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Short of inventing a time machine, we will never see our extinct forebears in action and be able to determine directly how human behaviour and culture has developed. However, we can learn from our closest living relatives, the African great apes. The Cultured Chimpanzee explores the astonishing variation in chimpanzee behaviour across their range, which cannot be explained by individual learning, genetic or environmental influences. It promotes the view that this rich diversity in social life and material culture reflects social learning of traditions, and more closely resembles cultural variety in humans than the simpler behaviour of other animal species. This stimulating book shows that the field of cultural primatology may therefore help us to reconstruct the cultural evolution of Homo sapiens from earlier forms, and that it is essential for anthropologists, archaeologists and zoologists to work together to develop a stronger understanding of human and primate cultural evolution.

Chimpanzees --- Animal societies. --- Psychology, Comparative. --- Primatology. --- Behavior.

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Mirrors have been suggested as a potential environmental enrichment for animals that are individually housed. The present study examined the influence of a mirror on the behaviour of individually housed laboratory mice. Sixteen mice were placed into apparatus comprised of two preference cages connected by a tunnel. A mirror was placed in one of the preference cages (mirror) but not in the other (non-mirror) and the position swapped daily for 4 days. Thirteen of the 16 mice spent less time in the mirror cage than the non-mirror cage (Sign test; P = 0.021) indicating an aversion to the mirror, however, the difference in occupation of the cages was not great. Overall, the mice occupied the mirror cage 47.6 +/- 4.7% of the time and the non-mirror cage 52.4 +/- 4.7%. There was no significant effect of the mirror on the number of mice building a nest in the mirror (N = 10) or the non-mirror cage (N = 6). The presence of the mirror significantly reduced feeding from the immediately adjacent feeder. The number of bouts, total time, and the mean feeding bout duration were all decreased by approximately 50-60% (ANOVA; P < 0.05). Overall, these results show that a mirror is slightly aversive to individually housed mice during general cage occupancy, and more highly aversive during feeding. These data therefore indicate that in contrast to some other species, mirrors are probably not a suitable environmental enrichment for individually housed laboratory mice. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Animal. --- Animals. --- Behaviour. --- Boxes. --- Cage. --- Cages. --- Chimpanzees. --- Duration. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Feeding. --- Heart-rate. --- Laboratory mice. --- Laboratory. --- Mice. --- Mirror. --- Nest. --- Position. --- Preference. --- Sign. --- Stabled horse. --- Stereotypic weaving behavior. --- Test. --- Time. --- Welfare.