Episodes
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In this episode, conservationist, author and founder of The Orangutan Project, Leif Cocks.
orangutans and conservation translocationsanimal cultureecotourism to connect people with natureTinder meets Uber for elephant conservation!
Leif is a tireless conservationist who seems to be involved in innumerable conservation projects throughout Southeast Asia, but most notably The Orangutan Project, which he founded in 1998.
We talk about Leif’s path to conservation, which began early on with an interest in animals and nature and was formalized through his experiences in higher education and work in husbandry and small population biology at Perth Zoo.
What really stands out in this conversation is Leif’s passion for and commitment to being a defender of the natural world and all the beings living in it.
We get into orangutan conservation, including what he views as the pillars of successful orangutan reintroduction - physical health, mental health, social skills, and forest skills.
Leif describes how The Orangutan Project operates, emphasizing the importance of collective action and going far beyond just orangutan conservation into preservation of entire ecosystems and supporting local human communities living therein.
He also deftly describes the real challenges involved in conserving the rainforest’s megafauna, from supporting the endearingly “bat shit crazy” folks who manage to translocate elephants to safe areas, to getting people emotionally connected to the species and ecosystems that need saving.
I really appreciated Leif’s ability to unpack the nitty gritty of running a successful conservation effort, and the efforts they’ve made to assess the progress of the various initiatives they’ve sponsored.
We close out the conversation with some moral questions about personhood in nonhumans and the value of captivity for conservation at places like zoos.
Other topics we discuss:Notable quotes from Leif:
on orangutans - "they're self aware persons that don't belong in captivity"conservation needs "loving kindness and intelligent action"on conservation challenges - "For every complex problem in the world there’s a simple solution which is absolutely wrong”If you want to find out more about Leif, his personal story and his work, you can find him at leifcocks.org or through The Orangutan Project website. He’s also the author of three books: Orangutans and their Battle for Survival, Orangutans: My Cousins, My Friends, and Finding Our Humanity. And check out episode #14 in season 1 of the Talking Apes podcast.
Check out his socials at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
the importance of understanding Darwin's ideas on evolution for conservationbaboon and koala sexgiraffe social bonds and behaviorListing of endangered species in IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species - and getting giraffes on it!
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program at Kyoto University. We are releasing the audio from these lectures right here on The PrimateCast: Origins.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to the CICASP TV YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
For the 21st international primatology lecture we invited Dr. Fred Bercovitch to share his origin story with us. This lecture took place on May 10, 2023.
Fred was a professor with us in CICASP from 2010 until his retirement in March 2017. He was a key mentor for me and played a big role in helping our international program mature.
Starting his career studying primates and particularly the sexual behavior of baboons at Gilgil, Kenya, Fred's career meandered through developmental biology and reproductive neuroendocrinology of rhesus macaques at Cayo Santiago , mating behavior in Koalas in Australia, social structure of Giraffes in Zambia, and many more topics and species around the world.
Fred also forged a career integrating work at zoos and in the wilds, having spent time at San Diego Zoo's Conservation Institute. After leaving Japan, he helped launch a non-profit for giraffe conservation called Save the Giraffes, and is now a Board Member with the Anne Innis Dagg Foundation, also tackling giraffe conservation.
Two books that defined Fred's journey were Edgar Rice Burroughs'Tarzan of the Apes and Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. He weaves these into his life's work describing how he went from the 11 year old boy whose essay on the need to save our planet - part of which he reads in the show! - was not selected by his teachers to be read at graduation, to the renowned wildlife biologist and conservationist he is today.
Key topics that come up along the way are:It was great to have Fred back in touch with us, and I'm happy to share his wise words with all of you on the podcast. For other episodes of The PrimateCast where Fred appears, check out #2 with the CICASP team and #63 with Chia Tan.
And just for kicks, check out this article about Fred in a piece titled "Someone San Diego Should Know" published in The San Diego Union-The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode features a conversation with Devan Schowe, Campaigns Associate with animal advocacy and wildlife nonprofit, Born Free USA.
what does the role Campaigns Associate at an animal advocacy group look like?tracking social engagement for animal welfare and the Tiger King effectJapanese macaques living in Texas!compassionate conservationleopard geckosand more ...
Born Free USA, and its parent Born Free, are charitable organizations advocating for animal welfare and compassionate conservation, with the ultimate goal of ending human exploitation of animals for any reason.
In the interview, Devan outlines the history of the organization - it has a very Hollywood origin story! - and all of the twists and turns that brought her to it.
Devan’s profile can be found on the Born Free USA website’s About Us page. She is an experienced primate caregiver and animal welfare specialist with a master’s degree in primate conservation from Oxford Brookes University.
We talk about some of her early experiences investigating the welfare of reptiles, and then about her master’s research on the welfare of coconut harvesting pig-tailed macaques in Thailand (published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science).
As Campaigns Associate, Devan is involved in many of the programs at Born Free USA, for example on the primate pet trade and the issues surrounding the fur trade in the USA.
For more about the primate pet trade in the USA, read Born Free USA's report (Public Danger, Private Pain: The Case Against the U.S. Primate Pet Trade) and watch a documentary on Life After the Pet Trade.
Devan also talks about how people can get and have gotten involved in animal protection. To find out more, check out Born Free USA's activists toolkit.
We also get a bit into the legislation of animal protection in the US, and later talk about the ethics of animals in captivity, particularly at places like zoos which have a bit of an embattled reputation these days over whether their efforts to educate the public and conserve wildlife outweigh their struggles at times to provide quality welfare for all of their animals.
Other topics we cover in the interview:
Devan is clearly passionate about animals and their conservation and welfare, and exceptionally knowledgable about animal issues in the USA. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did, and learn from it as I also did!
Note: Talking Apes released an interview in 2021 with Born Free USA Programs Director Dr. Liz Tyson-Griffin back. Consider this a great and complementary piece to learn more about their work and issues faced by animals in the USA.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
her new memoir, Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet (pick up a copy!)being a wildlife vet for endangered gorillas and when to interveneecotourism for conservationwhy health and economic stability is key to successful conservation of speciesbuilding the African Primatological Society to support African efforts for research and conservation of African primates
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program at Kyoto University. We are releasing the audio from these lectures right here on The PrimateCast: Origins.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to the CICASP TV YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
For the 20th international primatology lecture, we invited Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka to join us and speak about her own origins, as a primatologist and wildlife veterinarian, the first in Uganda, and the story behind Conservation through Public Health (CPTH) and Gorilla Conservation Coffee.
The conversation was recorded on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.
In the talk, Dr. Gladys moves from describing the events in her childhood that foreshadowed her career as a conservationist and wildlife veterinarian through the development of her career and efforts to conserve the endangered mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, largely by supporting the health of people living in the area.
Topics covered include:Dr. Gladys also recounts how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic was ecotourism in the region, and how she and others mobilized to ensure that the local community was vaccinated and had access to personal protective equipment such as masks and medical support so that the risk of transmission to the gorillas was minimized.
I found these stories incredibly inspiring, and endlessly insightful. Dr. Gladys’ passion for people and nature comes out in spades, and her model for conservation is one I’d love to see adopted all over the world as it has found a way to succeed through compassion for all beings involved, human and gorilla alike.
Enjoy!
Photo Credit: Jo Anne McArthurThe PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode features a conversation with Dr. Tesla Monson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Western Washington University.
her symposia in Integrative Human Evolution, geared toward early career researchers and interdisciplinarity, her involvement with the Bearded Ladies, who are out there to show the world that, to quote Tesla, “You don’t have to have a beard to be a scruffy paleontologist out in the field”, and her efforts to highlight the key roles played by historical women in Washington, which she calls Washington Women.
Tesla was in Japan visiting our own Dr. Susumu Tomiya to start some work with our collection of primate bones, so I asked Susumu to join us in the studio as well.
Tesla runs the Primate Evolution Lab at Western Washington University, and has conducted some fascinating research into how we can use bones and fossils and especially teeth to understand the “squishy parts” of our collective evolutionary past that don’t preserve, like the life history traits of an animal or its behavior.
Tesla tells us about some of her discoveries about correlated or patterned evolution that link tooth characteristics with other anatomical and physiological processes and allowed her and her colleagues to hypothesize about things like life history traits and behavior that aren’t preserved in the fossil record.
These include how dental patterns correlate with vitamin D delivery to infants in ancient populations of humans living in Arctic Beringia, or with prenatal growth rates and endocranial volume in catarrhine primates.
After hearing Tesla talk about these things I became a lot more interested in teeth myself, and what they can tell us about extinct species! But there’s a lot in this interview beyond teeth for anyone interested in evolution and the diversity of life, how scientists are often just like detectives, and just generally about being a whole person.
While discussing Tesla’s efforts in science communication, we talk about the phenomenon of imposter syndrome, which can affect anyone in any role but seems to be particularly common among academics, and especially in early career researchers. All three of us seemed to have something to say on the topic, as it’s an ongoing struggle for so many of us and any encouragement and open discussion about it may land with someone in need at the right time.
We close by looking at her current projects on inclusion in and out of science, such asSome other things that come up in the interview include:
Tesla’s study about teeth, prenatal growth rates and endocranial volumeTesla’s coauthored study about teeth, mammary gland anatomy and vitamin D deliveryIt’s a Long Way from AmphioxusTesla’s outreach programsI hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I and Susumu did!
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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“You should always collaborate with your friends!”
“Let the monkeys show you the way” as a foundation for scientific discoveryMaximizing interpretability through well-designed experiments … and follow-ups! How widespread inequity aversion is in the animal kingdomWhether spite is likely among the suite of emotionally-driven behaviors available to animalsGetting into the weeds with games for game theoristsBeing careful not to confuse cause and consequence as mechanism and outcometesting cognition in group settings and all the chaos that brings
- Sarah Brosnan
In this episode I am really excited to be able to bring to you an interview with Dr. Sarah Brosnan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Philosophy and Neuroscience in the Language Research Center at Georgia State University.
Dr. Ikuma Adachi, from Kyoto University's Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior, also joined us for the interview.
Sarah Brosnan is probably best known for her work on inequity aversion in primates. Her early experiments published in Nature [Monkeys reject unequal pay] showed that capuchin monkeys are sensitive to what others receive for the same amount of work and reject unequal pay.
Note that the video of these experiments is absolutely delightful and should be required viewing for every student of nature, the nature of the mind, and probably bratty child out there. Check it out here: capuchin monkey fairness experiment.
In the interview, Sarah explains how inequity aversion is likely a key component of social knowledge, and likely evolved as a suite of abilities linked to prosocial behavior.
After discussing some of the nuts and bolts of experimentation and the challenges of interpretation, we move into Sarah's more recent line of research: comparative experimental economics.
What's fascinating about this work is that Sarah is testing multiple different species of primate - capuchins, macaques, chimpanzees, and humans - by setting them up with more or less identical experimental situations.
These experiments are really allowing Sarah and her colleagues to learn the mechanical foundations of how we make decisions; and how they may be the same or very different foundations to those of other species even when the outcomes - like being able to maximize the payoff in any given game - look exactly the same!
I learned a lot from Sarah in this interview, and had an absolute blast with this conversation! I hope you all enjoy this interview with Dr. Sarah Brosnan as much as I did.
Other topics discussed in the interview:One final thought. At 24:14 of the interview, Sarah mentions a 2023 paper that demonstrates that bonobos are sensitive to inequity (Paywall). The author, whose name she forgot in the moment, is Jonas Verspeek.
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
his book Chimpanzee Politics and communicating science and writing popular booksEnglish, writing and storytelling as a non-native English speaker, and extending rigorous scientific research into popular science prosethe responsibility of scientists to communicate their findings when they relate to society and how their ideas might be coopted for certain agendas end users may have - think Konrad Lorenz falling in with eugenicists or Richard Dawkins calling us 'slaves to our genes'primate culture and empathy for Japanese primatologyhow our views of the pillars of primate society have evolved from competition, aggression, dominance and conflict to peacemaking, conflict resolution and cooperationdrawing the line between anthropomorphism and anthropodenial, and what components of animal cognition and emotion overlap with those of humanshow measuring emotions in animals is not the same thing as understanding their 'feelings', for example grief, which was asked about by an audience memberand much, much more!
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program at Kyoto University. We are releasing the audio from these lectures right here on The PrimateCast: Origins.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to the CICASP TV YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
Unlike our normal format for these lectures, in which our guests normally provide us with an origin story lecture, we instead ran IPLS 18 as an interview with Distinguished Professor Emeritus Dr. Frans de Waal. Frans almost needs no introduction, but you can find out more about him through some links to Emory University here and here, and on his Wikipedia page here.
The interview was conducted by Dr. Michael Huffman and yours truly, with a smattering of questions from participants, including students and postdoctoral researchers affiliated with Kyoto University’s program in primatology and wildlife science.
The conversation was recorded on Wednesday, January 18, 2023.
In the interview, we talk about:An here is that video of Frans hugging a Telenoid! It can't be missed!
Enjoy!
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode is all about where, how and why primates got their names!
colonial roots of primate naminghonorifics, hero worship and challenge of getting it rightdecolonizing science and having dialogues toward greater inclusivity in science and societyVerreaux's sifaka, Geoffroy's spider monkey, Dian's tarsier and the Bemaraha woolly monkey (a.k.a. Avahi cleesei), whose epithet (species name) honors John Cleese!pronunciation and the challenge of Anglicizationbetter ways to name as conceived by the international primatological community
No, we won't be talking about popular primates like Kanzi the bonobo or Pan-kun (if you're in Japan), but rather the terms we use for the common and scientific names of primates across their taxonomy.
Dr. Elaine Guevara is a Lecturer in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and in 2021, she coauthored a study published in the International Journal of Primatology called “Whom do primate names honor: rethinking primate eponyms” (Open Access), along with Chloe Chen-Kraus, Casey Farmer, Katherine Meier, David P. Watts & Jane Widness.
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Eponym (noun): one for whom or which something is or is believed to be named.
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In the interview, we do a deep dive into primate names and the various contexts within which they are given. Key topics of discussion include:-----------
Primate Eponyms website - learn more about primate namesakes and contribute if information for your species is missing!Survey for primatologists (at all career stages!) where you can provide your thoughts on primate eponyms. CLICK HERE!The orang utan is not an indigenous name: knowing and naming the maias as a decolonizing epistemology (Paywall) by Jane M. Rubis (2020).Decolonizing the Ourang-Outang (Open Access) by Maeve Fairbanks, Luke D. Fannin & Nathaniel J. Dominy (2022) published in the International Journal of Primatology.The family that built an empire of pain - The Sackler family is a notorious namesake with dark roots underlying the opioid crisis. Elaine discusses this in the context of honorifics and the injustices felt by those harmed.
CORRECTION
At 1:00:02 of the interview Elaine notes that the term 'maias' - suggested by JM Rubis (2020) to replace the established common name orangutan - is an indigenous Malay term, when in fact it is the term used by the Iban, a group indigenous to the island of Borneo.
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For more information, and to contribute to understanding primate names and what we should do about them, explore these links!Photo Credit: Elaine Guevara
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
genetic diversity in lion-tailed macaques with respect to habitat fragmentationprotecting habitat and regrowing wildlife corridors with rainforest treesprimate commensalism and behavioral plasticity in urban environmentsacquisition of novel foraging strategies as adaptations to extracting human resources
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program at Kyoto University. We are releasing the audio from these lectures right here on The PrimateCast: Origins.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to the CICASP TV YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
For the 12th international primatology lecture we invited distinguished professor Dr. Mewa Singh to share his origin story with us. This lecture took place on May 25, 2022.
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"One need not have a formal degree in a discipline, to become a specialist in that discipline"
-Mewa Singh, 2022
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Dr. Mewa Singh is Life-Long Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and Institute of Excellence at the University of Mysore. Throughout his career he has investigated the behavior and ecology of mammals, most notably primates, and has been heavily invested in their conservation and management in different regions throughout India.
In this lecture, he describes his activities related to the conservation of primates in India, particularly through distinctions between forest-dependent species and others that are more adaptable to human-dominated landscapes. He then describes various behavioral adaptations that have allowed more commensal macaque species to thrive in urban settings.
Key topics that come up are:He begins the lecture talking about how he became a wildlife biologist and primatologist, and that it wasn't exactly a straight line or so predetermined from a young age. And he closes with some further advice about studying primates ethically in human landscapes.
In between, he provides numerous pieces of advice and bits of wisdom that will no doubt have value for all listeners.
Enjoy!.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode features paleoanthropologist and science educator Dr. Briana Pobiner.
the question "what makes us human?"reconstructing the diets of our ancestors using paleontological 'time machines'ancient hominins sharing the savannas - and food? - with ancient carnivoresbusting some common myths, like the idea of linear evolution and the 'paleodiet'balancing doing, teaching and communicating science to broad audienceshow to go about becoming a strong communicator of scientific ideasbeing a mom in the field with kids
Briana works in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She is also Associate Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University.
Briana’s anthropological research focuses on understanding the human diet, and changes therein over the past few million years. Her work on science education and communication focuses on promoting understanding of evolution through examples from our own bushy branches of the evolutionary family tree.
In the interview, we cover a range of topics including:There is so much in this interview for everyone, and we couldn't be happier to be sharing it on The PrimateCast.
Briana's professional bioBriana's research websiteAnswer the question "what does it mean to be human" yourself on the Smithsonian Human Origins Program’s website A brilliant 2016 paper on accepting, understanding, teaching and learning evolution in the USBriana's academic page on GWU's website
Here are a few links to help you learn more about Briana Pobiner and her work:Photo Credit: Smithsonian
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
territoriality and indices of home range defensibility how ape vocalizations play a role in territorial defense and spacinghow male orangutans can have hugely different mating strategies that coincide with huge differences in body size and other physical featureshow chimpanzee social behavior and alliances are determined by genetic relationships among males
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program at Kyoto University. We are releasing the audio from these lectures right here on The PrimateCast: Origins.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to the CICASP TV YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
For the 8th international primatology lecture we invited Dr. John Mitani to share his origin story with us. This lecture took place on January 27, 2022.
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"If you find good [mentors], lean on them"
-John Mitani, 2022
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John Mitani is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, who has conducted over 40 years of research on gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos.
He is the 2022 recipient of the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Biological Anthropologists. And, listening to his lecture really gives one a sense of why! So much of his work found its way into the textbooks.
In the lecture, he shares many of the key discoveries he and his colleagues have made about social behavior in primates. These covered topics like:He then goes on to provide some sage advice for any up-and-coming scholars out there. He spends a good deal of time acknowledging his mentors, and implores all of us to do the same. He also acknowledges the importance of serendipity, and the need to be opportunistic in the face of new observations.
With eloquence and humility, John tells us the story of his career, in the hopes it can provide some inspiration to those of us out there on similar paths.
One thing's for sure: I sure felt inspired after hearing him speak!The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode features distinguished primatologist Dr. Charles Snowdon, or Chuck Snowdon, as he’s maybe better known by.
the integration of art and science, STEAM, and collaborating with musicianshow our appreciation of music evolves and affects our moodmaking music for monkeys... and why it mattersand many more!
Chuck is Hilldale Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and he’s widely known for his work on primate social development, communication and cognition. He ran the Snowdon Primate Center in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where so much was learned about the small Neotropical primates known as marmosets and tamarins.
In the interview, we deep dive one specific topic that Chuck has worked on over the past couple of decades: musicality in nonhumans!
Some of our topics of conversation include:Here's a great quote from Chuck from a 2009 article published in the Guardian: “Why should a tamarin find our music comforting? I find the monkey music quite irritating.”
You can read the paper on which a lot of our conversation was based in an article published in the journal Biology Letters (Paywall). There's also more music for tamarins in the supplementary material of that article as well!
In the interview, Chuck also references Snowball, a cockatoo who became YouTube famous for its ability to dance to the beat of popular music. This bird was also the focal point of our conversation with Dr. John Iversen, another fascinating conversation I had when he visited Japan for the Japan Society for Animal Psychology conference back in 2014. He's the middle interview in The PrimateCast 22.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode presents an interview with Dr. Pamela Asquith, and anthropologist and meta-primatologist who has studied how primatology was done historically in Japan, and tackled the challenge of language, metaphor and anthropomorphism in science.
In March 2022, she delivered an excellent talk for CICASP in our International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives in the Field. You can find a link to that event here, or go straight to the CICASP YouTube Channel and find it here.
The interview is not a carbon-copy of the lecture, so I'm sure one can find value in both!Pam Asquith is currently adjunct professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, but perhaps spent the bulk of her career in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta.
understanding primatology through the lens of history and philosophy, and how Eastern and Western cultural trends influenced the trajectory of the fieldthe challenges of anthropomorphism and metaphor in science and the study of animal behaviormeta-primatology and the process of studying those who study primates, especially in Japanmarginalization in science, sometimes caused by language constraints and cultural influences on thoughtthe legend that is Kinji Imanishi, his views on nature, and his influence on Japanese primatology and beyond
Pam is perhaps best known around here as the person who translated - with support from colleagues in Japan - Kinji Imanishi's seminal 1941 book Seibutsu no Sekai 「生物の世界」into English, under the title: "A Japanese View of Nature: The World of Living Things". Imanishi is considered a founder of Japanese primatology- he set up Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute itself! - and was especially instrumental in giving it the flavor it had that set it apart from primatology as it emerged somewhat independently in the West.
Some of the topics we cover during the conversation include:For anyone interested in finding out more about her work, you can visit Dr. Pamela Asquith's website, and check out her book A Japanese View of Nature: The World of Living Things on Amazon or wherever else you might get your reading material. And don't forget to check out her lecture for our International Primatology Lecture Series!
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This episode of The PrimateCast: Origins is taken from CICASP's International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories told by experienced researchers in primatology and related fields. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program, but we decided to release the audio right here on The PrimateCast.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to CICASP's YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
For the 6th international primatology lecture we invited Dr. Karen Strier to share her story with us.
Many of our listeners should be really familiar with Dr. Strier, as she was until recently president of the International Primatological Society and is the author of 6 editions of the famous textbook Primate Behavioral Ecology - which I assume many of you, like me many years ago, were trained on!
I was lucky enough to interview her for the podcast back in 2016 (#53) at the 26th Congress of the International Primatological Society that was held in Chicago and hosted by Lincoln Park Zoo. She had just become president of the IPS, so now I guess we can bookend her tenure with a follow up episode of The PrimateCast - nailed it!
But I thought we had a really great conversation back then, so it was nice to see the bigger picture of Karen’s work in this IPLS event. And, if you stay to the end, you’ll notice that I left in my own question of Dr. Strier, just because I thought her answer to it really helped fill out the story of why their work on muriquis matters so much, and what we still need to look out for.
In her talk, Karen covers how she got into primatology and ended up studying muriquis, also known as woolly monkeys - those rare faces in the forest, which she writes about so elegantly in a book of that name. Northern muriquis, her main study species, are among the most endangered primates, and the work that Karen and her colleagues have been doing is really shedding light on their ups and downs, and the threats they continue to face.
Karen Strier is Vilas Research Professor and Irven Devore Professor of Anthropology at the University of Madison - Wisconsin. For anyone who wants to know more about Dr. Strier, check out her lab's homepage on the University of Wisconsin's website.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This is podcast #69 with Dr. Takeshi Furuichi.I was really excited about this interview. I've known our guest - Dr. Takeshi Furuichi - since I was a grad student in the Section of Social Systems Evolution at Kyoto University's now rebranded...
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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In this installment of The PrimateCast we continue with our International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories about experienced researchers of primatology and related fields, through lectures delivered by those very individuals. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program, but we decided to release the audio right here on The PrimateCast.
Unlike most academic lectures, which are usually focused on testing scientific hypotheses, this series is designed to offer a feel for how one becomes a professional in the field of primatology. In a way, we might think of it as a career primer for young primatologists just starting their own journeys into the nether regions of Academia. At the same time, anyone might enjoy the stories told of big dreams, exotic locations and species, and the humanity inherent in forging a new path in life and in work.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to CICASP's YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
The 5th podcast in our IPL series featured Dr. Elisabetta Visalberghi, who spoke to us back on October 13, 2021.
Dr. Visalberghi was the Research Director at the Institute of Cognitive Science and Technologies, part of the National Research Council of Italy, where she continues to act as Associate Research Scientist.
She is an author of around 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and cowrote The Complete Capuchin: The Biology of the Genus Cebus (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Her research has focused on the behavior and cognition of wild and captive primates, especially capuchin monkeys.
She is probably best known for her work on cognition and social learning in capuchins, and especially as they relate to the amazing use of hammer-and-anvil stone tools by capuchins to crack open nuts
In the podcast, Dr. Visalberghi runs through her background and how she got into primatology, highlighting the importance of serendipity in that process. The second half of her talk details her work on capuchin tool use and social learning.
To learn more about her work, visit her web page and the EthoCebus Project website.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This is podcast #67 with Dr. Susumu Tomiya.
It's such a pleasure to be able to share my interview with Dr. Susumu Tomiya, my colleague for the past 3+ years in the Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology (CICASP).
Susumu and I have worked closely over that time toward developing our capacity at Kyoto University to teach science communication to our graduate students, and to encourage and promote their activities in various ways, such as through news stories on the CICASP website and co-developing educational programs with students themselves. Here are a couple of examples of Susumu's work in that regard, in interviews with graduate student Tianmeng He and postdoc Gao Jie about their research.
Susumu is an assistant professor, now based in the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at Kyoto University's new Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB). But, he is a vertebrate paleonologist interested in mammalian diversity, with a background in studying extinct carnivorans in North America! You might wonder what he's up to at a research institute dedicated to the study of primates, and you can find out by listening to the podcast right here! To find out more about his research, visit his personal website.
In the interview, we discuss a pretty wide range of topics, from understanding biodiversity in an evolutionary context to contextualize biodiversity loss in the present and future, to exploring some of the amazing species he's studied (think, beardogs!). We then get on to the process of doing and communicating science, and onto science education, as Susumu has long been involved in the latter through programs at the museums he's worked at - including Chicago's famous Field Museum - and now through CICASP.
It was such a treat to record this interview, so I hope my enthusiasm for speaking with Susumu comes through, and that you all feel a little more nourished coming away from this interview with Dr. Susumu Tomiya as much as I did.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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In this installment of The PrimateCast we continue with our International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field..
"Ideas in science often evolve as the result of unexpected accidents"
The IPLS is dedicated to providing origin stories about experienced researchers of primatology and related fields, through lectures delivered by those very individuals. The lectures are conducted via Zoom within our CICASP Seminar in Science Communication for graduate students of our program, but we decided to release the audio right here on The PrimateCast.
Unlike most academic lectures, which are usually focused on testing scientific hypotheses, this series is designed to offer a feel for how one becomes a professional in the field of primatology. In a way, we might think of it as a career primer for young primatologists just starting their own journeys into the nether regions of Academia. At the same time, anyone might enjoy the stories told of big dreams, exotic locations and species, and the humanity inherent in forging a new path in life and in work.
For anyone interested in viewing the video versions of these lectures, head over to CICASP's YouTube channel, where you can also watch them live as we stream our Zoom feeds there.
- Robin Dunbar
Prof. Dunbar is behind some key scientific ideas, such as the Social Brain Hypothesis - which has had ample success in explaining the distribution of higher forms of cognition across the animal kingdom - and Dunbar’s number, the iconic idea that there is a numerical cap on the number of relationships we can realistically maintain at any given time in our lives.
During the talk, he explains the origins of these ideas and their origins in his own fieldwork on primates and ungulates, as well as some accidental collaborations with people from a wide range of other disciplines.
Robin Dunbar is Professor Emeritus in Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. You can find out more on our dedicated page for this event.The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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This is podcast #65 with Dr. Ikuma Adachi.
Before getting into the interview, I announce with great sadness the passing of Dr. Steve Ross, as announced by Lincoln Park Zoo. Steve was a formidable figure in chimpanzee conservation and animal welfare science in general, in addition to being an all around good person and key figure at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. He will be missed.
This is also the first podcast released since the restructuring of the Primate Research Institute, which had an exceptional 55 year run as a leading primatological institute. I make a note of that as well before getting into the interview.
Now, Dr. Ikuma Adachi is no stranger to these parts, and he's been on the podcast twice before, way back in our second episode in April 2012, and again in March 2016 on Episode #20. Feel free to check those out in addition to listening to the current episode.Ikuma is associate professor of Cogntiive Neuroscience at Kyoto University's new Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior (EHUB). He's also the new head of CICASP, assuming the role this month after a 5 year hiatus from being part of the center. But he's always had a big inlfuence on how we operate, so it was great getting him back in the studio.
In the interview, we discuss a range of topics, from internationaliation at Kyoto University to running a chimpanzee lab and managing the expectations of incoming students. We talk about his own experiences with chimpanzees and research in comparative cognitive science, and end with some speculations about the metaverse and humans in space...
yeah, you read that correctly!
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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In this installment of The PrimateCast we continue with our International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives of the Field.
"Dreams are not destinations, they're journeys. So, dare to dream"
- Zimbo
In the third podcast in this lecture series, we hear from Dr. Ramesh Boonratana, Zimbo, talking about why he's not a primatologist and - according to him! - other incoherent ramblings.
Zimbo details his journey into and then out of primatology, with a couple of important messages for teh audience. It's clear from the lecture that Zimbo values education, doing things the right way, and offering a roadmap for young students wishing to get into the field. I think that's what makes him so popular in the world of Southeast Asian primatology, where he's actively involved in various educational and conservation-oriented activities.
Zimbo is an associate professor of conservation biology at Mahidol University in Thailand, and has many advisory roles for organizations as diverse as the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Primate Specialist Group, the Bukit Merah Orang Utan Foundation, and the Creation Justice Commission of Kota Kinabalu rchdiocese. He talks about some of these roles and how he's involved in bringing people together for conservation in this lecture.
You can find out more about the talk and about Zimbo on our dedicated page for this event, complete with a biosketch with his academic history.
The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.
Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter Subscribe where you get your podcasts Email [email protected] with thoughts and commentsA podcast from Kyoto University and CICASP.
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