Jane E. Phillips-Conroy, Ph.D.

DEPARTMENT OF Anatomy & Neurobiology
Keywords: behavior, ecology, population biology, primate, adaptation

Our studies of free-ranging primates are focused on how behavioral, demographic and ecological variables function to influence population structure. My research has focused on long-term field studies of baboons in two geographical areas: a hybrid zone between olive and hamadryas baboons in Ethiopia (Papio hamadryas, s.l.) and a population of yellow baboons in Tanzania in Mikumi National Park. We trap and tag as many individuals as possible and examine a broad range of biological features, which we consider in their ecological and behavioral contexts. Our research also addresses the more general question of variation, distribution, adaptation and speciation within the genus Papio as a whole. Since 2004 we have shifted the center of our research south to Zambia, whose baboons are little studied and poorly known. We have located a hybrid zone between grey-footed chacma baboons and yellow baboons along the Luangwa valley, and suspect that this hybrid zone also incorporates kinda baboon genes as well, making it the only workable three-way baboon hybrid zone in Africa.

We have also collected similar data on the vervet monkeys, Chlorocebus aethiops, which are sympatric with the Ethiopian baboons in the Awash National Park, and an ancillary project has been to study the primates of Guyana.