Larissa Swedell
Associate Professor, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Doctoral Faculty, CUNY Anthropology and Biology Ph.D. Programs
Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of Cape Town
My research has focused on the behaviour and ecology of baboons (Papio hamadryas spp.) since 1995.
I am particularly interested in the interacting biological and behavioural strategies of males and females,
as well as the evolutionary pressures that have shaped social systems. Most broadly, my research interests
include the social behaviour, socioecology, and reproductive strategies of baboons and other social animals,
especially primates. Most of my previous work has focused on the behaviour and ecology of a population of
hamadryas baboons (P. h. hamadryas) in Ethiopia as part of another baboon research group,
the Filoha Hamadryas Project.
I am currently expanding my research programme to include the behaviour and ecology of
chacma baboons (P. h. ursinus) of the Cape Peninsula.
In 2007 I supervised a project by UCT B.Sc. honours student Jacqui Stephenson on self-directed behaviour in female baboons as an indicator of stress. The focus of this project was the southern-most baboon troop on the Cape Peninsula, the ‘Cape Point’ troop. As a follow-up to this project, my Ph.D. student Shahrina Chowdhury is conducting a project focusing on stress, sociality, and reproduction among females of three troops in the Tokai Forest just south of Cape Town. I’m developing additional projects on the Cape Peninsula, most in collaboration with Julian Saunders, on female association patterns, the impact of social structure on male and female reproductive strategies, and behavioural flexibility in baboons.
