My journey into primatology

Abstract

This is the story of how I became a primatologist, and the major research projects and activities in my career specializing in the ecology, behavior, and conservation of gibbons. After graduate training in zoology, I spent two years as an officer in the U. S. Army’s Medical Service Corps and was assigned to the SEATO Medical Research Laboratory in Bangkok. My assignments included caring for a colony of captive gibbons (Hylobates lar) released on an island to produce animals for experimental research on diseases. After my army career, I relocated to Thailand in 1973 and my interests turned to wild gibbons in the forests of Thailand. My career in Thailand was spent teaching ecology in the biology department of Mahidol University. After retirement, I continued working at BIOTEC, National Science and Technology Development Agency, and established a large forest dynamics research plot in the Mo Singto gibbon study site in Khao Yai National Park. Research carried out in Khao Yai included study of the ecology and social behavior of gibbons, plant seed dispersal, and relations between Hylobates lar and H. pileatus, whose distributions overlap in a small area of the park. I describe some of the conservation activities I have been involved in, which include development of sampling techniques for gibbon populations, survey of wild gibbons, reintroduction of gibbons, and publication of books on primates for children. Finally, I offer some recommendations on how to become a primatologist.