Current Research
am a field-based scientist, and have worked at my primary field site, Kibale National Park, Uganda, since 1991. Of Kibale’s many vertebrate species, there I have studied one ape species (Pan troglodytes), two colobine monkeys (Colobus guereza, Procolobus badius), and three cercopithecine monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius, C. mitis, and Lophocebus albigena), as well as a diversity of avian frugivores (e.g., Sturnidae, Bucerotidae, Columbidae). I have also studied the recruitment and regeneration of a diversity of Kibale’s 200+ angiosperm trees. My ecological data set from Uganda is complemented by comparative data I garner from other rain forests in the Paleo- and Neotropics, by physiological (especially digestive) data I collect on captive primates under experimental conditions, and by plant chemical and nutritional data that colleagues (namely, Dr. Colin Chapman) and I collect in the laboratory.
I have a number of research projects either underway or currently in development. Examples of these include:
• Carbohydrate fermentation and short-chain fatty acid profiles in gorillas, chimpanzees, and African Cercopithecoidea (in collaboration with Dr. Vivek Fellner, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Zoological Park)
• Ecophysiology of digestive microbial communities in the Catarrhini of Kibale (with Dr. Vivek Fellner, North Carolina State University)
• Seed removal by frugivore coteries and cascading effects on forest regeneration – the role of primates relative to birds in African forests (on-going, data analysis underway)
• Using information on extant patterns of nutritional ecology and feeding morphology and plasticity to explicate the evolution of niche structure and mechanisms of coexistence amongst closely related, sympatric species (on-going, data analysis underway)
• Consumption and uptake of protein in simple and complex-stomached primates (with Drs Colin Chapman & Jessica Rothman, McGill University)
• Evaluation of frugivorous Carnivora digestive adaptations and their convergence with primates; research on binterrongs (Arctictis binturong) and Kinkajou (Potos flavus). (in collaboration with Adam Hartstone-Rose, Duke University, and the Carnivore Preservation Trust).