RESEARCH
RESEARCH
My main research interests are in the behavioural ecology of primates and other large mammals. My primary focus concerns understanding the decisions animals make about their social and reproductive strategies and combines field studies with theoretical analyses based on modelling. In particular I am interested in the ecological determinants of group size and the importance of predation risk in primate behaviour. I run the Primate & Predator Project at the Lajuma Research Centre in the Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa, and have previously managed other projects in South Africa based at De Hoop Nature Reserve and in the Kruger National Park. My postgraduate students have conducted projects across southern Africa, and increasingly our work is examining mammalian conservation and human-wildlife conflict from an interdiscplinary perspective. I also have interests in applying evolutionary principles to explore a number of different aspects of human behaviour, particularly in understanding the role of the colour red in human competitive interactions.
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
2. MammalWeb
2. Seeing red: the role of colour in human competitive interactions
PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. Socioecology of terrestrial primates in Kruger National Park
2. Cercopithecine models of human evolution
3. Cape mountain zebra conservation
