Dr Alison Behie
Research interests
Primate behaviour and conservation; impact of nutrition on stress hormones and parasitism in non-human primates; effect of habitat disturbance, including environmental disasters on humans and non-human primates
Recent publications:
Edited Volume
Behie AM and Oxenham MF. 2015. Taxonomic tapestries: The threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. ANU press.
Peer reviewed journal articles
Pavelka MSM and Behie AM. In press. Hurricanes and Cyclones. The International Encyclopedia of Primatology.
King A, Behie AM, Rawson BM and Hon N. 2016. Patterns of salt lick use by mammal and bird species in Northeastern Cambodia. Cambodian Journal of Natural History. 1: 40-50.
O’Donnell MH and Behie AM. 2015. Effects of wildfire disaster exposure on male birth weight in an Australian population. Evolution, Medicine and Public Health 1: 344-354.
Behie AM and O’Donnell MH. 2015. The impact of prenatal smoking on age at menarche in Australian females. Human Reproduction 30: 957-962.
Peer reviewed book chapters
Behie AM and Oxenham MF. 2015. The Colin Groves Effect: 50 years of influence on evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. IN Taxonomic tapestries: The threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. AM BEHIE and MF Oxenham (eds). ANU press. Pp 3-12.
Behie AM, Wyman TM, Steffens TS and Pavelka MSM. 2015. Hurricanes and coast lines: The role of natural disasters in the evolution of Alouatta pigra. IN Taxonomic tapestries: The threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. AM BEHIE and MF Oxenham (eds). ANU press. Pp 75-92.
Oxenham MF and Behie AM. 2015. The warp and weft: Synthesising our taxonomic tapestry. IN Taxonomic tapestries: The threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research. AM BEHIE and MF Oxenham (eds). ANU Press. Pp 373-380.
Other refereed contributions
Behie AM and Groves CP. 2016. China’s primates: preserve wild species. Nature. 534:179.
Biography
In 2010, Alison received a Ph.D from The University of Calgary in Anthropology (with a primatology specialization). Her dissertation work examined the effects of a major hurricane on a howler monkey population in Southern Belize, specifically examining the roles of food supply, nutrition, stress hormones and parasitism in the recovery of this population. From 2009 - 2011, Alison lectured in both the Department of Anthropology at The University of Calgary and The Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Currently, she is a lecturer and Head of Discipline in Biological Anthropology in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at The Australian National University.
Researcher's projects
The effect of environmental disasters on non-human primates: Alison continues to monitor the long-term recovery of a howler monkey population in Southern Belize to Hurricane Iris, which struck in 2001. She is also using this information to investigate post-disturbance community ecology including new mechanisms of parasite exposure related to changes in forest composition.
Socioecology of silvered langurs and crested yellow-cheeked gibbons in Cambodia: Working in conjunction with Conservation International, Alison is working on research projects investigating behaviour, nutrition, and habitat use of these two endangered primate species in Northeastern Cambodia. This is also the site where Alison runs an annual field school in Primate Behaviour and Ecology (BIAN 3018/6018).
Behaviour and Conservation of Cat Ba langurs in Vietnam: With less than 70 animals left in the world, Alison is working with the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project and Fauna&Flora International, to investigate the population structure and viability of this critically endangered primate.
Impacts of prenatal stress on reproduction and childhood development: Alison is investigating how stress expreienced in utero and in early childhood impacts bith condition and development of children into adolescence and adulthood.
Available student projects
1) Possible Honours/MBIAN projects can be supervised on:
Numerous aspects of primate behaviour, conservation and ecology using the literature, data collected on captive primates or existing data on howler monkeys
Effects of environmental disasters on humans or non-human primates
2) Possible MBIAN/PhD projects can be supervised as part of the following long term research projects:
The behavioural ecology of endangered primates in northeastern Cambodia
The behaviour, physiology and conservation of the Cat Ba Langur
The effects of prenatal stress and/or environmental disasters on human life history traits
Please contact alison.behie@anu.edu.au for information regarding possible honour's MA or PhD projects
Current student projects
PhD Students:
Kirrily Apthorp: Habitat quality of three critically endangred primate species in Vietnam
Rebecca Hendershott: Socioecology of the Cat Ba Langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus) in Vietnam:Implications for Conservation Planning
Abu Kibria: Ecosystem service valuation of Veun Sai Siem Pang Conservation Area, Cambodia
Nicky Kim-McCormack:Investigating the effect of free choice digital activities on orangutan behaviour
Lauren McFarlane: The impacts of prenatal and early life stress on the biological, cognitive and social outcomes of Indigenous Australian children from an evolutionary perspective
Amy King: Cogntion and Social transmission in gibbons
Megan O'Donnell: The impact of bush fires on life history traits of Australian populations: The effects of pre-natal and early childhood stress
Alannah Pearson: Inside and Out: Using virtual imaging to investigate the evolution of cranial bones and brain lobes in fossil and living primates.
Kayla Ruskin: Feeding ecology and nutrition of the critically endangered Cat Ba Langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus)
Honours Students:
Sofie Semmler: Using metabolomics to assess the nutritional quality of the food supply of colobus monkeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda.
Past student projects
Masters Students:
2015 Lauren McFarlane. Impact of the Queensland Flood on birth outcomes and reproduction
2015 Joanna Blake. Review of Locomotor Research in the Callitrichidae and an Exploratory Study of Individual Locomotor Variation in Saguinus Oedipus
2014 Kirrily Apthorp. Making sense of Maba man.
2013 Britta Nelson. Sleeping and calling tree use by Northern buff-cheeked gibbons in Cambodia.
2012 Megan O'Donnell. The impact of pre-natal stress on reproductive outcomes following the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires
2012 Josh Christie. Behavioural flexibility in captive ring tailed lemurs
Honours Students:
2015 Olivia Morley. Key resource use of Northern yellow-cheeked crested Gibbon (Nomascus annamensis)
2015 Cynthia Parayiwa. The impact of maternal exposure to environmental disasters on birth outcomes following Cyclone Yasi (2011) in Queensland, Australia
2015 Jessica Williams. Environmental, anthropogenic and energetic predictors of the likelihood of Northern buff-cheeked crested gibbons (Nomascus annamensis) calling in Veun-Sai Siem Pang Conservation Area, Cambodia
2015 Madelaine Winkler (Co-supervised with Dr Geoff Kushnick). Pathogen Pressure and Consanguineous Marriage: the Case of Impal Marriage among the Karo Batak from North Sumatra
2015 Hayley Roberts. Reproductive Characteristics of Captive Langurs and Gibbons: Life History and Reproductive Senescence
2014 Jasmine Soukieh. Human brain development in the context of undernutrition: cognitive implications
2013 Amy King. A new approach to the social brain hypothesis
2013 Kayla Ruskin. Using geometric frameworks to understand howler monkey food selection following a major hurricane
Publications
- Behie, A & Groves, C 2016, 'China's primates: Preserve wild species', Nature, vol. 534, no. 7606, pp. 179-179.
- King, A, Behie, A, Naven, H et al 2016, 'Patterns of salt lick use by mammals and birds in northeastern Cambodia', Cambodian Journal of Natural History, vol. 2016, no. 01, pp. 40-50.
- Behie, A & PavelKa, M 2015, 'Fruit as a key factor in howler monkey population density: conservation implications.', in M.M Kowalewskim, P.A Garber, L Cortes-Ortiz (ed.), Howler Monkeys: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation, Springer New York, Unknown, pp. 357-382.
- O'Donnell, M & Behie, A 2015, 'Adapting to Disaster? A commentary on Hamamatsu Et Al (2014)', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 47, pp. 413-416.
- O'Donnell, M & Behie, A 2015, 'Adapting to disaster? A commentary on Hamamatsu et al (2014) - A brief Reply', Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 421-422.
- Behie, A & O'Donnell, M 2015, 'Prenatal smoking and age at menarche: Influence of the prenatal environment on the timing of puberty', Human Reproduction, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 957-962.
- Behie, A, Steffens, T, Wyman, T et al 2015, 'Hurricanes and Coastlines: The role of natural disasters in the speciation of howler monkeys', in Alison M. Behie and Marc F. Oxenham (ed.), Taxonomic Tapestries: The Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 75-91.
- Behie, A & Oxenham, M 2015, 'The Groves effect: 50 years of influence on behaviour, evolution and conservation research', in Alison M. Behie and Marc F. Oxenham (ed.), Taxonomic Tapestries: The Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 03-09.
- O'Donnell, M & Behie, A 2015, 'Effects of wildfire disaster exposure on male birth weight in an Australian population', Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, vol. 2015, no. 1, pp. 344-354.
- Behie, A & Oxenham, M, eds, 2015, Taxonomic Tapestries : The threads of evolutionary, behavioural and conservation research, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia.
- Oxenham, M & Behie, A 2015, 'The warp and weft: Synthesising our taxonomic tapestry', in Alison M. Behie and Marc F. Oxenham (ed.), Taxonomic Tapestries: The Threads of Evolutionary, Behavioural and Conservation Research, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 373-380.
- Behie, A, Kutz, S & PavelKa, M 2014, 'Cascading Effects of Climate Change: Do Hurricane-damaged Forests Increase Risk of Exposure to Parasites?', Biotropica, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 25-31.
- Behie AM and Pavelka MSM. 2014. Fruit as a key factor in howler monkey population density: conservation implications. In Howler monkeys: Examining the biology, adaptive radiation, and behavioral ecology of the most widely distributed Genus of Neotropical Primate. Kowalewski M, Garber PA, Cortes-Ortiz L, Urbani B and Youlatos D (eds). Springer Press.
- Behie, A & PavelKa, M 2013, 'Interacting roles of diet, cortisol levels, and parasites in determining population density of Belizean howler monkeys in a hurricane damaged forest fragment', in Marsh L.K and Chapman C.A (ed.), Primates in fragments: complexity and resilience, Springer New York, New York, pp. 447-456.
- O'Donnell, M & Behie, A 2013, 'Effects of bushfire stress on birth outcomes: A cohort study of the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday bushfires', International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 5, pp. 98-106.
- Behie, A & PavelKa, M 2012, 'Food selection in the black howler monkey following habitat disturbance: Implications for the importance of mature leaves', Journal of Tropical Ecology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 153-160.
- Behie, A 2012, 'Book Review: Peter M. Kappeler and David P. Watts (eds):Long-Term Field Studies of Primates', International Journal of Primatology, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 1511-1515.
- Behie, A & PavelKa, M 2012, 'The Role of Minerals in Food Selection in a Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta Pigra) Population in Belize Following a Major Hurricane', American Journal of Primatology, vol. 74, no. 11, pp. 1054-1063.
- Behie, A, PavelKa, M & Chapman, C 2010, 'Sources of Variation in Fecal Cortisol Levels in Howler Monkeys in Belize', American Journal of Primatology, vol. 72, pp. 600-606.
- Kowalzik, B, Pavelka MSM, Kutz S and Behie AM. 2010. Parasites, Primates and Ant-Plants: Clues to the lifecycle of Controrchis sp. in black howler monkeys, Alouatta pigra, in Southern Belize. Journal of Wildlife Disease 46 (4): 1330-1334
- Behie, AM and Pavelka, MSM. 2005. The short-term effect of Hurricane Iris on the diet and activity budget of black howlers (Alouatta pigra) in Monkey River, Belize. Folia Primatologica 76(1): 1-9.
- Pavelka, MSM and Behie, AM. 2005. The effect of Hurricane Iris on the food supply of black howlers (Alouatta pigra) in southern Belize. Biotropica 37(1): 102-108.
- Pavelka, MSM, Brusselers, OT, Nowak, D and Behie, AM. 2003. Population reduction and social disorganization in black howlers (Alouatta pigra) following a hurricane. International Journal of Primatology. 24(5): 1037-1055.
