Vanessa R Woods, Research Scientist

Vanessa is currently conducting research in the two Congos in Central Africa; chimpanzees in the People’s Republic of Congo and bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She spends her time waving red porcupines at baby bonobos and trying to outsmart chimpanzees.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	004A Biological Sciences Building
Office Phone:	919-660-7294
Email Address:
Web Page:	www.vanessawoods.net

Specialties:

Behavioral Primatology

Research Interests: bonobo chimpanzee psychology

Current projects: xenophobia, cooperation, socio-sexual behaviour

Studying the comparitive psychology of bonobos and chimpanzees. Particular interests are cooperation, xenophobia, and the development of socio-sexual behaviour in bonobos.

Areas of Interest:

Bonobo
chimpanzee
psychology
cooperation
xenophobia

Keywords:

Bonobo • chimpanzee • cooperation • xenophobia

Recent Publications   (search)

1. V. Woods, B. Hare, Think outside the lab: sanctuaries are the future of research on captive great apes, Encyclopaedia of Animal Behaviour and Welfar, vol. In press (June, 2008)
2. B.Hare, A. Melis, V. Woods, S. Hastings, R. Wrangham, Tolerance Allows Bonobos to Outperform Chimpanzees on a Cooperative Task, Current Biology, vol. 17 no. 7 (April 5, 2007), pp. 619-623

For books and other popular publications, please visit www.vanessawoods.net