My general research area is biological anthropology. I observed eleven individuals across three troops of western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla) at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden between 2022 and 2023 (N = 105 hrs). Behavioral data were collected under the context of focal animal sampling to assess differences in social interactions and spatial proximity between troops over these two time periods. The aim of my research was to study how social dynamics change after the addition of a silverback to a previously all female troop. It is unlikely for a troop’s composition to be entirely females in the wild, so this was a unique opportunity to observe how female Western Lowland gorillas interact with one another in an established troop with no silverback and to observe how they interact with the addition of a silverback. They study found that in the female troop rates of affiliative interactions doubled, spatial proximity and interindividual distance increased, with the troop spending more time apart after the new silverback’s addition. Overall, interindividual distances were statistically significant between troops, between different age-sex dyads, and between time periods. This experience is relevant to my intended career because I am interested in performing similar visual observation studies in the wild doing field research.
Author(s): Lindsey Core, Individualized Studies Major
Advisor(s): Kelsey Ellis, Department of Anthropology
Chris Myers, Department of Biology
You must be logged in to post a comment.