#primate bracket

🦍The primate tournament list of candidates has been finalised! Polls will start going up soon!🦧

Thank you to everyone who submitted a species! Here is the full written list:

Basal primates (non-simian primates, including Strepsirrhini and Tarsiiformes)

†Notharctus (Notharctus tenebrosus)

Calabar angwantibo (Arctocebus calabarensis)

West African potto (Perodicticus potto)

Red slender loris (Loris tardigradus)

Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis)

Pygmy slow loris (Xanthonycticebus pygmaeus)

Senegal bushbaby (Galago senegalensis)

Brown greater galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus)

Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta)

Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)

†Archaeoindris (Archaeoindris fontoynontii)

†Megaladapis (Megaladapis madagascariensis)

Madame berthe’s mouse lemur (Microcebus berthae)

Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)

Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta)

Pygmy tarsier (Tarsius pumilus)

New world monkeys (Platyrrhini)

Wied’s marmoset (Callithrix kuhlii)

Goeldi’s marmoset (Callimico goeldii)

Bearded emperor tamarin (Saguinus imperator subgrisescens)

Golden-headed lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysomelas)

Panamanian white-faced capuchin (Cebus imitator)

Central American squirrel monkey (Saimiri oerstedii)

Gray-bellied night monkey (Aotus lemurinus)

Bald uakari (Cacajao calvus)

Madidi titi monkey (Plecturocebus aureipalatii)

Atlantic titi monkey (Callicebus personatus)

Black bearded saki (Chiropotes satanas)

White-faced saki (Pithecia pithecia)

Colombian red howler (Alouatta seniculus)

Brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus)

Northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus)

Yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda)

Old world monkeys (Cercopithecidae)

Mantled guereza (Colobus guereza)

Zanzibar red colobus (Piliocolobus kirkii)

Nepal gray langur (Semnopithecus schistaceus)

Silvery lutung (Trachypithecus cristatux)

Golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana)

Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

Red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus)

Collared mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus)

Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta)

Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas)

Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx)

Gelada (Theropithecus gelada)

Common patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas)

Bale mountains vervet (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis)

De brazza’s monkey (Cercopithecus neglectus)

Apes (Hominoidea)

Lar gibbon (Hylobates lar)

Pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus)

Kloss’s gibbon (Hylobates klossii)

Northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys)

Siamang (symphalangus syndactylus)

†Junzi (Junzi imperialis)

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

†Gigantopithecus (Gigantopithecus blacki)

†Dryopithecus (Dryopithecus fontani)

Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Bonobo (Pan paniscus)

†Australopithecus (Australopithecus afarensis)

†Panranthropus (Panranthropus boisei)

†Flores hobbit (Homo floresiensis)

†Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis)

Bearded emperor tamarin (Saguinus imperator subgrisescens)

This tiny, tiny tamarin is found in the wet forests where Brazil and Peru border each other. They eat fruit, flowers, fungus, and tree sap- but they’re apparently too lazy to dig their own holes in trees, so they wait for a different species to do it for them. And, of course, they have those magnificent moustaches.

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

These large tree-dwelling apes are found only on the island of Borneo. They are highly sexually dimorphic, with older males growing large cheek flanges. They eat fruits, leaves, flowers, bark, honey, small animals like insects, spider webs, fungus, and soil. They build complex nests to sleep in, and have been observed using leafy makeshift ‘umbrellas’, sticks to obtain foods like ants, and leaves to hold spiny fruits.

Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Beaten only by humans for the title of the furthest-north primate, this monkey lives in a huge range of climates on the islands of Japan, including snowy and mountainous regions. They are famous for their habit of spending time in hot springs to escape the cold. They are also rather intelligent, one group of macaques inventing the idea to wash their food before consumption. They eat a variety of foods, including leaves, fruits, bark, roots, insects, fish, soil, and fungus. Finally, the Japanese macaque is another species of monkey in which homosexuality has been documented; it has even been proposed that most female members of this species are bisexual!

Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta)

Highly adaptable, the rhesus macaque is second only to humans in having the largest range of all primates, occupying a large range of habitat types between Afghanistan and the east coast of China. They are intelligent and adapt well to urban environments, forming large colonies within Asian cities and even becoming an invasive species in a few places in North America. They are good at stealing human food and are often considered a pest. They also have a long history in science- you may recognise the infamous “wire mother” experiments performed on rhesus macaques, but they have also been involved in important research like vaccine production and HIV/AIDS treatment.

(A full list of primates enlisted in the tournament can be found here)

The final round has begun! Scroll down on my account to vote!

Current matchups:

Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Beaten only by humans for the title of the furthest-north primate, this monkey lives in a huge range of climates on the islands of Japan, including snowy and mountainous regions. They are famous for their habit of spending time in hot springs to escape the cold. They are also rather intelligent, one group of macaques inventing the idea to wash their food before consumption. They eat a variety of foods, including leaves, fruits, bark, roots, insects, fish, soil, and fungus. Finally, the Japanese macaque is another species of monkey in which homosexuality has been documented; it has even been proposed that most female members of this species are bisexual!

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

These large tree-dwelling apes are found only on the island of Borneo. They are highly sexually dimorphic, with dominant males growing large cheek flanges. They eat fruits, leaves, flowers, bark, honey, small animals like insects, spider webs, fungus, and soil. They build complex nests to sleep in, and have been observed using leafy makeshift ‘umbrellas’, sticks to obtain foods like ants, and leaves to hold spiny fruits.

Red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus)

This fabulous-looking species is found in tropical, sometimes mountainous forests of Southeast Asia. They eat mostly leaves, and have a multi-chambered stomach which allows them to ferment their food, like a ruminant!

Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata)

Beaten only by humans for the title of the furthest-north primate, this monkey lives in a huge range of climates on the islands of Japan, including snowy and mountainous regions. They are famous for their habit of spending time in hot springs to escape the cold. They are also rather intelligent, one group of macaques inventing the idea to wash their food before consumption. They eat a variety of foods, including leaves, fruits, bark, roots, insects, fish, soil, and fungus. Finally, the Japanese macaque is another species of monkey in which homosexuality has been documented; it has even been proposed that most female members of this species are bisexual!