My post-doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2009-2011) focused on the feeding and socio-ecology of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes, Rwanda.

In collaboration with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, I assessed how the dramatic increase in population density and group size in the Karisoke study area impacts on the habitat, group dynamics (daily travel distance and energy expenditure), female social relationships (dominance interactions, f...

The Nangunhe Nature Reserve in Southwest Yunnan (PRC) has long been presumed to be the last stronghold of white-handed or lar gibbons (Hylobates lar) in China and the likely last place of occurrence of the taxon Hylobates lar yunnanensis.

In 2007, we launched a comprehensive survey to confirm the presence and assess the status of white-handed gibbons at Nangunhe.

We found no visual or auditory evidence of white-handed gibbons still residing at the reserve and therefore tentatively conclude tha...

My Ph.D. research (2005-2009) focused on the evolutionary and ecological determinants of multilevel societies in primates, which are characterized by core family units nested into larger bands. They represent one of the least understood and most complex types of primate social systems.

In collaboration with Carel van Schaik (University of Zurich) and counterparts at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, I conducted a two-year study on the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) in...