Grantee Spotlight: Kathryn McGrath
Kathryn McGrath was awarded a Leakey Foundation Research Grant for her project entitled "Understanding stress-related enamel defects in wild mountain gorillas."
Male rank, not paternity, predicts male–immature relationships in mountain gorillas
Stacy Rosenbaum (University of California at Los Angeles) was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant in 2010 for her project entitled “Male-immature relationships in the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei).” Dr. Rosenbaum and her team were recently published in the journal Animal Behaviour, and she was kind enough to provide us with a brief summary of the article.
Copyright: Dian Fossey
Studying Hormonal Stimuli in Mountain Gorillas Yields Many Clues
By Sosthene Habumuremyi
My study has gathered data on mating behavior, solicitations, and any displays/aggression from adult males towards the females. Sexual swellings, which are extremely small in gorillas, are also noted.
The plan is to monitor at least 6 nulliparous (never having given birth to offspring) females and 10 cycling parous (given birth to offspring at least once) females