Finals and a new obsession

   Winter quarter's finals felt chaotic but, looking back, they weren't all that bad. To tell the truth, during winter quarter I really only focused on my Primate Behavior class and that continued into finals week. I know that I'm paying a ridiculous amount of money for my education and I should absorb every ounce of information thrown at me, however, last quarter Archaeology did not catch my interest and Transformative Action came too easy to me. But Primate Behavior, I will cherish that class forever.
     For my final paper in that thought provoking class, I decided to research and write on a topic only briefly mentioned in class: what is the function and trigger of bimaturism in adult male orangutans? Before I explain this topic know that it fascinates me so much that I plan to do more independent research and continue to develop the paper. Adult male orangutans come in two different phenotypes, one appears juvenile while the other develops secondary sexual characteristics such as fatty cheek flanges, a throat sac, long hair, and extra weight. Although the these two types appear completely different, they can be the same age. It seems that there can only be a few "mature" males in a given area so there must be a reason for this. Many anthropologists and primatologists speculate that too many males in a given area leads to too much aggression and risk amongst them so other males remain juvenile-looking in order to avoid aggression and survive longer. Eventually every male will "mature" and develop the extra traits and this fact made me wonder what determines which individual will develop over others. So I did the research and it appears that  no one really knows what or why. Well, I'm determined to find out and I would like to do field and lab research on the topic in the future. It would be incredible to work with orangutans and learn about them and their bimaturism. Maybe if the reason and trigger is discovered it would shed some light on human maturity, diversity, and evolution. I can only hope!

Here are some pictures of orangutans for your enjoyment :)