CONSERVATION and BEHAVIOUR
Interactions between humans and primates in the western Amazon
There are a number of publications from work in the Ecuadorian Amazon looking at the relationship between Waorani hunters and their primate prey on the publication page.
In 2017, Rebecca Sheehan studied the responses of pygmy marmosets to playbacks of human conservation. You can find out more about her study in a short article in The Conservation, or in the publication in The American Journal of Primatology. Sarah Papworth has also spent three years working with Fundamazonas and Operation Wallacea on a project on primate behaviour in Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, and Chloe Metcalfe conducted her MSc research on the large-headed capuchin at the site in the summer of 2018. This work is now published in the International Journal of Primatology.
More recently, the Conservation and Behaviour lab have been working in flooded forest around Tahuayo lodge near Iquitos, Peru. In 2019, Erin Mason and Millie Hawkins conducted their MSc in Biological Sciences by Research projects at the site. Erin investigated the responses of monk saki monkeys to human presence, and Millie used playbacks to investigate whether Rebecca's findings about human conversation could be generalised to other types of anthropogenic noise, and the results are published here. Larissa Barker conducted further investigations on how anthropogenic noise impacts pygmy marmosets, particularly focusing on anti-predator responses, and Luke Collins investigated pygmy marmoset vocalisations. Further work at this site is happening as part of the Leverhulme Trust project described here.