Group news

Vero and Anaid's achievements at the MVZ Symposium.

1/16/2025

Congratulations to Vero for receiving the Field Survival Award and Anaid for earning the Adventure Spirit Award at the MVZ Symposium! Your dedication and passion for field research continue to inspire us all.

Vero

Anaid

New publications

12/16/2024

A paper led by Dr. Jadelys Tonos, published in Functional Ecology, explores how the foraging strategies by a frugivorous primate (Eulemur rubriventer) shape spatial patterns of seed dispersal.
Research on promoting equitable research partnership in Primatology, published in International Journal of Primatology
Research on facilitated forest restoration using pioneer seed dispersers in Madagascar: The example of Microcebus spp., published in Land

Congratulations Onja!

10/31/2024

Onja is the first recipient of Rice's School of Natural Sciences Alumni Award—what an incredible and well-deserved honor!

Welcome Sabine!

9/17/2024

We're delighted to welcome Dr. Sabine Cudney-Valenzuela as a Postdoctoral Scholar.

Sabine's research is guided by the intention to understand the cascading effects of land-use change on biodiversity and ecological processes, and to find solutions to mitigate these pressures. Her research integrates multiple areas of ecology (e.g., landscape ecology, community ecology, functional ecology) and takes place in anthropogenic landscapes of Mexico, Colombia, and Madagascar. With a particular love for tree heights and spying on wildlife, Sabine’s methods frequently involve arboreal camera trapping and other conservation technologies.

Welcome Hannah!

8/21/2024

We're happy to welcome Hannah Hilden-Reid as a PhD student in the lab. She recently finshed a Master's degree in Anthropology from Portland State University, having dedicated her thesis work to examining Varecia rubra (red ruffed lemur) diel activity.

Summer 2024 highlights

8/16/2024

Most of us were on field expeditions in Madagascar and Mexico over the summer. In addition to a productive field season, we also made great achievements in other areas

Awards

Kat and Vero recieved awards for best student presentations at the annual meeting of ATBC (Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation) and the FSD (Frugivores and Seed Dispersal) symposium
Vero was awarded an NSF - DDRIG (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant)
Onja selected as a Hellman Fellow

Publications

Vero's 1st PhD Chapter reviewing the role of nocturnal, small-bodied and ominovorous lemurs published in Biotropica
A paper led by collaborator Seheno Andriantsaralaza about the seed dispersal of an iconic Malagasy baobab species published in Biotropica
Research examining the structure of plant-lemur interactions published in Conservation Biology
Another paper investigating the biotic and abiotic dispersla of a large-seeded keystone genus in Madagascar, Canarium, published in Biodiversity and Conservation

Others

Student affiliate Tanjona defendes his Master thesis at the University of Antananarivo
Dr. Jadelys Tonos starts a new faculty position at San Francisco State University this fall

January 16th, 2024

1/16/2024

We're starting the new year with some great news!

Onja Razafindratsima and colleagues were awarded an NSF Biodiversity on a Changing Planet grant to conduct a project investigating the cascading impacts of landscape structure on forest regeneration
Jadelys Tonos Luciano was awarded a grant from Primate Conservation, Inc. for her work on lemur ecology in Ranomafana
A group of us along with our collaborators in Madagascar, UK and Mexico were awarded a National Geographic Society grant for a new project that uses a multi-method approach for biodiversity assessment in non-protected areas in Madagascar.

New paper

8/30/2023

PhD students Veronarindra Ramananjato & Nancia Raoelinjanakolona, along with colleagues, have a new publication in the American Journal of Anthropology, about a toolkit to improve data quality of multi-researcher datasets for analyzing morphological variation in mouse lemurs:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajpa.24836

Photograph by Veronarindra Ramananjato

Highlights (copied from the article)

Morphological variation is commonly used to infer environmental adaptations and phylogenetic relationships in animal taxa, but multi-researcher datasets can hamper analyses due to inter-observer biases.
Our filtering pipeline markedly improved data quality for downstream analyses and highlights key steps in data quality assessment for generating reliable results.
Across species, mouse lemurs are sexually dimorphic (with larger females), do not follow Rensch's rule for sexual size dimorphism or Bergmann's rule (as larger mouse lemur taxa live in warmer and wetter climates) but are concordant with Allen's rule with regard to having shorter tails in colder environments.

Congratulations Anaid & Vero!

8/16/2023

Congratulations Anaid for being awarded a research grant from Re:wild and Vero for a best student presentation at ATBC conference!

Spring 2023 highlights

5/9/2023

Looking back at our achievements this semester, here are some of the highlights ... now we're off to fieldwork

Awards

Anaid and Nancia were awarded research grants from The Rufford Foundation for their PhD projects in Mexico and Madagascar, respectively
Kat and Vero were selected as Rocca fellows by the Center for African Studies
Rindra was awarded a Primate Action Fund grant
Vero was selected as an International Peace Scholar by the Philanthropic Educational Organization, and received Outstanding GSI Award for her excellent work as a graduate student instructor in IB.

Varecia variegata editorum in Ranomafana National Park. Photo by Onja Razafindratsima

Publications

Onja and colleagues reviewed the importance of regenerating forests for primates in anthropogenic landscapes in this book chapter

Others

Kat passed her Qualifying Exam in April and is now a doctoral candidate
Diary Randriamora joined our group as a mentee through the National Geographic Society STEM Field Assistant Program
Rindra Nantenaina, a PhD student at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar spent five weeks as a Visiting Student in the lab in Berkeley.

Representative members and friends of the lab, Spring 2023. From left to right: Asher, Mamy-Fy Rakotondrainibe, Anaid Cardenas Navarrete, Kat Culbertson, Rindra Nantenaina, Jade Tonos, Ella Matsuda, Onja Razafindratsima, Kova

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