Welcome to Duke University’s blog for primate info. Faculty and students in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology are hard at work studying how and why primates think, act and walk the way they do. Since many primates, including all of our fellow great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans) are endangered, we are also concerned about primate conservation. Check out this site to see what we are doing to spread the word about primates.
Check the “From the Field” page to read blogs by graduate student Kara Schroepfer who has recently arrived at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where she is studying chimpanzee behavior.
About dukeprimate
About Kara Schroepfer:
I’ll be spending the next 2.5 months on the shores of Lake Tanganyika studying the chimpanzees of Gombe. I’ve lived in East Africa before and have studied chimpanzees & bonobos in sanctuaries in Congo and baboons and Red Colobus in the field but never before have I seen or studied wild chimps nor have I been to western Tanzania. While here I will be following adolescent females to learn about female dispersal. Most female chimps leave their natal group when they reach maturity to reproduce in a neighboring group. However, some decide to stay, especially at Gombe. I will be gathering data to answer questions related to the behavioral, physiological and ecological changes that occur during dispersal and/or settlement into their adult communities. In the end, if all goes as planned, this will turn into my doctoral dissertation.
Duke Primate Outreach 