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Stuart
A. Altmann | I study various aspects of behavior, such as social communication,
the evolution of mating systems, the energetics of behavior, foraging, and
diet selection. These studies deal with what I consider the central problem
of behavioral ecology: the ways in which an animal's behavior and social
relationships are adapted to the two-fold problem of getting access to essential
resources and simultaneously avoiding excess exposure to hazards. Most of my studies have been carried out on primates, particularly the baboons of Amboseli National Park, Kenya, and I have also worked with a variety of other mammals and birds. My research focuses on naturalistic behavior as an adaptive process. I use quantitative field studies in a problem-oriented approach, sometimes involving the development and testing of models of behavior. My recent research has centered on foraging behavior. How well, for example, do infant mammals meet their nutritional requirements at weaning? As animals move across their home range, how is their foraging behavior affected by the spatial distribution of food plants and by seasonal changes in their growth, flowering, and fruiting? How effective are baboons at displacing other members of their group from food plants on which the victim has already invested considerable labor? A recent analysis of fitness-correlates of baboon foraging has turned up a surprising result: several measures of lifetime fitness in female baboons are each highly correlated with what individuals ate years earlier, when they were yearlings, particularly, with how close their actual diets at th at age came to the protein and energy content of their energy-maximizing optimal diets. |
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| Tel 609.258.4520 Fax 609.258.1334 Email: salt 'at' princeton [dot] edu |
Curriculum
Vitae (pdf) | Teaching (pdf) | Publication Abstracts (pdf) | |
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© 2007 The Trustees of Princeton University Web page feedback: amyb 'at' Princeton [dot] edu | Last update: October 30, 2007 |
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