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| Ken Glander, Professor
 Primate ecology and social organization: the interaction between feeding patterns and social structure; evolutionary development of optimal group size and composition; factors affecting short and long-term demographic changes in stable groups; primate use of regenerating forests. - Contact Info:
Typical Courses Taught:
- BAA 93, INTRO BIOLOGICAL ANTHRO
Synopsis
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- PRIMATOL 186S, INTERNSHIP PRIMATOLOGY
Synopsis
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- PRIMATOL 187S, SR SEM IN PRIMATOLOGY
Synopsis
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- BAA 193, RESEARCH INDEPENDENT STUDY
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- BAA 399, SPECIAL READINGS
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- Education:
| PhD | University of Chicago | 1975 |
| M.A. | University of Chicago | 1971 |
| B.A. | University of Texas, Austin | 1969 |
- Specialties:
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Primate Ecology
Evolution of Primate Behavior
Primate Reproduction
- Research Interests: Primate/Plant interactions, Social Structure, Howling Monkeys, Lemurs, Asian Langurs, Manatee diets
Interests and Training
My interest in research and primates began while I was in the
U.S. Air Force. I spent four years working with monkeys in the
NASA space program. I was a trained surgical technician before I
went into the Air Force and received additional training as a
veterinary technician in the Air Force. This work, training, and
experience made me realize that I wanted to do research that
would benefit the primates. I began attending night classes
while still in the Air Force and obtained my undergraduate
degree at the University of Texas, Austin, after being released
from the Air Force. I started my undergraduate career with a
major in Zoology but switched to Anthropology because that is
the discipline where primate research was being done. After
finishing at Austin, I completed my doctorate in six years at the
University of Chicago. My wife and I lived for 1 1/2 of those six
years in Costa Rica. We spent an average of 12 and 1/2 hours
per day following the monkeys and recording what they did.
Research Interests and Objectives
My research has focused on studying plant-primate interactions.
Currently I am directing a long-term field project (begun in 1970
and currently continuing) investigating the interaction between
plant-produced chemicals and primate feeding behavior as well
as the impact this has on primate social organizations. My
research objectives have expanded to include: evaluating the
plant-primate interaction from an ethnobotanical perspective;
the evolutionary development of optimal group size and
composition; the relationship between food quality and quantity
and body size; the factors affecting short and long-term
demographic changes in established groups; and the role of
regenerating forests on primate density. I continue to collect
data on a population of 75-100 individually marked mantled
howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in dry forests
in northwestern Costa Rica. (Please see Enter link text here Map of La
Pacifica with Location of Howler Groups.) In addition to
Costa Rica, I have traveled to and done research in Belize, Brazil,
Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Madagascar, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad, Venezuela, Vietnam, Uganda, and Zanzibar.
Conservation Work
The Duke University Lemur Center houses the world's largest
collection of endangered primates, the lemurs of Madagascar. As
a former Director of the Center, I am still involved in behavioral
and physiological research concerned with their conservation
biology.
I have visited Madagascar 18 times since my first visit in 1982.
My research with lemurs has concentrated on their interactions
with plants, i.e., how do plant chemicals affect lemur-feeding
behavior. In 1987 this work lead to the discovery that one of the
bamboo lemurs consumes four times the lethal dose of cyanide
every day with its daily diet of bamboo. I am also collecting data
on what North Carolina plants our free-ranging lemurs eat from
our 65 acres of Natural Habitat Enclosures.
On an expedition to Madagascar in 1999, I discovered a
population of unknown and undiscribed lemurs in the
Tsinjoarivo region. I returned to the area in 2002 and 2003 to
help Mitch Irwin with his long-term study of their biology and
ecology.
In 1992, 1993 and 1994 I was involved with the NYZS/WCS
project that translocated black howling monkeys from the
Baboon Sanctuary to Cockscomb Basin in Belize. Howlers have
been locally extinct in Cockscomb since 1978. We moved 65
individuals. The translocated animals were monitored with radio
transmitters. This project demonstrates that monkeys can be
translocated successfully if moved in intact social groups.
Translocation is going to be a required tool in the future
management of wild primate populations.
I was also involved in a preliminary effort to manage the
remaining wild population of woolly spider monkeys
(Brachyteles arachnoides) in Brazil. This involved
capturing animals for genetic studies to determine how inbred
the isolated populations were and to what degree we needed to
move individuals between these isolated populations. As a result
of this work muriquis have been split into two species.
In July of 2000, I participated in the translocation of Alouatta
palliata from a threatened habitat to the Maquipucuna
Reserve in Ecuador. Howlers had been eliminated from this area
before it was protected. The animals that were moved have been
part of a long-term study by Ecuadorian scientist to determine
whether the reserve is a viable environment for howlers and to
provide an attraction to eco-tourists.
In July of 2001, I participated in the rescue and translocation of
Alouatta seniculus from small islands in Guri Lake to
the mainland in Venezuela. These islands were formed in 1986
when the Venezuelan government completed construction on
the world's second largest hydroelectric facility along the Rio
Caroni in the state of Bolivar. The inundation of over 4300
square kilometers of hilly terrain resulted in the formation of
Lake Guri and the fragmentation of contiguous forest into
hundreds of isolated islands ranging in size from 0.1 to 1000
hectares that are located a maximum of 6 km from the
mainland. During the initial inundation, the monkeys were
trapped on several of the newly formed islands.
In June of 2005 I traveled to Vietnam on the invitation of several
Vietnamese scientists to collaborate on the the translocation of
(Trachypithecus delacouri)
and (Trachypithecus poliocephalus).
- Keywords:
- Primate/Plant interactions • Social Structure • Howling Monkeys • Lemurs • Asian Langurs • manatees
- Curriculum Vitae
- Current Ph.D. Students
(Former Students)
- Representative Publications
(More Publications)
(search)
- Glander, KE, Average body weight for mantled howling monkeys (Alouatta pallilata): an assessment of average values and variability,
in New Perspectives In The Study Of Mesoamerican Primates, edited by A. Estrada, P.A. Garber, M. Pavelka, & L. Luecke
(2006),
pp. 247-263, Springer, New York [PDF] [abs]
- Glander, K.E., Nonhuman primate self-medication with wild plant foods,
in Eating On The Wild Side: The Pharmacologic, Ecologic, and Social Implications Of Using Noncultigens
(1994),
pp. 227-239, University of Arizona Press, Tucson & London [PDF]
- Glander, K.E, Howling monkey feeding behavior and plant secondary compounds: A study of strategies,
in The Ecology of Arboreal Folivores, edited by G.G. Montgomery
(1979),
pp. 561-573, Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, D.C. [PDF]
- Selected Grant Support
- Collaborative Research: Ecological and Functional Morphology of Feeding in Free-Ranging, National Science Foundation, BCS-0720025.
- Collaborative Research: Ecological and Functional Morphology of Feeding in Free-Ranging Mantled Howling Monkeys, National Science Foundation, BCS-0720028.
- Energy Balance in Free-Ranging Lemurs, St. Catherines Island Research Program.
- The ecology of manatees in Mexico, The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
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