Graduate Student Spotlight Fall 2022
Katie McGuire (Ph.D. Biological Anthropology in Progress)
Ph.D student Katie McGuire'sÌýdissertation research explores individual variation in ring-tailed lemur social behavior with a particular emphasis in how this variation contributes to the efficacy of animal social groups.Ìý For example, an important benefit of group-living is having more individuals to detect potential threats in the environment. The photo from her fieldwork on St. Catherines Island (Georgia, USA) depicts the dominant female of East Road group (Pearl Heart) standing on her hind legs to find the source of some nearby rustling leaves while her group grooms and rests on the ground; the culprit ended up being a harmless, ambling armadillo, but the lemurs and KatieÌýdid have interactions with alligators, snakes, hawks, raccoons, and wild pigs during herÌýsix months of data collection last year. ÌýÌý