Love to the Lemurs

I have finished my project here at Duke and now I am helping to put together the manuscript. Since I just finished my final presentation Friday I now have the chance to actually work on posting these pics. So enjoy the lemurs, these photos were taken on the "field trip" that my program took to the lemur center. In these pictures you will see the Red Ruffed, Black & White Ruffed, and Coquerel's Sifaka lemurs. Also David Brewer, one of the research managers and I. David has been so helpful this summer, he knows how to coax even the most stubborn or shy lemur into participating in my test!

Papers, Papers, PAPERS!

So it has been a month since I last posted but my life has been very busy. A few weeks ago I got word that the paper I submitted after I completed my research project last summer (on the Opportunistic Defense of Bracken Fern by Patrolling Ants) has been accepted for publication! So of course that meant more work, I had to go through and address the concerns of two reviewers, changing or adding things and defend my paper against some aspects I am not going to change. It is a stressful experience, but very exciting as well. Officially last night at 9:50pm I finished and it has now been sent back to the editor and I am anxiously awaiting the final decision.

Not only have I been working on a paper but also reading lots of them. Now that I have decided to pursue my passion for primates in graduate school I have read over 20 papers concerning primatology this summer and have more that are just waiting to be embarked upon. I have high hopes of designing and carrying out another project next summer (Lemurs!) so I want to start now so that I can make sure that I could get a publishable unit of data. There's always more to do but it is so overwhelmingly incredible to think I could contribute to this field someday that I don't mind being busy.