What are the nutritional goals of primates and how are they met under different ecological and physiological constraints?
How do nutrient distributions contribute to animal abundance?
What are the nutritional factors that facilitate the coexistence of different species?
Within group-living species, how are the nutritional needs of differing age and sex classes met in the absence of sexual segregation?
What nutritional factors limit juvenile growth and recruitment into breeding populations?
How do animals select foods and balance nutrients?
How does climate change affect primate nutrition?
How do the diversity of compounds in primate environments interact with their feeding ecology and nutrition?
How can areas be restored to support animal populations?
At a broad level, these are the kinds of questions that inspire our research
Most of our fieldwork is done in Kibale National Park, an evergreen forest in western Uganda that hosts one of the highest densities of primates in the world. We also carry out projects in other protected areas of Uganda, including Bwindi Impenetrable National Park where we have studied the nutrition of wild mountain gorillas since 1997.
We also participate in numerous collaborative projects on nutritional ecology of wildlife across the globe. Our research does not only focus on primates; we collaborate on nutritional studies of wild elephants, rhinos, giraffes, and zebra. We also collaborate on studies of human nutrition.
One important collaboration on human nutrition as it intersects with wildlife conservation is with Dr. Sagan Friant who studies the complex relationships between bushmeat hunting, human health and disease in Nigeria.
We are happy to share our nutritional data through collaborative agreements. Please email Dr. Rothman for more details.
The following datasets are available for collaborative use:
All day feeding follows of adult monkeys of the following species (1-2 years each species: grey cheeked mangabey, red tails, red colobus, black and white colobus.
All day feeding follows of adult and juvenile olive baboons (6 years and ongoing).
Behavioral data from 3 groups of mountain gorillas (10+ years but data not consistently collected).
Nutritional properties of >5000 leaf and fruit samples from Uganda and other countries if agreements with our collaborators are made.
Demographic data (births, deaths, group compositions) of monkey groups and baboons.
This research in our lab is supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
