Nature or Nurture?
An interesting conversation on the merits of Nature versus Nurture for your reading pleasure.
"……… I want to state that I know next to nothing about lemurs, but I can tell you that I had always read much the same things about adult primates that you have read and because I'd never really been able to interact with a "pet" (and I do use that term VERY loosely) primate that was fully mature, I had no way to discount the claims to that effect.....However, about a year ago now, I met my first adult primate, a female common marmoset who is now eight years old......They have had virtually no problems with aggression with her and she even goes to most strangers quite readily....This gave me confidence that, with proper training and socialization, it was possible to have an adult primate that was still able to be handled and enjoyed.....This does not mean, however, that there will never be times when the primate will challenge you...there will be........" ******
Dear ******,
I think it is important to consider the fact primates have individual personalities just as we humans do. I don't believe it is training and socialization as much as how each individual primate matures, just as we humans do.
Consider this: you can raise each of your human children the same way, same "training" same socialization, yet each one of them will mature differently. Generally, in society some children will mature into creative, compassionate productive adults, others will end up in jail because of their unacceptable behaviors. While some of the behaviors may be related to their environment as they grew up, some of it is never fully explained. I believe the same holds true for primates. How many parents really know how their child will act as they mature? How many parents have said how much they wished their child was still young, as the child enters their teenage years? How many parents wondered "what did I do wrong" when their grown child makes bad choices or acts in unacceptable ways? Primates are very close to us in so many ways, why wouldn't the same hold true for their behaviors?
In the years I have been intensely involved with primates, it has become clearer to me that it is each primate's personality rather than "training" that allows us to interact on a personal level with them, as they grow older.
Just some food for thought. Karen
"I agree with what you are saying in theory, but long experience with many species of animals, both domestic and exotic, and also many years' experience with school age children, has taught me that nurture is at least as powerful as nature, and sometimes more so.....Individual personality plays a big part, of course, and I am not disputing that....but the way in which any animal, including humans, are raised plays an enormous part in the adults that they grow up to become."
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