Asian Ape Project, Thailand

conducted by Dr. Ulrich H. Reichard

Focus

The Asian Ape project focus is to understand the evolutionary origins of humankind and to contribute answers to the question: What makes us human?

Humans and non-human primates, particularly apes, share a long evolutionary history, which allows scientists to use a comparative approach to trace the origin of human social and cultural behavior. The Asian Ape project concentrates on one of the least known and taxonomically most diverse groups of living apes, gibbons (Genus: Hylobates), as model organisms for understanding human evolution.

We study the socioecology of the largest habituated white-handed gibbon population in southeast Asia year-round at a field station at Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. One of the specific aims of the project is to unraveling causes and consequences of monogamy, a form of sociosexual organization that among the apes only gibbons share with humans.

Current projects focus on topics such as gibbon life history, the variable mating system, behavioral endocrinology, home-range ecology and predation pressure. I plan to initiate also a study on the closely related, endangered pileated gibbon (H. pileatus), which occurs allopatrically with white-handed gibbons at Khao Yai National Park, except for a small hybrid zone.

Our research is guided by evolutionary theory building on the idea that the morphology, behavior and cognition of all living organisms evolved over time through the processes of selection and adaptation.