Ken Glander

Professor, Department of Biological Anthropology/Anatomy Duke University: Office: 919 668-0267; Fax: 919 6607348; E-Mail glander@duke.edu

My interest in primates began while I was in the U.S. Air Force. I spent four years working with monkeys in the NASA space program. Since then my research has focused on studying plant-primate interactions.
Currently I am directing a field project (begun in 1970 and running since then) 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 250 individually marked mantled howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in dry forests in northwestern Costa Rica.

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