Amy is a co-director of the Simien Mountains Gelada Research Project, located in the Simien Mountains National Park, in Northern Ethiopia. The gelada population in the Simien Mountains was originally studied by Robin Dunbar in the 1970s. In 2005, Drs. Jacinta Beehner and Thore Bergman began the first long-term project in the area, establishing the Simien Mountains Gelada Research Project (formally known as the University of Michigan Gelada Research Project). Since then, the project has ballooned to incorporate 4 co-directors (including Amy), 5 postdocs, and numerous graduate students from the University of Michigan, Stony Brook University, and the University of Arizona. Our research project has also accumulated 19 years of long-term data on the demography, behavior, genetics, and physiology on adult and immature geladas.
The Simien Mountains is an amazing place to conduct research. To date, we follow over 21 reproductive units embedded in bands of more than 200 individuals. The monkeys are terrestrial, so it is relatively easy to acquire detailed and accurate data on behavior. Similarly, fecal and urine samples for the analysis of DNA (host, parasite, microbial), hormones, and immune biomarkers are relatively easy to collect. |
Despite the relative ease of data collection, conducting research on geladas presents its own set of unique challenges. Following over 200 known individuals (>80 immatures) across 21 social units means that there are simply more faces to learn and recognize. Depending on the experience of the observer and the number of subjects involved in a research project, it may take anywhere from one to several months to learn most of the individuals. Furthermore, although geladas are terrestrial, they live at extremely high altitudes. Our study site is located approximately 11,000 feet above sea level, and the air is very thin, so following monkeys is not as easy as it appears.
Nevertheless, the Simien Mountain geladas have been the subjects of a plethora of past and on-going research projects, ranging from those related to sexual selection and communication, to projects related to reproduction, development, aging, and life history. Amy’s current research on this population focuses on biological and social aging in female geladas. |
Amy is also co-director of the Kaludiyapokuna Primate Conservation and Research Project. Kaludiyapokuna is a unique forest fragment in which two sympatric Colobines coexist: the highly ‘weedy’ tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam) that has successfully colonized anthropogenic habitats across northern and central Sri Lanka, and the endemic purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetelus), which is highly endangered and rapidly going extinct. Early feeding ecology studies on both species were conducted by Dr. Rajnish Vandercone in 2008-2009 (University of Rajarata, Sri Lanka). In January 2018, Amy, Rajnish, and Roberta Salmi (University of Georgia) began a long-term study on the two langur species in the area. Today the project has 4 co-directors, including Amy, Rajnish, Roberta, and Liz Mallott (Washington University).
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