Homo erectus crossed the Indus, Ganges, and Irrawaddy

An interesting news item (Zach Zorich, Palaeolithic Tools, Archaeology, January/February 2011), but why the surprise that H. erectus/ergaster could cross 40 miles of open sea to reach Crete?

When I was little, my family often went camping and many times my brother and I made use of a drift log to reach islands out in a lake, or to cross a river. As a young field biologist working in remote wilderness in northern Canada, we often lashed a few logs together to make a raft to cross rivers; the photo is an example. It seems obvious that Homo erectus , who clearly had the tool-using skills, would have done so.

Much earlier than the Crete crossing, H. erectus evidently crossed Mab el Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea (although it was probably narrower then), and reached the islands of Java and Sumatra (but the Sunda Shelf may have been exposed). Regardless of these uncertain sea crossings, they must have also crossed the Indus, Ganges, and Irrawaddy Rivers to reach Java, and the Mekong River to reach China, in addition to countless smaller, though still daunting, rivers. These crossings imply technology for river/sea transport, not only of people (including infants and toddlers who could hardly have straddled a floating log, for example) but also of tools and supplies.

Crossing to Crete is another matter: 40 miles is a long way. But I feel certain that if any homonids from H. erectus on could see land across the water, they could reach it.

China's and Burma's Forests and Canadian Forest Investments

The white-handed gibbon is extinct in China and this is one of the reasons why:

Since cutting natural forest has been illegal in China since 1998 (the Natural Forest Protection Ban), the country has embarked on a massive aforestation program. This is where the alleged Yunnan timber holdings of a certain Canadian-Chinese investment company come in. But “...the allocation of land for economic land concessions (including plantations) often raises questions about how local communities have been engaged, processes for free and prior informed consent, and long-term benefits for these communities.” EU Baseline Study 1, China: Overview of forest governance, markets and Trade. European Union, June 2011). Seems like a poor, or at least unethical, basis for investment to me.

China only produces about 70 m3/year from a forest base of some 8% of the country, and most of its domestic production now is from plantations of poplar, Chinese fir and Masson pine, mainly for plywood and paper. For furniture wood and lumber, it needs to import wood. The above-mentioned EU report discretely notes, “several of the countries which are major suppliers to China’s forest products industry ...[provide] illegally sourced wood materials” and “documentation of source of origin at district levels of Chinese timber still poses some difficulties ...”. In 2005, China imported more than 1.5 million cubic metres of Burmese timber worth an estimated US$350 million. Almost all of these imports were illegal; China closed the Burmese border to logs in 2006, resulting in huge inventories of logs at the border and putting many Chinese out of work (China Blocks Timber Imports From Burma [Myanmar]: www.illegal-logging.info). Ah, but then they put through highway 14 from Kunming to Mandalay. I have read, but can’t quote any stats, that illegal logging has since increased in Myanmar again, which is now nearly depleted of forest, with the logs flowing into Yunnan. So my guess is that is anyone wants to know where the missing forest land of this Canadian-Chinese forest company is, they might look towards Myanmar for the answer. And if some investors think Chinese forest companies, or Canadian ones with Chinese operations, have overstated their timber holdings, I can guess why.

My interest in this is the rare and endangered species that live in these forests. In the last couple of years, two species of gibbon have been extirpated from China and virtually all species that depend mature forest have either disappeared or are relegated to remnant “protected” forest patches where they are still hunted for meat and other products. Vietnam, Laos and Burma are huge sources of trade in illegally harvested or captured species, and are (especially Vietnam) major conduits for animals sources in other SE Asian countries, China is the main market, and Yunnan is the main port of entry. The disappearance of forests and native wildlife from Yunnan and neighbouring countries should be reason enough for anyone not to invest in companies like this.

Canada, Expo 2012, and the Republic of Korea

Barbara Yaffe (“Snubbing Expo 2012 shows Ottawa's skewed international spending priorities”, The Vancouver Sun, August 26) and similar views expressed elsewhere in the Globe and Mail make a good point, but South Korea’s Expo 2012 is not just about trade. We can learn from the Koreans. During many scientific missions there in the last decade, our hosts proudly toured their international guests through a variety of cultural and industrial gems in the country’s crown. These were not only in the big cities of Seoul and Pusan, but in towns all the way to the tip of the peninsula. On one offshore island we saw, for example, an international photography show, an international cello competition, and the two biggest shipyard in the world. Every village mayor and regional governor had something to show off that was well worth seeing; and the receptions following these events were a lesson in civic and national pride. Somehow, the Koreans manage to lead the world in arts and technology while maintaining their cultural roots: in every valley is a beautiful Buddhist temple, beside every byway a shrine, on every mountaintop a monastery. Besides being amazed and awed by the country’s arts and technology, I learned this: In the Korean national psyche is the feeling that there is nothing they cannot achieve. If they can imagine it, they believe they can do it. This is a country that, for centuries under the alternate heels of Japan’s military and China’s political hegemony, has finally thrown off the yoke of oppression and become one of the most vigorous and productive democracies in the world. Canada should recognize that, for the cost of participating in the expo, we would gain far more than an increase in trade

Red-crowned crane population improving

I read in the news (September 16, 2011) that Japan is sending some Japanese Cranes to Taiwan in thanks for help after the earthquake and tsunami. In 1994 Japanese colleagues from a research institute in Kushiro took me fishing at Nakashibetsu River, to the onsen (hotsprings resort) at Akan National Park, and to see the cranes along the Kushiro River. At that time there were about 600 tancho (Japanese, or red-crowned cranes, Grus japonica) in the world, and we saw about 60, or 10% of the whole world population. Now there about 900, a 50% increase since 1994. In 2006 I saw a few in the estuary of the Yellow River, China.

I posted photos of this and other crane species at https://picasaweb.google.com/113664418404513429838/Cranes#

Palestine, Israel and Canada

Saturday, September 19, 2011 - Since 1947 when the United Nations offered statehood to Palestine, everyone who cares to read about it has known that a two-state solution is the only way out of the Palestine-Israeli conflict, the single most dangerous, divisive and persistent threat to world security—save for a coterie of ultra-conservative Israelis who, unfortunately, control enough votes in the Knesset to topple any government that tries to implement it. In four years of working in Jordan, from Cabinet Ministers’ boardrooms to Bedouin tents, I never heard anyone say anything bad about Jews or Israelis, only about the Israeli Government’s policies. People who haven’t spent much time in the Middle East, including some Canadian politicians, do not know how close Israel and Palestine are to peace and how easily in can be achieved. The Palestine leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has taken a bold step to break a deadly impasse by asking for statehood recognition from the United Nations. Canada should get on the bus instead of standing in front of it.

Testosterone campaign by drug companies raises concerns

Re: Testosterone campaign by drug companies raises concerns (Carly Weeks, Globe and Mail, Sept. 22, L6).

Men’s testosterone normally falls when they get married or otherwise partnered, and falls again when their babies are born (see References, below). Scientists interpret this as a natural switch from mate-seeking to parenting. At the same time, other hormones that are associated with love, trust, contentment and satisfaction in relationships increase. Evolutionary biologists view these normal changes as associated with pair-bonding, monogamy, and paternal care of young that developed millions of years ago in our proto-human ancestors. Men who, through biological or physical accident, have no or poorly functioning testes, may need supplemental testosterone, but the rest of us don’t. Drug companies know this and should be honest with consumers instead of trying to invent an illness where none exists.

References

KUZAWA, C. W., L. T. GETTLER, M. N. MULLER, T. W. MCDADE, AND A. B. FERANIL. 2009. Fatherhood, pairbonding and testosterone in the Philippines, Hormones and behavior 56:429-435.

GETTLER, L. T., T. W. MCDADE, A. B. FERANIL, AND C. W. KUZAWA. 2011. Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males, Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Sciences (USA) Published online before print September 12, 2011

FERNANDEZ-DUQUE, E., C. R. VALEGGIA, AND S. P. MENDOZA. 2009. The biology of paternal care in human and nonhuman primates, Annual Review of Anthropology 38:115-130

Odd colour morphs in leaf monkeys

Madura De Silva and colleagues and I recently, independently, published papers on odd colour morphs in leaf monkeys. They documented a white phase of the Sri Lankan langur Semnopithecus vetulus (they are usually grey) and I documented a red phase of silvered lutung (or leaf monkey), Trachypithecus cristatus. (see references at end of post).

This is most interesting and it doesn’t happen very often. Unlike other taxa such as birds, which often have different color morphs, primates rarely do. I suppose this is because in mammals, when there is a mutation that causes a colour morph, either natural selection or sexual selection quickly eliminates it. One can imagine, for example, that a white morph of S. vetulus might be more visible to eagles, and so predation pressures might eliminate them. But De Silva's photos and mine also show that some white S. vetulus and red T. cristatus have babies, and so negative sexual selection must not be much of a factor. It is even possible that sexual selection could be a positive force, meaning that white potential mates are attractive because of their differences. As we say, “Variety is the spice of life!”.

In the case of the red T. cristatus, since they were documented some 70 years ago and still persist, indeed seem to have spread far upriver, one can speculate that there must be something about their environment that either doesn’t discriminate against red ones (for example, lack of avian predators), or actually encourages them. The only big eagle we saw was the Crested Serpent-eagle, and I presume that this is a snake/lizard specialist. Large snakes and wild cats of all sizes up to Clouded Leopard are present in Kinabatangan River habitat of T. cristatus, but I don’t know anything about their colour vision. It might be that red is just as invisible to these predators as black, maybe even more so. The black ones were certainly more visible to me, everywhere I have seen them (several places in Borneo and also in Peninsular Malaysia). Also, since there is a red species of leaf monkey, Presbytis rubicunda, that lives in the same area, there is obviously no environmental factor that would negatively affect T. cristatus.
About S. vetulus: it would be interesting to know how long they have persisted. Since De Silva et al mentioned a pale specimen from 1923, it seems possible that some variation was present 90 years ago, and may have increased in proportion and also in whiteness since then. If predation is a factor in coat color, would it be reasonable to speculate that since 1923, predation pressure might have slackened? Perhaps some of the langur predators have declined in the region where the white morphs persist?

References

SILVA, M. A. D., N. C. HAPUARACHCHI, AND P. A. R. KRISHANTHA. 2011. A new colour morph of Southern purple faced leaf langur (Semnopithecus vetulus vetulus) from the rain forests of southwestern Sri Lanka. Wildlife Conservation Society – Galle: 16.

HARDING, L. E. 2011. Red morph of silvered lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus) rediscovered in Borneo, Malaysia, Taprobanica 3:47-48.