Sandy
Harcourt's Background and Interests
Born in Kenya, Africa, I
arrived at the Dept. of Anthropology,
UC Davis, and the University's Graduate Group in Ecology via degrees
from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Besides research and teaching there, I have also worked at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the National University of Rwanda at Butare, Rwanda,
and at the Primate Research Institute
of the University of Kyoto at Inuyama, Japan. Field research has taken me to
the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, the Karisoke Research Centre in the
Virunga Volcano region of Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire, the Bwindi Forest in
Uganda, and the forests of S.E. Nigeria. In addition to my work at UCD, I am on
the Scientific Board of the L.S.B.
Leakey Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Explorit Science Centre, and I am a Senior
Research Fellow of the Center for
Tropical Research at UCLA. Much of my work is done in collaboration with my
wife, Kelly
Stewart. She got her degrees from Stanford
University, and from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Past interests
have included functional reproductive anatomy, cooperation as a competitive
strategy, social aspects of vocal communication. Current interests are
biogeography and macroecology, conservation biology, extinction biology, and
socio-ecology, almost always with primates as the study subject. Some examples
of specific questions : Biogeography and
macroecology - do primates show the classic relationship between local
density and extent of geographic distribution and, if so, why? Conservation biology - what is the
relative influence of human density and reserve area on extinction? Extinction biology - what traits
distinguish taxa susceptible to extinction from more persistent taxa? Socio-ecology - how does the nature of
the environment interact with the nature of competition, conflict and
compromise between the sexes to produce the sort of society we see?
Details are in my publications
list, where you'll find abstracts of my papers.
I would be
interested in working with anyone wanting to do comparative work or field work
in any of my current areas of interest - biogeography / macroecology,
extinction biology, conservation biology. Thus, Debi Durham has just finished a
thesis with me on differences between two lemur species in susceptibility to
alteration of their natural habitat. And Bob Stallmann is doing a thesis on the
role of sexual selection in the speciation of Sulawesi macaques.
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