Thomas Struhsaker

Thomas Struhsaker began field research in Africa in 1962 with his study of the behavioral ecology of vervet monkeys in Amboseli, Kenya. Among other discoveries, he described the vervet alarm calls that distinguish between three classes of predators: mammals, birds, and snakes. Following that he conducted studies of forest primates in Cameroon and in 1969 initiated research on red colobus monkeys across tropical Africa from Senegal to Zanzibar. In 1970 he established a research station in the...See more

Thomas Struhsaker began field research in Africa in 1962 with his study of the behavioral ecology of vervet monkeys in Amboseli, Kenya. Among other discoveries, he described the vervet alarm calls that distinguish between three classes of predators: mammals, birds, and snakes. Following that he conducted studies of forest primates in Cameroon and in 1969 initiated research on red colobus monkeys across tropical Africa from Senegal to Zanzibar. In 1970 he established a research station in the Kibale Forest, Uganda where he resided for 18 years. This station remains active to date, and in 1993 Kibale became a national park following 23 years of lobbying by Struhsaker and his colleagues. His biological surveys and shorter-term studies have taken him to 13 other African nations, as well as numerous countries in Latin America and Asia. In addition to Cameroon and Uganda, his efforts have focused on the red colobus and other primates of Zanzibar, Kenya's Tana River, and Tanzania's Udzungwa Mts. National Park. Struhsaker received his B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Michigan State University and his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley. He was employed by the New York Zoological Society for 25 years and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University. His publications include three books (The Red Colobus Monkey 1975, Ecology of an African Rain Forest: Logging in Kibale and the Conflict between Conservation and Exploitation 1997, and The Red Colobus Monkeys: Variation in Demography, Behavior, and Ecology of Endangered Species 2010), as well as numerous scientific and popular articles and technical reports on ecology, conservation, and animal behavior. In 2006 he was honored with the Life-Time Achievement Award from the International Primatological Society. See less