Archives for primatology

03.07.17

Follow the Leader?

Origin Stories
Every animal that lives in groups has to make decisions as a group. Even a seemingly simple decision like "where should we go for dinner?" can be complicated to negotiate.
08.27.15

From the Field: Claudia Wilke

From the Field
Claudia Wilke
Claudia Wilke is a PhD candidate at the University of York in the United Kingdom. She was awarded a Leakey Foundation research grant during our fall 2013 cycle for her project entitled “Are cooperative chimpanzees more communicative (Kibale Forest, Uganda)?” Here she gives us an update on her field season and how her research is progressing. My time at Kibale Chimpanzee Project… more »
05.15.15

Baboons prefer to spend time with others of the same age, status, and personality

In the News
New research funded in part by The Leakey Foundation shows that chacma baboons within a troop spend more of their time with baboons that have similar characteristics to themselves: associating with those of a similar age, dominance rank and even personality type such as boldness. This is known as homophily, or ‘love of the same’.
“This happens in humans all the time; we hang out with people who have the same
… more »
03.03.15

Dominance, energetics and stress in female capuchins in Costa Rica

Research Report
Mackenzie Bergstrom For her PhD dissertation, Mackenzie Bergstrom of the University of Calgary studied 25 adult female capuchins living in three habituated social groups in a tropical dry forest in Sector Santa Rosa (SSR) of the Área de Conservaciόn Guanacaste (ACG) in northwest Costa Rica. To better understand how ecological and social variables affect the physical condition of these New World… more »