Alex Pritchard (he/him)

Female capuchins sits on a branch, looking away from the camera. A young capuchin holds onto her back, looking at the camera. Photo: Nick Chapoy

🚨 New paper! 🚨

🐒 White-faced capuchins experience high rates of infanticide.

🐒 Infanticide is costly to female reproduction.

🐒 Do females exhibit the Bruce effect (termination of pregnancy) to reduce these costs?

🐒 Spoiler: Nope!

Read more ▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

24.09.2025 17:53 — 👍 26    🔁 14    💬 0    📌 1

Cool! I had to look up this creature. Speculated it was a gannet relative, but looks like a cormorant relative! We saw cormorant's diving for schools of fish in Maine. They were remarkably aggressive and would even cause visible waves (whether through their efforts or the fish, not sure)!

15.08.2025 16:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Combining multiple behavioral measures of social relationships can reveal stronger associations with biomarkers of health! From @vanditto.bsky.social and the McCowan-Vandeleest lab.

25.03.2025 19:18 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Assessing the Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Infection Among Free‐Ranging Long‐Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Thailand This study combines behavioral observations with noninvasive biological sample collection, using freshly defecated feces and rope-baited oral cells, to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC....

New paper from Nalina Aiempichitkijkarn, who recently graduated from the McCowan-Vandeleest laboratory. She is now a postdoc @ California State University, Long Beach!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

21.03.2025 22:44 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Including co-authors: @vanditto.bsky.social, @elidebruyn.bsky.social, and many who (I think?) are not on BlueSky!

03.03.2025 19:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Excited to share the outcomes of our new paper introducing predictability to group management practices. A challenging endeavor, because management practices often share unreliable cues.

Really happy with how this turned out, possible through lots of support!

authors.elsevier.com/a/1khW2cF2Ow...

03.03.2025 17:45 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

NSF APPEX invites Seed Ideas for new Working Groups to tackle pandemic risk & response. Have a bold idea to study pandemic expansion? We want to work with you! Learn more: appex.org/seed/

24.01.2025 20:33 — 👍 5    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 1

I would certainly appreciate being included!

10.11.2024 17:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Personality trait structures across three species of Macaca, using survey ratings of responses to conspecifics and humans Comparative studies reliant on single personality surveys to rate wild primates are scarce yet remain critical for developing a holistic comparative understanding of personality. Differences in survey...

Personality has been one of my favorite topics to research. I was thrilled at the opportunity to publish on personality ratings from three species of wild macaques!

Multisite field studies, like this one, are a rarity.
NSF-Funded
Out Now! doi.org/10.1371/jour...

31.10.2024 21:07 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Human-Nonhuman Primate Interactions This survey has been designed to collect information on the diversity of emergent and shared histories of human-nonhuman primate (NHP) interactions, at sites that responding primate researchers freque...

Are you a primate researcher? Please consider contributing to our research survey! Add your knowledge of direct, indirect, or absent human-primate interactions at sites you have visited.

Just 15 minutes of your time!

20.11.2023 17:31 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0