格鲁斯特大学学生游览动物园

First year students will be monkeying around at Bristol Zoo on Wednesday as part of their induction to university life.

Psychology and biology students will be learning about monkey and ape communication, mimicking their calls, copying their gestures and learning how to walk like a gorilla.

This first hand experience of working with the chimps, which live in social groups and communicate in a similar way to humans, will provide the students with an invaluable introduction in the study of behaviour and communication. The trip will also enable the
new starters to get to know each other outside of the lecture theatre in their first week at university.

University of Gloucestershire lecturer, Dr Phil Tyson will explain how primate behaviour is learnt through imitation and demonstration, and the relationship between humans and apes.  Students will undertake a study of different primate species and will analyze the behavior of animals in a specific timescale, comparing their findings to themselves and presenting their findings in an electronic poster.

Dr Adam Hart, course leader in biology said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for new students to get together and meet other students, bringing together both psychology and biology students. Chimps and humans share about 96% DNA so we are particularly close relatives, although we should also bear in mind that we share 45% of our genes with cauliflowers. The zoo trip will be great research and I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.”

The activity is part of a week of ‘active learning’ opportunities entitled Week Zero to welcome students to the faculty of education, humanities and sciences.