Lab Director: Katharine Jack
Current Graduate Students
Margaret Buehler joined our Ph.D. program in August 2017. She completed her master’s degree at Northern Illinois University, with her thesis “Inter-sexual social interaction in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica. Her dissertation examines the role of subordinate males in social groups of white-faced capuchins in Santa Rosa.
Danielle Kulick, Co-advised with Dr. Amanda Melin (University of Calgary). Nelle began her PhD in 2021
after completing her B.S. in Environmental Biology and Anthropology at Tulane in 2020. Her research interests span the topics of primate social behavior, sensory ecology, conservation biology, and understanding the effects of forest regeneration and climate change on wild capuchins in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica.
Email: dkulick1@tulane.edu; Twitter: @nellekulick
Nick Chapoy started the Anthropology PhD program at Tulane in the fall of 2022. He earned an MRes in primate biology,behavior, and conservation from Roehampton University (2021) in London and a B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Montana (2015). He has spent the last several years as a research assistant working on primate research projects, including chimpanzees and mountain gorillas in Uganda, woolly monkeys in Ecuador, and capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica. Nick’s research interests include how male sociality influences vocal communication in wild capuchin monkeys living in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica.
Email: nchapoy@tulane.edu; Twitter: @nickchapoy
Celeste Lam is beginning her P.hD. this fall, and we are thrilled to be welcoming her to our lab and to Tulane. Celeste earned a B.Sc. in Psychology (2019) and an MA in Anthropology (2022) from UNC Charlotte. During her undergraduate years, she interned at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and participated in the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy field school in Costa Rica. Her research interests encompass cross-species conflict, community ecology, and the impact of anthropogenic food on wild primate populations, particularly in relation to behaviors, health, and physiology.
Current undergraduate lab members:
It’s summer time! Congrats to our most recent graduates of Tulane. We are fortunate enough to have two undergraduate students, Hubert Mendez and Evelyn Howard, joining us this summer in Costa Rica to help us collect data on a number of ongoing projects. Are you an undergraduate student at Tulane University interested in joining our lab? See the contact tab for more information!
Former Graduate Students:
Lauren Brasington, Ph.D. 2020. Countering infanticide: New perspectives on sexual conflict in white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator). Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University.
Gillian King-Bailey, Ph.D. 2019. The behavior and endocrinology of dominance in female white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus imitator) in Sector Santa Rosa, Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Current Position: Graduate Student Research Liason, Sonoma State University.
Valerie Schoof, Ph.D. 2013; Behavior and reproductive endocrinology of male white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in the Santa Rosa Sector of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica; Current Position: Associate Professor, York Research Chair in Primate Behavioural Endocrinology, Glendon College, York University.
Bryan Lenz, Ph.D. 2013; The effects of cattle ranching on a primate community in the Central Amazon; American Bird Conservancy, Bird City Americas Director and Glass Collision Program Manager.
Claire Sheller, M.A. 2009
Kristen Ritchotte, M.A. 2015
Zdanna King, M.A. 2009
Andrew Childers, M.A. 2008
Former undergraduate lab members:
Michaela Brown, Class of 2021, Anthropology.
Sophie Lieber, Class of 2021. Double major in Anthropology and Art.
Zachary Bisconti, Class of 2020, Double major in Biological Anthropology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Nathalie Clarke, Class of 2020. Double major in Biological Anthropology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Aaron Friedman Class of 2016. B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science.
Mikayla Stern-Ellis Class of 2017. Double major in Biological Anthropology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Stephen Cortese, Class of 2018. Double majoring in neuroscience and evolutionary biology
Co-directors of the Santa Rosa Primate Project:
Linda Fedigan | Katharine Jack | Amanda Melin
Current Collaborators:
Fernando Campos | Linda Fedigan | Urs Kalbitzer | Dr. Shoji Kawamura | Jessica Lynch-Alfaro | Amanda Melin | Valerie Schoof | Stacey Tecot | Eva Wikberg |
Official sites for SNRP and ACG (in Spanish):
Santa Rosa National Park | Area de Conservación Guanacaste