Last week, we had an opportunity to visit the macaques at Trentham Monkey Forest, a park housing around 130 Barbary macaques in a large forested area. This visit was part of the elective module on Comparative Social Behaviour and Cognition offered to second year Psychology students at the University of Lincoln. At the park we enjoyed watching […]
Conservation in action
Last week the Moroccan Primate Conservation Foundation, a ONG with which we collaborate on a number of projects, has given 30 combination oven/cooker/heater units to families living in the forest around Azrou. These units were made locally and funded by funded by Burgers Zoo in Holland in partnership with Ifrane National Park. The use of […]
Successful PhD viva
Sandra Molesti has successfully defended her PhD thesis last week, passing the viva with minor changes. Sandra’s thesis focuses on grooming exchange and cooperation in the Barbary macaque, a topic that has important implications for our understanding of human social evolution. Sandra had an international panel for her viva, composed of Dr Gabriele Schino (CNR, […]
Using Barbary macaques to get kids excited about science
I was invited to speak at an elementary school to third year students about Barbary macaques for “Scientist in the School” Day. The aim of this program is to introduce students to different branches of science, challenge children’s perceptions of what a “scientist” is and does, introduce them to current issues, and get them excited […]
New paper on post-grooming anxiety
A new paper from our team has been published in Animal Behaviour. The paper looks at anxiety following grooming in wild Barbary macaques. This paper is the first one to assess post-grooming anxiety in the donor and recipient of the same grooming interactions in a wild non-human primate species. Two males grooming Reference: Molesti, S. […]