| Grantee: |
Ms. Sylvia Amsler |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Patrolling Behavior in Wild Chimpanzees |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
Brief:
|
Territorial boundary and hunting patrols are important and conspicuous aspects of chimpanzee behavior and are known to vary across sites. Why this variation exists is poorly understood, but may be related to energetic factors. This project will address patroling behavior in the contexts of territoriality and hunting by chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. Results from this research promise to shed light on early hominid behavior by providing new information regarding the diversity of chimpanzee hunting tactics and will also increase our understanding of the similarities and differences between intergroup aggression in the chimps and humans.
|
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Laura Bidner |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Predator-Prey Interactions Between Leopards and Chacma Baboons in Namibia |
| Research Country: |
Namibia |
| Brief: |
Predation risk is considered to be a major driving factor of primate behavioral ecology and evolution. Simultaneously monitoring both predators and their primate prey is the best way to directly test how predators affect primate adaptations. This project will test hypotheses regarding spatial and temporal patterns of predation risk by monitoring chacma baboons and radio-collared leopards at Tsaobis Leopard Park in Namibia. The results of this study will be useful to paleoanthropology in interpreting how our ancestors may have avoided predation and competed with predators, and in understanding how such interactions with predators may have shaped human evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. Thomas Breuer |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Behavioral and Morphological Characteristics Influencing Male Reproductive Success in Western Gorillas |
| Research Country: |
Congo |
| Brief: |
This study aims to investigate how behavioral and morphological differences of adult male western gorillas affect their reproductive success, in order to answer the question as to whether or not larger silverbacks have a greater number of fertile females. The study will also examine how sexually selected traits influence male-male competition and sexual coercion. By knowing what determines male gorilla reproductive success greater insight will be had as to why one of our closest relatives is so sexually dimorphic and why during human evolution sexual dimorphism has decreased. Data will be collected at Mbeli Bai and two other forest clearings in northern Congo. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. John Bunce |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Behavioral Genetics of Color Vision in a Wild Neotropical Monkey |
| Research Country: |
Peru |
| Brief: |
The goal of this project is to answer the question, under what ecological circumstances does trichromatic color vision (affording the capacity to distinguish red from green) provide an advantage over dichromatic vision (red-green colorblindness) by studying one species of primate in natural forest environment, Callicebus brunneus in Eastern Peru. By investigating how trichromacy serves a morphologically and dietary generalized New World monkey this study may shed light on the selective pressures under which this visual configuration arose in early anthropoids, thereby offering insight into the origin and evolution of human perceptual abilities which appear so different from those of other mammals. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Rebecca Chancellor |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Ecology of Female Relationships in Wild Gray-Cheeked Mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
Funding is requested for the last 12 months of a 24 month field study that is investigating the ecological determinants of female social relationships in four groups of grey-cheeked mangabeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Systematic observations of feeding behavior, ranging behavior and social interactions between females will be recorded in conjunction with ecological measurements of food distribution at different spatial and temporal scales, to document the nature of female competitive relationships and to determine the scale of food distribution which is most predictive of agonistic interactions within groups. Examining food distribution in time and space relative to competitive interactions among mangabeys may provide clues about the social behavior of early hominids relying on foods with long food site depletion times. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Kate Detwiler |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Natural Hybridization Between Cercopithecus ascanius and C. mitis in Gombe National Park, Tanzania |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
Red-tailed (Cercopithecus ascanius) and blue monkeys (C. mitis) have hybridized for many years in Gombe NP, Tanzania, and hybrids are now well established as breeding members of the population. This research will test the hypothesis that unusual biogeographic and demographic conditions, combined with Gombe's distinctively structured landscape, are driving local populations of the two species towards genetic and behavioral integration. A field study will quantify the density of parental species and hybrids, and relate these to the distribution of forest habitat. If the Gombe guenons are evolving towards fusion the case has significant implications for interpreting the fossil record of human ancestors. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Jenna Lawrence |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Understanding the Pair Bond in Callicebus brunneus in Southeastern Peru |
| Research Country: |
Peru |
| Brief: |
Hypothesis explaining the occurrence of close male-female bonds in primates have centered on three categories of sex-specific benefits: joint defense of resources, male mating exclusitivity, and the delivery of male services that increases female reproductive success. This proposed 13 month study will attempt to differentiate among these potential benefits by examining the sensitivity of the bond between pair mates of the brown titi monkeys in Peruvian Amazonia. Specific questions in this study will be addressed with a novel combination of playback experiments and detailed behavioral and food-abundance data. This research may also shed light on the larger questions involving the evolution of monogamy in both human and non-human primates. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Amy Lu |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Social Stress in an Individualistic, Unstable Hierarchy |
| Research Country: |
Thailand |
| Brief: |
This study aims to evaluate the relationship between rank, behavior, and glucocorticoids (steriod hormones released in response to stress) in the individualistic unstable hierarchy of female Phayre's leaf monkeys in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thialand. The primary goals are to quantify behavioral stressors and coping mechanisms in high and low ranking females, and to evaluate how this distribution explains rank-related GC patterns. Individualistic, more egalitarian societies probably closely reflect the social environment of our ancestors to which our current physiology might still be adapted. It is hoped that this study adds understanding to the causes of stress in humans. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Martha Robbins |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Strategies of Diet Selection and Habitat Utilization of Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
This research proposes to understand the relative role that fruit and fibrous foods play in the strategies gorillas use to meet their nutritional needs in a variable environment. This study will test hypotheses concerning dietary selectivity, relationships between caloric intake and energy expenditure, and patterns of habitat utilization. in relation to temporal and spatial variability of food resources, focusing on four groups of habituated gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Examining the flexibility and efficiency of foraging patterns of one of our closest relatives will help further our understanding of the evolution of human dietary patterns and sociality. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Tara Stoinski |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Social Dynamics and Reproductive Strategies of Male Mountain Gorillas |
| Research Country: |
Rwanda |
| Brief: |
The goal of this study is to examine the consequences of variation in male association patterns on the social dynamics and reproductive strategies of mountain gorillas in the Volcanos National Park, Rwanda. Data collection consists of behavioral observations of all black-backed and silver-backed males and physiological samples of a larger subset of males in the population. Such data will further our knowledge of primate reproductive strategies, and, thus, may provide an understanding of how evolutionary forces influenced ancestral hominid reproductive strategies and behavior. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. John Wagner |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Humans |
| Project: |
Electroencephalography and Cognition Across the Lifespan Among the Ache (Paraguay) |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
This project applies electroencephalography (EEG) and other techniques to 1) document cognitive ontogeny and senescence patterns, 2) explore individual variance in cognitive performance, 3) evaluate the cultural relevance of some mental tasks, and 4) explore function in specific brain regions as they relate to important life skills among the Ache, forager-farmers of Paraguay. The ultimate objective is to develop a reliable assessment of cognition that can be applied in populations with ecologically variable conditions to delineate relevant parameters of human evolution. Investigating traditional groups is desireable in that human cognition emerged in the context of hunter-gatherer socioecology |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Millica Arandjelovic |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Dispersal Patterns and Population Genetic Variation in Wild Western Gorillas |
| Research Country: |
Germany |
| Brief: |
DNA will be extracted from fecal samples from western gorillas in two regions, the Nouabale-Ndoki forest and the Cross River region in Nigeria and Cameroon and analyzed in the Max Planck Institute labs in Germany. Comparisons of the patterns obtained using maternally and paternally inherited markers will allow inference of sex differences in dispersal and the effects of habitat fragmentation on dispersal. This information is relevant for evaluating the relative importance of sex-biased dispersal and mating systems in producing the pattern of genetic variation seen in modern human populations. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Anthony Di Fiore |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Preliminary Study of Socially-Monogamous Owl Monkeys (Aotus vociferans) in Ecuador |
| Research Country: |
Ecuador |
| Brief: |
This research focuses on evaluating the relative importance of paternal care, food distribution, and reproductive strategies in shaping monogamy in primates. The study is relevant to the mission of the Foundation in that it examines traits that characterize many traditional human societies and that play a role in models of early hominid social organization. This long-term project examines the origins and maintenance of monogamy in New World primates and requests further funding to expand their research to a previously unstudied primate, Aotus vociferans, in Ecuador for comparison with other taxa previously observed. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Nathaniel Dominy |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Genetics |
| Project: |
Functional Significance of Amylase Gene Duplications in Human Evolution |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
This proposal involves the evolution and functional significance of human amylase, the digestive enzyme responsible for starch hydrolysis. Specifically, this research seeks to achieve a greater understanding of why amylase expression varies to such a large degree across primates, and why the salivary amylase gene locus is a duplication "hotspot" in the human genome. Various molecular technigues will be employed to understand the relationship among duplicated genes, expression patterns, and catalytic activity. This study is relevant to the subject of human origins because it can shed insight into when and how humans began consuming foods requiring starch hydrolysis, such as tubers, roots and corms. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Antje Englehardt |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Function of Female Copulation Calls in Crested Black Macaques (Macaca nigra). |
| Research Country: |
Indonesia |
| Brief: |
The aim of this project is to investigate the ultimate functions and proximate regulation of female copulation calls in three groups of crested-black macaques living in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Combining behavioral observations, acoustic analysis and hormone analysis with playback experiments this research will identify the parameters causing variation in the acoustic features of these calls and clarify the effects these calls have on the calling female and other group members. This study will help to clarify the role of sexual signals in primate and human evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Melissa Gerald |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Color and Female Mating Preferences Amongst Unfamiliar Vervet Monkeys |
| Research Country: |
Barbados |
| Brief: |
The primary goal of this proposal is to assess whether female vervet monkeys attend to scrotal color differences between males, and whether they base mating preferences on color. To answer these questions, females' responses towards males of variable color will be evaluated during heterosexual paired introductions and during presentations of images of males digitally altered to vary according to a range of color hue, brightness and saturation measures. This study will be conducted at the Barbados Primate Research Center and could provide a comparative basis for understanding the possible ways human female mate choice affects the human mating system and the evolution of male traits. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Mariah Hopkins |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Spatial Foraging Patterns and Ranging Behavior of Alouatta palliata, Panam |
| Research Country: |
Panama |
| Brief: |
The primary objective of this research is to explore how spatial information - the distribution of resources and the locations of neighboring troops - affects mantled howler monkey movement patterns. Spatially-explicit models of primate movement will be compared to field data collected on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, through behavioral observations, radio telemetry and phenological sampling. Results will yield information on selective pressures that may have contributed to the evolution of intelligence within the primate order, while illuminating how a New World folivore-frugivore is able to expliot resources that are patchy in space and time. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. Kevin Potts |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Comparative Ecology of Two Chimpanzee Comminities in Kibale National Park |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
The objectives of this study are to determine the extent to which interpopulational variation in chimpanzee ecology and habitat use influence the size and cohesiveness of different communities in the population. Two sites at Ngogo and Kanyawara in Kibale National Park, Uganda, that differ in community size and demography as well as forest structure and composition will be studied. This research has implications for interpreting the range of adaptive strategies observed in wild chimpanzees, and for predicting relationships between ecological variables and grouping patterns of large-bodied and behaviorally flexible primates that would include extinct hominins |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Jennifer Siani |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Parent-Offspring Conflict in Wild Golden Lion Tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) |
| Research Country: |
Brazil |
| Brief: |
Using wild golden lion tamarins at Poco das Antas Biological Reserve, Brazil. this study aims to determine whether parents or offspring have more control over resource allocation. Using behavioral sampling and playback experiments, this research will determine how these monkeys allocate resources towards male versus female offspring, the impact on infant growth, adult body composition and activity budgets, and if infants can increase the quantity of parental investment. The goal is to provide evidence of parent-offspring conflict theory as well as the evolutionary origins of complex social dynamics related to the development and distribution of infact care within humans and non-human primates. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Volker Sommer |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Ant-Dipping and Food Abundance in Nigerian Chimpanzees |
| Research Country: |
Nigeria |
| Brief: |
The origins of cultural variation in humans will be better understood if compared with chimpanzees who also display a considerable diversity of social customs and technology. One cultural difference between chimpanzees is the dipping behavior aimed at army ants in terms of the length of tools employed as well as the methods used. New research has suggested that these differences are the result of differential aggressiveness of the ant species, that is, as a result of environmental constraints rather than cultural history. These assumptions will be tested in a chimpanzee community in Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Erin Vogel |
| Year/Semester: |
04/05 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Factors Affecting Geographic Variation in Orangutan Diets: An Eco-Cultural Investigation |
| Research Country: |
Indonesia |
| Brief: |
The objective of this study is to examine the hypothesis that orangutans possess an incipient culture; specifically, this study will test if geographic variation in foraging behavior is a product of cultural innovation or difference in food quality and abundance. Field studies will be conducted at five sites in Indonesia. This study is will produce insight regarding the kinds of food that select for culture and it will help model the environmental milieu in which ape culture began. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Maja Gaspersic |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Fongoli Chimpanzees and Baobab: From Percussion to Elementary Technolog |
| Research Country: |
Senegal |
| Brief: |
Behavioral adaptations of savanna chimpanzees have valuable implications for understanding responses of early hominins to similar environmental challenges. Foraging for baobab fruits by Fongoli chimpanzees will be studied via archaeological and experimental methods, complemented with behavioral data. Although percussive technology likely played an important part in the history of early human technological evolution and it is widespread among chimpanzees, it has not been studied to this date. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Clifford Jolly |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Baboons in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia: Contact and Hybridization |
| Research Country: |
Zambia |
| Brief: |
This study proposes to survey the distribution of greyfooted chacma, yellow (cynocephalus) and kinda baboons in central and eastern Zambia, and the contact zones between them. Individual phenotypes will be mapped across these areas, and fecal samples collected for analysis of mitochondrial and microsatellite variants. Results will provide fresh analogies that will help to break the current taxonomic impasse in the study of fossil hominins. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Sabrina Krief |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Pharmacological Determinants of Plant Selection by Chimpanzees in Kanyawara, Uganda |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
The aim is to investigate use and pharmacology of plants selected by both healthy and ill chimpanzees. Health and plant choice of Kanyawara chimpanzee community in the Kibale National Park will be monitored together with bioactivites and chemistry of plants ingested. Comparative data will be obtained from ethnobiological survey in surrounding area. The close phylogenetic relationship and the abundance of pathogens shared between chimpanzee and human make this study relevant in reconstructing plant choice of early hominids to improve their health. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Zarin Machanda |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Effects of Males on Female Feeding Success in Chimpanzees |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
The goal of this study is to understand how inter-sexual contest competition affects female chimpanzee feeding success. The research will be designed to examine the impact of male co-feeding by collecting several measurements of feeding success from females feeding in fruit trees with and without males at the Budongo Forest Reserve in Uganda. A better understanding of factors that influence chimpanzee social organization will improve our ability to reconstruct the behavior and social structure of early hominids. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. William McGrew |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Sex Differences in Faunivory of Wild Bonobos at Salonga |
| Research Country: |
Congo |
| Brief: |
The project aims to study sex differences in animal portion of diet of wild bonobos, Pan paniscus, at Lui Kotal, Salonga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Because subjects are only partly habituated, direct observations will be supplemented by indirect evidence, including fecal samples (amelogenin sex-typed). Results should shed light on alternative evolutionary strategies in modeling evolution of hominoid and hominin sexual division of labor. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Lauren Milligan |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Nonhuman Primate Milk Composition: Relationship to Phylogeny, Ecology and Ontogeny |
| Research Country: |
USA |
| Brief: |
The main objectives of this research are to examine the relationship among dietary adaptations, brain size, and milk composition in anthropoid primates and to directly address the hypothesis that human milk composition is species-specific. I will generate a comparative database by analyzing anthropoid milk for lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids at the nutrition Laboratory, National Zoological Park. This research will contribute to a finer understanding of the impact of dietary adaptations, specifically increased carnivory, on encephalization in the genus Homo. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Toni Morelli |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Genetics |
| Project: |
Olfactory Communication and Kin Recognition by Lemurs in Southeastern Madagascar |
| Research Country: |
Madagascar |
| Brief: |
This project proposes to investigate the use of olfaction as a cue for kin recognition and mate choice by collecting scent and blood samples from Propithecus edwardsi in southern Madagascar. This research will analyze the scent samples using an Analysis of Similarity and sequence the genetic samples at the major histocompatibility complex, a group of genes involved in immunity shown to affect individual recognition by humans. Research in other primates would clarify the importance of this ability and thus increase understanding of its function and of olfactory communication in humans. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Klara Petrzelkova |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Possible Role of Ciliate (Troglodytella abrassarti) in Chimpanzee Hind Gut Fermentation |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
Proposed project will be focused on studying fluctuation and seasonal dynamics of entodionimorph intestinal ciliate T. abrassarti (a possible symbiont participating fiber fermentation in hind gut) in wild chimpanzees of Kalinzu Forest Reserve (Uganda) in connection with seasonal changes of dietary fiber in their diet to prove symbiotic role of cilliates behavioral observation focused on feeding behavior and fiber analyses of ingested plants. This study will provide valuable insights into the evolution of human dietary practices and associated problems with limitations on the use of plant resources by early hominids. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Demelza Poe |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Prevalence of Osteoarthritis in Wild Versus Captive Great Apes |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
The objective of this research is to address whether the prevalence of osteoarthritis differs between wild and captive great ape skeletons. The study will examine the skeletons of wild and captive great apes located at 12 museums and research facilities via macroscopic observation utilizing an ordinal scale. The results could contribute to an understanding of the etiology and progression of the disease in great apes and humans, could improve our understanding of the disease from an evolutionary perspective, and may provide insights into improving the health and quality of life of captive apes. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Robert Sapolsky |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Social Rank and the Physiology of Anxiety Among Wild Baboons |
| Research Country: |
Kenya |
| Brief: |
This study proposes to investigate a) rank-related differences concerning the brain chemistry of anxiety, and b) how the social milieu of a troop can alter the relationship between rank and health. Stress-related diseases arise in humans (along with other social primates) primarily for psychosocial, rather than physical reasons; insofar as the evolution of the greatly expanded primate brain makes such psychosocial stressors possible, an understanding of the biology of resistance to psychosocial stress will contribute to our understanding of human evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. Jesse Young |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Evolutionary Implications of Primate Locomotor Development: A Longitudinal Study |
| Research Country: |
USA |
| Brief: |
This project will use longitudinal data on locomotor ontogeny and somatic development in two platyrrhine primates, Saimiri sciureus and Callithrix jacchus, as a model system to test previous theories of primate locomotor evolution. Several lines of evidence will be used, including kinematic/kinetic measures of locomotion, anatomical measures of growth and behavioral measures of neurological development. Because the unique dynamics of primate quadrupedal locomotion might have facilitated the transition to bipedal locomotion, greater understanding of non-human primate locomotor adaptation should permit a more formalized investigation of hominin locomotor evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Marina Cords |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Collective Action, Kinship and Reciprocity: Cooperation in Blue Monkeys |
| Research Country: |
Kenya |
| Brief: |
The proposed research focuses on the evolution of a fundamentally human trait, namely cooperation in collective action, which typifies modern humans and non-human primates, and likely human ancestors as well. Using territorial behavior by female blue monkeys as a model, I investigate the roles of maternal kinship, reciprocal behavioral exchange (especially with grooming behavior) and reputation in explaining variable participation by individuals. The subjects are members of four social groups in a long-studied Kenyan population where maternal kinship can be assessed through pedigree records and intergroup confrontations occur frequently. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Jessica Lodwick |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Western Gorilla Female Foraging and Sociality: Role of Contest Competition |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
Funds are requested to examine the impact of low levels of within-group contest competition (WGC) on female western gorilla foraging strategy and social relationships at the Mondika Research Center (CAR and Congo). The four objectives are to determine the: 1) strength and 2) mechanisms of WGC, 3) to what degree female social relationships reflect WGC competition and 4) factors that enhance or minimize the expression of WGC competition. This will be the first study of habituated western gorilla behavior based on direct observation It will fill a major gap in our knowledge of African ape behavioral ecology, critical for reconstructing patterns of African ape, hominid, and early hominin behavioral evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Charles Menzel |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Studies of Chimpanzee Spatial Cognition and Foraging |
| Research Country: |
USA |
| Brief: |
The aim of this research is to identify cognitive capabilities in chimpanzees that contribute to the solution of foraging problems. Lexigram-competent chimpanzees at Georgia State University will be tested for their ability to report the locations and features of goal objects that they saw hidden over a wide spatial extent. The ability to recall features of the environment not present to the senses is important in human thinking, planning, and communication, and this ability presumably had a major influence on the emergence and subsequent evolutionary development of humans, but to date there is little data on recall memory capabilities in nonverbal animals. |
|
| Grantee: |
Mr. George Perry |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Genetics |
| Project: |
The Evolutionary Significance of Human and Chimpanzee Copy-Number Variation |
| Research Country: |
USA |
| Brief: |
The objective of this research is to understand the evolution and significance of human and chimpanzee copy-number variation (large duplications and deletions of genomic sequence). Copy number variants will be identified in one chimpanzee and four human populations, and these data will be analyzed alongside nucleotide sequence variation data and gene expression data. This research is relevant to the study of human origins because it aims to test evolutionary hypotheses of human and chimpanzee copy-number variation and to identify specific copy-number variants that may be involved in uniquely human phenotypes. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Susan Perry |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Adolescence in Wild Cebus capucinus: Personality, Demography and Life History |
| Research Country: |
Costa Rica |
| Brief: |
The goal of this study is to determine how personality and early social experience influence adolescent white-faced capuchin monkeys' decisions about (and competence at) migrating, parenting and foraging. This study will be carried out at Lomas Barbudal, Costa Rica, and will build on a five-year developmental study, using behavioral sampling methods perfected in previous studies. Capuchins are convergent with humans and great apes regarding many traits: long life span, large brain size, alloparenting, frequent coalitionary lethal aggression, and social traditions. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Jill Pruetz |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Savanna Chimpanzee (Pan Troglodytes Verus) Ranging Ecology at Fongoli, Senegal |
| Research Country: |
Senegal |
| Brief: |
The objective of this study is to better understand ranging patterns of savanna-dwelling chimpanzees by studying this species at the Fongoli study site in Senegal. This will be accomplished by studying habituated adult male chimpanzees, using GPS and GIS technology to measure ranging behavior, and quantifying resources available to these chimpanzees to determine the effects of such a habitat on the ranging behaviors to apes. Results of this study will illustrate how hominoids respond, in terms of their ranging behavior, to the pattern of resources available to them in an open habitat, one that is similar to the mosaic habitat used by early hominids (bipedal apes). |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Amy Russell |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Genetics |
| Project: |
Evolutionary Genomics of Wild Chimpanzee Populations |
| Research Country: |
USA |
| Brief: |
The objectives of this study are to (1) investigate the comparative demographic histories of chimpanzee subspecies and (2) to assess the roles of sex-specific behaviors and physical features of the landscape in determining patterns of population connectivity across Africa. I will use genetic analyses of DNA from fecal and blood samples of all four subspecies, representing an unprecedented sampling effort in terms of the sample size, number of locations, and geographic range represented. This study will provide a maximally realistic model for understanding how (1) differences in dispersal and mating behaviors and (2) potential barriers to gene flow such as rivers and geographic distance may have influenced patterns of population connectivity in ancestral humans. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Sarah Turner |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Japanese Macaques, Physical Disability and the Evolution of Conspecific Care |
| Research Country: |
Japan |
| Brief: |
My goal is to understand the behavioral, social and physiological consequences of congenital limb malformations for adult female Japanese macaques in the free-ranging, provisioned group on Awaji Island, Japan. I will sample the behavior of disabled and non-disabled monkeys using 30-minute continuous time focal animal follows, in conjunction with fecal sampling to assess baseline cortisol levels. By describing the consequences of physical disability in terms of stress, individual and maternal behavior, and the relationships between disabled and non-disabled monkeys, this research will contribute to understanding the origins of conspecific care in human and nonhuman primates. |
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| Grantee: |
Mr. Brian Wood |
| Year/Semester: |
05/06 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Humans |
| Project: |
Hadza Male Food Production, Transfers, and Household Provisionin |
| Research Country: |
Tanzania |
| Brief: |
The research proposed herein will test whether Hadza males produce provisioning advantages for their households. Using quantitative data of food production, distributions, and consumption, this study will additionally test whether reciprocity, tolerated theft, or costly signaling account for variation in food transfers and levels of male household provisioning. This research will contribute significantly to our understanding of the origins and behavioral ecology of the sexual division of labor among the Hadza. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Sholly Gunter |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Sexual Conflict: Female Choice and Male Coercion in Chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale NP, ganda |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
I will investigate female mate choice and male sexual coercion in an extraordinarily large group of chimpanzees at Ngogo, Kibale NP. I will collect data from estrus females to investigate: 1)Do reproductive tactics change based on a female's ovulatory status, 2)Do females prefer certain males, 3) Are preferences based on potential benefits, 4)Can females exert preferences and bias offspring paternity, 5)Does male sexual coercion preclude female choice? The results of my research could strengthen arguments regarding the roots of patriarchy, and highlight the role of sexual conflict by emphasizing the importance of sexual coercion in the evolution of behavior. |
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| Grantee: |
Dr. Peter Henzi |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Group Coordination and Distributed Cognition in De Hoop Chacma Baboons |
| Research Country: |
South Africa |
| Brief: |
We will investigate mechanisms by which baboons determine their daily routes and the extent to which coordination derives from individual use of local cues. We will do so at De Hoop, South Africa, using GPS data in conjunction with later agent-based models, to map individual baboon travel routes and activity in fine detail. This assessment of the 'distributed' nature of primate cognition underpins a different view of how hominid brains responded to selection pressures for increased processing capacity. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Amanda Melin |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Color Vision and Frugivory in Costa Rican Capuchin Monkeys |
| Research Country: |
Costa Rica |
| Brief: |
My objective is to assess the importance of color vision for primate frugivory. I will observe three groups of habituated capuchins in Santa Rosa National Park and quantify the colors of fruits, leaves, ambient light as well as collect ecological data on the food trees. This study is relevant to the study of human origins since understanding the form and function of color vision in human and non-human primates will provide insight into the evolutionary pressures that have shaped their visual ecology. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Kerry Ossi |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Survival, Skill-Learning and Growth in Juvenile Leaf monkeys in Thailand |
| Research Country: |
Thailand |
| Brief: |
This project will examine the ecological, social and physical development of juvenile Phayre's leaf monkeys to better understand the coordination of skill acquisition, risk avoidance and growth. At Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand, behavioral data on juveniles and adults will be collected via focal sampling, mechanical and nutritional properties of foods will be tested using a field kit and lab analyses, and monthly measures of limb lengths will be obtained via digital photogrammetry. This research on the acquisition of ecological and social competence will offer insight into the functional aspects of long juvenility and slow life history, traits most distinctive among humans. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Marie Pele |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Reciprocal Altruism and Bartering Capacities in Monkeys and Great Apes |
| Research Country: |
Various |
| Brief: |
This project aims at identifying precisely the cognitive mechanisms underlying cooperative phenomenon and reciprocity in non-human primates. Exchange experiments in monkeys (Strasbourg, France) and great apes (Leipzig, Germany) will allow us to highlight cognitive abilities in each species. Thus, comparative studies of these cognitive capacities may be a prerequisite to understand further how evolution and natural selection may have shaped economic skills as those observed in humans. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Sarie Van Belle |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Socioendocrine Mechanisms of Male Reproductive Skew in Alouatta pigra |
| Research Country: |
Mexico |
| Brief: |
This study will investigate the socioendrocine mechanisms underlying the partitioning of reproduction among male black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) at Palenque National Park, Mexico. We will examine the relationship between social behavior and testosterone and cortisol levels to assess male reproductive strategies, and how female mate choice affects male reproductive opportunities by mapping sexual behavior onto estradiol and progesterone profiles. Black howlers have several socioecological parallels with gorillas, and provide an opportunity to evaluate the variation of factors influential in reproductive skew between distantly related primate taxa. |
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| Grantee: |
Mr. Kyleb Wild |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - FallPrimates |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Do Kanyawara Female Chimpanzees Resist Male Dominance at Kibale, Uganda? |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
This project will study female chimpanzee behavioral strategies for tolerating, reinforcing, and resisting aggressive male dominance. The study will be conducted on the Kanyawara community, in Kibale National Park, Uganda using focal follows of the well habituated female chimpanzees. This research will provide an understanding of the conditions that promote or limit female resistance, and these results can be used as a comparative perspective to help understand the development of male domination and female subordination in human evolutionary history. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Akie Yanagi |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Fall |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Play signaling in Free-Ranging Rhesus Macaques on Cayo Santiago |
| Research Country: |
Puerto Rico |
| Brief: |
This project will investigate possible functions of play signals for reducing potential risks of play in 20 free-ranging rhesus monkey yearlings on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Thirty minute focal animal sampling and a modified PC-MC methodology (to be called PS-MC methodology) will be used to test hypotheses about the use of play signals to communicate about different types of play, to get the attention of players at different distances and/or to reduce the probability of negative social outcomes. This project relates to the origins of human social intelligence by shedding light on several aspects of nonhuman primate social cognition, e.g., referential communication, social knowledge and social foresight. |
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| Grantee: |
Dr. Jacinta Beehner |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Sizing Up Potential Rivals and Mates in Wild Geladas |
| Research Country: |
Ethiopia |
| Brief: |
Our study of sexual selection in a wild population of geladas is focused on the interplay between "shorthand" traits that may indicate individual quality on the one hand, and individual recognition (and reputation) on the other. Geladas have unusually large groups and conspicuous visual and vocal displays, raising the question: do geladas assess one another based on quality, identity, or both? This question is relevant for hominid origins because, like geladas, humans live in large, complex social groups where individual recognition may not extend to all individuals they regularly encounter. |
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| Grantee: |
Dr. Anthony Di Fiore |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Kinship, Behavior, and Social Structure in Western Amazonian Ateline Primates |
| Research Country: |
Ecuador |
| Brief: |
This research project will examine the links between kinship, individual behavior, and population genetic structure in two South American ateline primates, woolly and spider monkeys. The study will be conducted at one of my long-term research sites in Yasuni National Park, Ecuador and will combine focal behavioral data with assessments of genetic relatedness among individuals gleaned from PCR-based microsatellite genotyping. The striking convergences between ateline primates and African great apes in several features of social organization (e.g., female exogamy, strong male-male bonds, relaxed male mating competition) make them an interesting and independent, set of model organisms within which to investigate questions about the evolution of behavior and social structure in our human ancestors. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Kathryn Fawcett |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Social Behavior and Reproductive Strategies of Female Mountain Gorillas |
| Research Country: |
Rwanda |
| Brief: |
The study proposes to capitalize on new demographic conditions (larger group size, increased number of males and females) in the three research groups of mountain gorillas living in Rwanda to determine: 1) if increases in group size are associated with increases in intragroup feeding competition; 2) the effects of (presumed) increases in feeding competition on female social behavior as predicted by the socioecological model; 3) female reproductive strategies aimed at decreasing infant mortality from infanticide. Data collection will consist of behavioral and hormonal sampling of females (N=42). Data detailing the relationship between demographic change and social and reproductive behavior in great apes are important for refining our theoretical models of primate socioecology as well as for building models about the origins of human sociality. |
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| Grantee: |
Ms. Clara Scarry |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Functions and Consequences of Intergroup Aggression in Argentine Tufted Capuchins |
| Research Country: |
Argentina |
| Brief: |
In many primate species, encounters between neighboring social groups are frequently aggressive, but the functions of these interactions remain poorly understood. The proposed study will examine the functions and consequences of between-group aggressive encounters among tufted capuchin monkeys at Iguazii National Park, Argentina, using both naturalistic observations and playback experiments. Identifying the functions of intergroup aggression will help to clarify the effects of between-group competition for the evolution of primate social behavior, including modern humans. |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Marissa Sobolewski |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
Hormonal Correlates of Chimpanzee Social Behavior |
| Research Country: |
Uganda |
| Brief: |
I will conduct an integrated field and laboratory study to investigate the behavioral endocrinology of adult male chimpanzees living in an unusually large community at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. I will collect behavioral observations in the field and perform endocrine assays in the laboratory to obtain data necessary to test hypotheses designed in order to examine the endocrine correlates of adult male chimpanzee social behavior. By clarifying behavioral similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees, results of this research promise to furnish new data to reconstruct the behavior of our human ancestors. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Beverly I. Strassmann |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Humans |
| Project: |
Life History, Menopause and Grandmothering in the Dogon of Mali |
| Research Country: |
Republic of Mali |
| Brief: |
This project will use demographic interviews and anthropometry to test the mother hypothesis against the grandmother hypothesis for the maintenance of menopause in the Dogon of the Bandiagara Cliff in Mali, West Africa. Menopause is a characteristically human life history trait and only by studying the maintenance of this trait in contemporary populations can we shed light on its evolutionary origins. My objectives are to ask: (1) Does a woman's age at death affect the number of her surviving grandoffspring?, (2) After controlling for differences in fertility and offspring survival between women, does the effect of a woman's age at death on the survival of her grandoffspring still persist?, and (3) Does parental and grandparental survival affect children's growth in middle childhood (ages 7 to 13 years)? |
|
| Grantee: |
Ms. Larissa Swedell |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Primates |
| Project: |
The Role of Follower Males in Hamadryas Society |
| Research Country: |
Ethiopia |
| Brief: |
Within the unique multi-tiered, male-dominated society of hamadryas baboons, some one-male units (OMUs) include follower males, males who consistently associate with a particular OMU, but it is not clear how follower males benefit from their role nor why leader males even tolerate them. In this study, three years of behavioral, genetic, and hormonal data will be used to elucidate patterns of interaction, kinship, and hormonal profiles among follower males and other individuals in hamadryas OMUs at the Filoha site in Ethiopia, with the goal of explaining the role of follower males in hamadryas society. Results of this research will contribute to the study of human origins in that they will improve our understanding of social, sexual, and parental roles in baboons, which are often used as models for human social evolution. |
|
| Grantee: |
Dr. Robert Walker |
| Year/Semester: |
06/07 - Spring |
| Subcategory: |
Humans |
| Project: |
Investigation of Growth and Life History in the Hiwi of Venezuela
|
| Research Country: |
Venezuela |
| Brief: |
The main objective of this project is to assess growth rates and life history traits of the Hiwi hunter-gatherers of Venezuela to add to data collected in 1985-92. This project is important because data concerning rates of mortality, fertility and growth are unfortunately quite rare for foraging populations, and yet vital for answering many important questions concerning the evolution and maintenance of human life history traits. |
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