Best Primatology
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist whose work examines female reproductive strategies, parental care, cooperation, and social behavior in primates and humans. Her 1981 book The Woman That Never Evolved challenged accounts of evolution that treated male competition as...
Irven DeVore was an American evolutionary anthropologist and primatologist associated with Harvard University. He conducted field research on baboon behavior in Kenya and helped organize the 1966 Man the Hunter conference, which brought biological, archaeological, and social approaches to the study...
Frans de Waal (1948–2024) was a Dutch-American primatologist and ethologist who served as C. H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University and director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. His research demonstrated empathy, cooperation, reciprocit...
Richard Wrangham is a British primatologist and biological anthropologist who serves as the Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. He is known for his long-term behavioral research on chimpanzees in Uganda, where he co-founded the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in 1987....
Sherwood Washburn was an American physical anthropologist who taught at institutions including the University of California, Berkeley. He is recognized for his role in establishing the New Physical Anthropology in the 1950s, a paradigm shift that moved the field away from descriptive racial taxonomy...
Sarah Hrdy is an American anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and primatologist whose research revolutionized the study of female primate behavior. She is widely recognized for challenging male-centric evolutionary theories, emphasizing the active roles of female agency, sexual selection, and...
Adrienne Zihlman is an American biological anthropologist and professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on primate and human evolution, specifically the role of females in human origins through the "Woman the Gatherer" model. She co-edited the influential 19...
Alison Richard is a British anthropologist, primatologist, and academic administrator who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 2004 to 2010. Her research focuses on the conservation, evolution, and behavioral ecology of primates, particularly the lemurs of Madagascar kno...
Dian Fossey was an American biologist renowned for her pioneering research on mountain gorillas in Rwanda. She dedicated decades to observing these primates, meticulously documenting their behavior and social structures. Her intensive fieldwork dramatically advanced primatology’s understanding of gr...
Birute Galdikas is a Canadian primatologist renowned for her extensive fieldwork studying wild orangutans in Borneo. She initiated the longest continuous study of these animals, providing unparalleled insights into their behavior, social structures, and ecological needs. Her immersive observational...
