Achievement

Trainee James Fuller delivered a talk at the 2009 American Society of Primatologists national meeting about his work, with co-PI Cords, on factors predicting infanticidal behavior by male blue monkeys ("Kill the infants... or not: variation in the occurrence of infanticide in wild blue monkeys"). Analysis of behavioral and demographic factors suggested that these alone were unable to explain why this behavior occurs in some cases but not in others where it should benefit the perpetrator. Instead, the best explanation of observed variation was that this behavior correlates with male identity, such that some males do try to kill all young infants in groups that they take over, while others simply do not. Comparative genetic data from rodents raise the possibility that there could be a genetic basis to such variation, although some form of condition-dependence remains possible as well. In presenting this work orally, Fuller entered the student competition and won an Honorable Mention.