Welcome to UNC Charlotte's Primate Behavioral Ecology Lab!
Our lab acknowledges and stands in solidarity with those who are fighting all forms of racism, sexism, ablism, homophobia/transphobia, the unlawful killings of Black people across the US, systemic racism, institutionalized violence,and inequities both inside and outside academia. We strive to make primatology and other areas of anthropology safe and supportive for all people, but especially BIPOC and LGBTQ+ researchers. As primatologists engaging with professionals from different cultures across the world, we see this as an opportunity to facilitate conversations between different groups and to bolster the participation of habitat-country researchers in an effort to decolonize primate conservation.
The Primate Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Lab at UNC Charlotte focuses on spatial ecology and vocalizations of nonhuman primates. While much of our work to date involves the white-handed gibbons living in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand, students have also worked with captive populations at US-based facilities including the International Primate Protection League, the Lemur Conservation Foundation's Myakka City Lemur Reserve, and the Duke Lemur Center.
The Primate Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Lab at UNC Charlotte focuses on spatial ecology and vocalizations of nonhuman primates. While much of our work to date involves the white-handed gibbons living in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand, students have also worked with captive populations at US-based facilities including the International Primate Protection League, the Lemur Conservation Foundation's Myakka City Lemur Reserve, and the Duke Lemur Center.
Who's Who in the Lab
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Primary Investigators
Dr. Lydia E. O. Light My research interests focus on the behavioral ecology of living primates, examining the ecological and biological factors that may have influenced life in our own deep evolutionary past. I am interested in exploring ecological explanations for within-species behavioral and dietary variation as well as the evolution of pair-bonds and pair-living social systems. For my dissertation, I combined behavioral data collection techniques with remote sensing and GIS methods to examine how gibbons, small endangered apes living in Southeast Asia, cope with challenging ecological conditions through modifications in ranging behavior, diet, and social behavior. My earlier work has examined nutritional stress during pregnancy and lactation and mother-infant interactions in captive baboons. Graduate Students Sarah Dameron I am a second-year student in the MA program in Anthropology at UNC Charlotte. I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Biological Anthropology from William Peace University in 2013. After graduating, I took graduate courses through a non-degree studies program in forensic anthropology, osteology, statistics, biology, and primatology while working as an Anthropology tutor and Biological Anthropology lab assistant. I decided to pursue an education in primatology in part because I was able to volunteer and work as a Husbandry Intern with the Duke Lemur Center. I am interested in primate conservation and vocalizations, and am currently working on my Master’s thesis, titled “The effects of meteorological variables on the great calls of white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) in Western Thailand." Celeste Lam I am a second-year graduate student at UNC Charlotte in the Anthropology MA program. I graduated in May 2019 with my B.Sc. in Psychology from UNC Charlotte. I am hoping to pursue a career in research, specifically mother-infant relationships, interactions, and infant development in wild populations of nonhuman primates, especially in the context of habituation, the spread of human activity, and climate change. I plan to conduct future research on wild populations that are both located far from human populations as well as populations neighboring highly urbanized areas. With these research interests, I plan to obtain a PhD in Biological Anthropology with a focus in nonhuman primates. Abby Richardson I am an undergraduate student at UNC Charlotte and an early entry graduate student in the Anthropology MA program. As an undergraduate, I am pursuing a BA in Biology with minors in Environmental Sciences and Anthropology. I am still exploring research interests in primatology, but I plan to do gibbon research in Thailand and incorporate my background in environmental sciences and ecology into my work. My overall goal with my education and research is to explore the complex interactions that non-human primates have with their environment and the interconnectedness between habitat and behavior. My first field experience was with Dr. Light's Primate Behavioral Ecology course at the Lemur Conservation Foundation. This course taught me valuable skills in primate research and was ultimately the reason why I decided to apply for the graduate program. Lab Volunteers Zachary Burgen I am a current student at the University of North Carolina Charlotte studying operations and supply chain management with a minor in anthropology. I have always loved archaeology and took some introductory fieldwork classes when I was younger. In those classes, I noticed areas that could be improved such as transport, data management, and supply logistics. In my first year of college, I decided to major in operations and minor in anthropology in order to get a better understanding of how to move supplies and people internationally. Additionally, there are many new and exciting technological advances that are being used in logistics that can be applied to archaeology businesses moving resources around the globe. My goal is to graduate and gain experience in global logistics, then take what I have learned and apply it to archeological project logistics. Jessica Jacobs My research interests focus mainly on paleoanthropology, primatology, and neuroanthropology, using modern primate data and anatomical information from fossil findings to learn more about what life was like for Paleolithic hominins. I’m interested in exploring the way in which anatomically modern human brains diverged from other primate brains in our evolutionary past and the special cognitive abilities enabled by these changes. My secondary research interests include cognitive ethology, genomics, and ethnography and I’d like to incorporate concepts from these fields of study into my current and future research. In the past, I’ve conducted field work on pre-revolutionary Catawba excavations in and around the Carolinas. I plan on conducting research on various primate species in the future and I hope to pursue a career within paleoanthropology. Former Lab Members Margaret Sobaszek Maggie received her BA in Anthropology in 2017 and an MA in Anthropology in 2019 from UNC Charlotte. She conducted her thesis research on ranging patterns of white-handed gibbons living at Dr. Light's field site in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand. Her thesis is titled, "Moving right along: The effect of habitat type on ranging patterns in white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) in Western Thailand." Philip Corbett Phil received his BA in Anthropology in 2019 and an MA in Anthropology in 2021 from UNC Charlotte. His thesis research focused on captive lemur parasitology and the title of his MA thesis is "A pilot study of GI parasite diversity in two U.S. captive free-ranging lemur populations." Outside of his research, he has interests in conservation, human/animal disease transfer, and nocturnality. His first field experience was during the summer of 2018 when he assisted Dr. Light with her gibbon research in Thailand. He hopes to work with various other species in the future. |
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