Monday, September 7, 2015

Another talk at the CCS Fall Meeting!

After giving my presentation on the evolution of hand and tool use at the HBES conference in May, I decided that I needed to utilize opportunities like this more often.  Having met a young researcher from New Mexico State University with similar interests and a willingness to collaborate on the topic of theory of mind in lemurs, I applied to give a talk at the 2015 Fall Meeting of the Comparative Cognition Society (CCS).  My talk was accepted, and the title is "The Little Lemur Who Spoke: Theory of Mind in Lemurs?"  (The abstract is available online, and is found on page 11.)

Anyone familiar with my tales about Obi will know who this talk primarily focuses on.  I hope that in sharing my experiences with him and other lemurs I can convince the academic community to shed some of their biases and take a new look at the lemur mind.

I'm also trying to see if I can give a talk about the lemur mind and cognition on a TED talk.

New lemurs at Moorpark!

America's Teaching Zoo has successfully obtained two new female ring-tailed lemurs, who they hope to pair with Obi.  The arrived at the zoo a few months ago and have been in the Quarantine area since.  Obi was relocated to the cage next to them following their month-long quarantine, and the latest I've heard is that the introduction process is progressing.

Even though I can't see Obi (except faintly, though many layers of fence), I'm happy to know that he's finally getting some new companionship.  I hope the introduction goes well, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on exhibit.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Selected for HBES 2015!

I'm excited to announce that the abstract I submitted was selected, and I will be giving a presentation of my research at the 27th Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) Conference in Columbia, Missouri.  The title of my talk will be: "The evolution of cognition and hand use in primates: an interdisciplinary perspective".

I may post the abstract a little closer to the date of the presentation.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Back to Wiki

My newest work (and Featured Article candidate) on Wikipedia: Fork-marked lemur.

I'm also working to submit an abstract to the 27th Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) Conference in hopes of presenting my hypothesis about the origins of object manipulation in simian primates.  As always, this was inspired by Obi and Janga, and my work is dedicated to them.