Hot Topics in Primate Welfare

For the last quarter of 2024, we are featuring the awardee of the first Melinda Novak Welfare Grant, Tabor Whitney, and her project, “Associations between ecological attributes, the gut microbiome, and glucocorticoid metabolites, and their impact on the welfare of Mexican mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata mexicana) in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico.” Ms. Whitney is a […]

Here, we highlight an important collaboration that emerged between the American Society of Primatologists (ASP) and the Association of Primate Veterinarians (APV) known as the APV-ASP Working Group. The Working Group is comprised of equal numbers of APV primate veterinarians and ASP primate behavioral scientists. The mission of the Working Group is to foster collaboration […]

For this quarter’s Hot Topics in primate welfare, ASP is featuring the use of touchscreens, a tool that opens new avenues for research and enrichment that can be used across settings and species. We interviewed three primatologists who use touchscreens as part of their research and welfare programs, including Dr. Chris Martin, Dr. Gill Vale, […]

For the first quarter of 2024, ASP’s Hot Topics in Primate Welfare is featuring the research of Negin Valizadegan, who won the ASP Primate Welfare Award in 2022 for her project titled: “Blood microbiome compositions in humans and captive non-human primates and their variations in sensitivity to bacterial molecules.” Dr. Valizadegan has a PhD in […]

For this quarter of Hot Topics in primate welfare, we are featuring the work of the two winners of the ASP Primate Welfare Award from the 45th annual meeting in Reno, Nevada: Dr. Natalie Castell and Dr. Andrew Haertel. Dr. Natalie Castell Dr. Natalie Castell, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, won […]

For this quarter of Hot Topics in primate welfare, we are featuring the research of Dr. Raquel Costa, Postdoctoral Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the Japan Monkey Center. Dr. Costa studies gorilla-human interactions in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. In the work we are featuring here, Dr. Costa […]

For the Spring 2023 Hot Topics in Primate Welfare feature, we interviewed Dr. Marietta Danforth and Dr. Hayley Murphy of the Great Ape Heart Project (GAHP). Dr. Danforth was the project manager since the program’s inception in 2010 and took over as project director in 2021 when the project moved to the Detroit Zoological Society […]

For this quarter of Hot Topics in Primate Welfare, we are featuring the research of Dr. Andrew Halloran, the Director of Chimpanzee Behavior and Care at Save the Chimps in Florida. Dr. Halloran specializes in chimpanzee welfare and works to create personalized care plans to enhance the care and welfare of the more than 200 […]

Josue Alejandro received the Primate Welfare Award for his project titled: “Behavioral and fecal glucocorticoid profiles in the formation of all female social groups of pygmy slow lorises (Nycticebus pygmeaus).” Mr. Alejandro is a doctoral student at the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in Japan. His award-winning work focuses on socially housing female pygmy slow […]

For this quarter’s Hot Topic, we are featuring the work of Dr. Sarah Neal Webb, Jennifer Bridges, and Erica Thiele, who created, implemented, and evaluated a physical therapy (PT) program for chimpanzees at the Center for Chimpanzee Care in Bastrop, Texas, which is part of The MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Michale E. Keeling Center for […]