NYCEP Research in Behavioral Ecology and Conservation

NYCEP core faculty members Cords (Columbia), Di Fiore (NYU), Jolly (NYU), Oates (CUNY) and Swedell (CUNY) all supervise long-term, interdisciplinary projects investigating the behavior, ecology, and population genetics of wild primate populations at several sites in Africa and in the New World. These projects combine behavioral studies with molecular approaches and conservation concerns, and have forged interdisciplinary collaborative ties both among NYCEP faculty and students and with researchers abroad. WCS has long supported its own and other field workers engaged in conservation-related studies of behavioral ecology, and NYCEP faculty member McCann (a CUNY Ph.D.) has recently co-supervised a NYCEP dissertation combining these topics (Williams-Guillén).

Marina Cords has conducted research on the behavioral ecology of Cercopithecus monkeys at Kakamega Forest (Kenya) for over 20 years. In addition to her own students' work on these primates, the genetics of her study population have been studied by students of Melnick (Columbia) and Disotell (Detwiler, Fashing). Cords has also trained Kenyan researchers in field methods, and, in one case, also at the doctoral level (Gathua). Another recent Cords student (Warfield) conducted field work on Cayo Santiago.

Tony Di Fiore's interdisciplinary research project (Proyecto Primates) in Amazonian Ecuador studies several of the species comprising the diverse primate community. Di Fiore collaborates closely with Disotell and Jolly on the molecular aspects of these projects, as well as with geneticists from Ecuador and Brazil. Di Fiore and E. Fernandez-Duque (Fundacion ECO, an Argentinean conservation NGO) have recently developed the first Latin American Primate Conservation Biology field course to train students from several Latin American countries in field methods for the study of primate behavior and ecology, offered for the first time in Argentina in the summer of 2003. Students such as Spehar are beginning to undertake dissertation research at this site.

John Oates has worked for decades on rainforest fauna conservation in West Africa, in collaboration with WCS, Disotell, Melnick and various NYCEP students. His students have worked at a variety of sites on a wide range of projects (see Bergl, Gonder, Matsuda, MacFarland, and Werre; Whittaker is undertaking similar work in Indonesia).

Larissa Swedell's research focuses on the behavior, ecology, and genetics of a population of wild hamadryas baboons in the lowlands of Ethiopia (The Filoha Hamadryas Project). Her research involves current and planned collaboration with other NYCEP faculty (Jolly, Disotell, Di Fiore); former NYCEP graduate students now based elsewhere (Newman, Woolley-Barker), African primatologists (Getenet Hailemeskel, Julian Saunders, Teklu Tesfaye), and current NYCEP graduate students (Hagell, Hailemeskel, Schreier).

Roberto Delgado recently joined the faculty of Hunter College-CUNY. His research focuses on female mate choice and male long calls in orangutans and the evolution of great ape and human life-history patterns.

Cliff Jolly has supervised a number of NYU dissertations on primate behavior and ecology in addition to those on Awash baboons (Mehrhof, Lappan, Schlotterhausen, Williams-Guillén). One recent CUNY cognitive behavior student (Cunningham) was supervised by Swartz, who holds joint appointments in Anthropology and Psychology.