so they were perhaps not the most representative sample.)
And now, back in Japan, I have just come back from a visit to the Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, where I was able to catch up with (old) friends and (new) research, and to see the Japan Monkey Center, a zoo with 68 primate species - more than any other institution in the world. The centre has a lot of space -
I saw a lot of very inspiring presentations at the conference, especially those with new data on insectivory in chimpanzees, and on the nature of human social networks; I was also given the opportunity to introduce some people to Japanese insect foods (general consensus = delicious. No kidding. Although the majority of 'tasters' work with wild primates, so they were perhaps not the most representative sample.)
And now, back in Japan, I have just come back from a visit to the Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, where I was able to catch up with (old) friends and (new) research, and to see the Japan Monkey Center, a zoo with 68 primate species - more than any other institution in the world. The centre has a lot of space -
...And, there are areas where you can literally walk alongside the primates, for example these squirrel monkeys, which live on an island in the park:
I like this photo because the two monkeys in the middle were fighting ferociously at the time, and I think it kind of captures the moment. But here are a few more (the top two are squirrel monkeys, the bottom left is a Siamang and the bottom right is a Japanese macaque from Yakushima):
And finally, I wanted to share some very good music I discovered while in Calgary, by a band called Plants and Animals - click here to listen! Canadian beer is also pretty good, for the record :)
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