Talk:Potto

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Msbaggott.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 07:03, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

New research on taxonomy
I don't have time to go through it right at the moment, but a PhD thesis on the taxonomy of Perodicticus has recently been published on the web. It looks like it has some information in it that might be helpful to this article. Just thought I'd mention it in case someone else has a chance to get to it before I do. Perodicticus 22:02, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:GEvelynHutchinson.jpg
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elevation
I don't know how many people bother looking at this site but hey, I was just at a prosimians conference, and have heard that the three subspecies have been upgraded to full species. I'm currently doing work on ibeanus, and just to mention that pottos are not necessarily as slow as everyone tends to make out, they can certainly get around as and when they wish (much like the loris, which I was working on in 2006). Raggs —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.49.77.71 (talk • contribs).


 * Neat. When the work is published, put a pointer to it here and we'll update the article. - UtherSRG (talk) 14:24, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Right me again, i've now been following perodictus ibeanus around for 3 months (alas i can't remember the book title, but it's like its basically the Primates book). I've updated a little, again like the loris they aren't slow moving, they just don't run or jump, however anyone who's seen them whilst it's raining would never refer to it as slow moving. Also on the palm civets Elizabeth Pimley (worked on the pottos in cameroon) had an instance of being able to track a palm civet for a short while whilst the radio collar from an adult potto was travelling through it's digestive tract... so they definitly get munched on time to time at least. Raggs —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.87.75 (talk) 07:51, 15 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Your first-hand knowledge is not relevant. When the work is published and you can cite your verifiable sources, you can add the information. - UtherSRG (talk) 11:24, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Well I am intending to publish this work in conjunction with Elizabeth Pimley, however publication can take anything from 1-2 years, and even then, mentioning that it's not a slow, careful moving animal that the general public think it is, most likely won't be included in the article. In the meantime I can probably make an extremely strong case for claiming that I know more about the habits of this species in the wild than anyone else currently on this planet, seeing as the only previous work done on them in the wild was by Elizabeth Pimley, for 3 weeks last year, and preceeded by Charles Dominique over 30 years ago. But whatever. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raggs212.49.74.144 (talk) 06:14, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Again, it does not matter what you know. What matters is what you can cite so others can verify it. But while you are awaiting publication, how about [ creating an account] ? - UtherSRG (talk) 11:21, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about my previous comment, it was bigheaded and immature, and whilst I'd be the first to admit that I can be arrogant, I'm not usually immature. I have just left the field site and good friends, my research has gone neither as well as I had hoped nor expected, so when I am told that what I know (and in truth I wasn't really exaggerating about knowing their habits in the wild) is irrelevant, it is somewhat frustrating. As for making an account, using slow internet connections in kenya isn't conducive to doing much of anything most the time. Once I'm settled back in a country where I have a more reliable connection, then I shall do so. Again I apologise for my statements, but stand by the fact that my first hand knowledge is of better quality than what people have been using for the past thirty years and saying that they are slow moving. It may only be the ibeanus species that moves rapidly, but I would put it's movements on a par with those of the red slender loris, which I spent 6 months working on for a phd student (she should soon be finishing her dissertation, then hopefully publishing, but in the meantime Anna Nekaris has put some information out there). -Raggs —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.84.165 (talk) 10:52, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Image Potto.png
There is doubt about the identity of the animal depicted by the black-and-white drawing, which seems to be a copy (flipped to be sure) of a colour drawing/painting purportedly showing a Calabar angwantibo. Please check the file on the right. Dogo (talk) 00:04, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * While the images are indeed quite similar, I believe this is due to the fact that the two animals are very similar and that the images were created by the same author. Looking close, you can see that there are some differences between the images. Note the shape of the ears, the shape of the gap above the feet, and the angle of the arm. - UtherSRG (talk) 12:14, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I can hardly believe that you are serious. Do you really mean that those "differences" have any taxonomic significance, especially between animals that belong to different genera? You must be joking. Even if both drawings were made by the same author and he decided to give them exactly the same posture and to place them on branches with practically the same shape, he would at least have clearly shown the tail of the potto to distinguish it from the angwantibo. It does not make sense to make two drawings that nobody can clearly differentiate, and then label them with different species names. Consequently, I am 99% certain that the black-and-white drawing is a copy made by another author, who for some reason called it a potto (if the original was in fact labeled "golden potto", one could not even blame the copier too much). The differences you see, are simply copying errors. Dogo (talk) 21:21, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
 * How much would you like to bet? The Potto image was used on the cover of the O'reilly GNU Make book.. They are both 19th century lithographs. - UtherSRG (talk) 14:21, 7 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what this proves. This "Make book" clearly uses clipart. I would have to see the original lithographs with proof of authorship before I consider changing my position. Maybe some other people could also contribute to this discussion. Dogo (talk) 23:38, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

First of all, the illustration is so old that it can hardly be considered reliable or accurate. Secondly, until we can find the original source and provide more information in its info box on Commons, I wouldn't even use the image... even for historical purposes. I've looked for the last hour for the source among the most popular illustration books from that time, but the closest I could come up with was from 1894 and 1884. Both are clearly labeled as an angwantibo. Again, the artwork is so old and inaccurate that it's pointless discussing anatomical differences. However, according to one of my books, the angwantibo and potto are easily confused, with the angwantibo being slightly smaller, having a longer face, and exhibiting differences in the hands. – Maky  « talk » 04:13, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, that is a useful contribution in my view. So, based on my findings and those of Maky, I propose to the authors of this article that they remove the drawing that we have discussed here, unless any of them comes up with another, but very convincing, argument. Dogo (talk) 22:32, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Looking at the article's edit history, I would have to say that this article came together piecemeal, like so many other Start- and Stub-class articles on Wiki. For now, I'm going to remove the image, although I am more than open to discussing it if UtherSRG or anyone else disagrees. –  Maky  « talk » 22:54, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't object to the image being removed. I only objected to the claim that it was a bogus image. Cheers! - UtherSRG (talk) 07:20, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm glad you don't object to the removal of the image. However, I never used the word bogus and didn't imply it either. Bogus suggests intent. The point I wanted to make was that this image most likely depicted an angwantibo. The mislabelling could have been relatively innocent. Dogo (talk) 22:34, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

crypsis
The article currently reads: "The potto moves slowly and carefully, always gripping a branch with at least two limbs. It is also quiet and avoids predators using crypsis." clicking on the link for "crypsis" yields this definition: "crypsis is the ability of an organism to avoid observation or detection by other organisms." So the sentence basically means that it avoids detection by the ability to avoid detection. This is not very informative. A clarification of which methods of crypsis it uses would be far more useful. Also later the article says that it has no natural predators b/c the predators do not climb trees. What is correct? -- InspectorTiger (talk) 13:53, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

l l l l --- The crypsis method used is just sloth-like slow movement and inconspicuous coloration. You're right, the word "crypsis" should be change to "cryptic movement", but the link to the "crypsis" page should remain. Msbaggott (talk) 05:19, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Citation needed
The last two sentences of this article present information without a proper referenceMsbaggott (talk) 05:05, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Predation Problems
There is not a satisfactory description of predation on the potto in this article, and references for natural predation bushmeat hunting are missing. Humans, many raptor and owl species, and chimpanzees are the principal predators of the potto. Oates, J.F. 1984. The niche of the potto, Perodicticus potto. International Journal of Primatology. Vol. 5(1), 51-61.Msbaggott (talk) 05:17, 13 June 2016 (UTC)


 * Is something preventing you from editing the article yourself? Perodicticus (talk) 21:11, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Behavior and Ecology
The potto is said to have a "strong" territory. Was this phrase meant to say "large" territory or was the author referring to the fact that a male's territory is strongly defended against same-sex intruders?RooneyRee (talk) 20:30, 13 June 2016 (UTC)