Natalia Reagan, recent grad, is awesome!

Congratulations to recent MA grad Natalia Reagan. She graduated with honors from California State University Northridge with an MA in anthropology.

In Natalia's words:
"My focus was primate conservation and I conducted a survey of the Azuero spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi azuerensis), a critically endangered subspecies endemic to the Azuero peninsula in Panama. The survey was part of my thesis field work (my advisor was Dr. Christina Campbell). The title of my thesis is "The Effects of Forest Fragmentation on the Distribution of the Azuero Spider Monkey". This July I am returning to Panama to conduct some follow-up data collection and to work with the local population to curb deforestation in the region. I will present the findings of my survey at the ASP meeting this September (Dr. Christina Campbell and Mr. Daniel Essiambre are co-authors).

Concurrently, I have been writing and shooting various television shows that focus on the similarities between humans and nonhuman primates using comedy to both educate and entertain audiences (Here's a link to one of the videos). The goal is to reach a wide demographic and encourage primate conservation while perhaps inspiring future primatologists and anthropologists to keep pursing their academic dream. Here's my personal website: www.nataliareagan.com and email: natalia13reagan@gmail.com

Congratulations to Natalia on her achievements and her commitment to education, conservation, and the importance of a sense of humor!

Michelle Rodrigues is telling tales

Michelle Rodrigues, graduate student at (THE)Ohio State University, is currently in the field at El Zota, Costa Rica collecting dissertation data on spider monkey behavioral ecology. She has a great blog called Spider Monkey Tales that I highly recommend to other BANDITs, and she has blogged recently about her current field season.

An excerpt:
"It´s still raining, but the downpour is lessening. Evelyn and Elsa are still resting in the same spot. Through my binoculars, I can make out just a portion of Elsa´s face, pressed up against her mother´s fur. Both she and her mother have shifted slightly, though they remain tightly huddled. I love the way spider monkeys sleep. They tend to sit upright, hunch their backs and curl their limbs and tails, either around themselves and their resting partners. They then tuck their heads down, completing the transformation to an immobile, huddled mass of fur. When I did observations in the morning at Brookfield Zoo, there would usually be a small cluster of monkeys huddled in a quiet corner. Occasionally, Evita and Elvis would look up and whinny at me, and then tuck their heads back down."

Lovely writing and also a great way to educate others about fieldwork. Nicely done, Michelle!