Leslie J. Digby, Associate Professor of the Practice and DUS

Contact Info:

Office Location:	08A Bio Sci Building
Office Phone:	(919) 660-7398
Email Address:

Teaching (Fall 2012):  (typical courses)

• EVANTH 344L.01, PRIMATE FIELD BIOLOGY Synopsis

  Primate CTR, TuTh 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

• EVANTH 495S.01, ADV RESEARCH EVOL/ANTHOPOLOGY Synopsis

  Bio Sci 101D, W 04:40 PM-05:55 PM

Office Hours:

MW 9:30-11am and by appointment

Education:

PhD	University of California, Davis	1994
M.A.	University of California, Davis	1988
BA	University of California, San Diego	1986

Specialties:

Primate Ecology
Evolution of Primate Behavior
Primate Reproduction
Behavioral Primatology

Research Interests: Evolution of Primate and Human Social Behavior; Primate Behavioral Ecology; Mammalian Reproductive Strategies, Mating Systems and Infanticide; Reproductive Competition in Female Lemurs; Marmoset and Tamarin Social Organization and Reproductive Strategies

Current projects: Reproductive Competition and Infanticide in Cooperatively Breeding Primates, Methods for Mapping Primate Home Ranges, Quantifying Habituation in Captive Lemurs, Comparative Cognition in Lemurs

My research centers on the evolution primate social behavior, especially how reproductive competition among females can shape social organization. My recent research has investigated the impact of infanticide (or the threat on infanticide) on the evolution of cooperative breeding systems (species focus: marmosets and tamarins) and how female competition in female dominant species may influence reproductive opportunities and success (species focus: blue-eyed black, bamboo and ringtailed lemurs). I am also involved in several methods-oriented projects, including new methods for documenting primate home ranges and the quantification of levels of habituation in captive lemurs.

Areas of Interest:

Evolution of Primate Social Systems
Evolution of Female Reproductive Competition
Primae Behavioral Ecology
Mammalian Mating Systems
Methods in Behavioral Ecology
Callitrichines
Lemurids

Keywords:

primate behavior • reproductive competition • female competition • infanticide • marmosets • lemurs • callitrichines • methods

Duties:

Director of Undergraduate Studies for Evolutionary Anthropology

Curriculum Vitae

Representative Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Saltzman, W, Digby, L.J. and Abbott, D.H., Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: what can proximate mechanisms tell us about ultimate causes?, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (January, 2009) (Published on-line Oct 2008.)  [abs]
2. L.J. Digby, S.F. Ferrari, W. Saltzman, Callitrichines: the role of competition in cooperatively breeding species., in Primates in Perspective, edited by K.C. MacKinnon, M. Panger, S. Bearder, C. Campbell, and A. Fuentes (2007), Oxford University Press
3. L. Digby and W. Saltzman, Balancing cooperation and competition in callitrichid primates: examining the relative risk of infanticide across species, in The Smallest Anthropoids: The Marmoset/Callimico Radiation, edited by SM Ford, LM Porter and LC Davis (November, 2009), Springer Verlag, ISBN 978-1-4419-0292-4  [abs]
4. Abbott, D.H., Digby, L.J. and Saltzman, W., Reproductive skew in female common marmosets: contributions of infanticide and subordinate self restraint., in Reproductive Skew in Vertebrates: Proximate and Ultimate Causes, edited by Hagar, R. and Jones, C. (September, 2009), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-86409-1
5. L.J. Digby, A. Stevens, Maintance of Female Dominance in Blue-Eyed Black Lemurs (Eulemur macaco flavifrons) and Gray Bamboo Lemurs (Hapalemur griseus) under semi-free ranging and captive conditions, Zoo Biology, vol. 26 no. 5 (September, 2007), pp. 345-361
6. L.J. Digby, Infanticide by female mammals: implications for the evolution of social systems, in Infanticide by Males and its Implications, edited by C. van Schaik and C. Janson (2000), pp. 423-446, Cambridge University Press
7. L.J. Digby, S. Kahlenberg, Female dominance in blue-eyed black lemurs (Eulemur macaco flavifrons, Primates, vol. 43 no. 4 (2002), pp. 191-200
8. L.J. Digby, Infant care, infanticide, and female reproductive strategies in polygynous groups of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, vol. 37 (1995), pp. 51-61
9. Digby, L.J. and S.F. Ferrari, Multiple breeding females in free-ranging groups of Callithrix jacchus, . International Journal of Primatology, vol. 15 no. 3 (1994), pp. 389-397
10. C. Nievergelt, L.J. Digby, U. Ramakrishnan, and D.S. Woodruff, Genetic analysis of group composition and breeding system in a wild common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) population, International Journal of Primatology, vol. 21 no. 1 (2000), pp. 1-20
11. L.J. Digby, Sexual behavior and extra-group copulations in a wild population of common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), Folia Primatologica, vol. 70 no. 3 (1999), pp. 136-145