The Nonhuman Primates
Spring 2025 | T/Th 1:30-3:20pm | THO 125
Course Overview & Learning Goals
This course will introduce you to our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. We will review their origins, morphology, characteristics and behavior, major evolutionary trends, and modern taxonomic relationships. We’ll also focus on distribution and habitat in relation to behavioral and morphological adaptations, conservation, ethnoprimatology, disease transmission, field research, and the cultural roles that nonhuman primates play in human communities across the globe. You should leave this course with the following:
- Knowledge of primate taxonomy and the ability to recognize and identify primates according physical and behavioral traits
- Understanding of core concepts in the distribution, social organization, behavior, and reproduction of primates
- Exposure to the major themes in current primatology as they relate to the species/genera reviewed in this course
- Understanding of the interaction and importance of conservation, ethics, and human-nonhuman primate relationships in regard to primatological study and primate distribution
Coursework
Students are expected to attend all lectures. Coursework is organized by week in the Canvas MODULES – each with a Summary Page with that week’s lecture topics, assigned readings, and once available, links to lecture materials. (Lecture slides will be available via Canvas within 24 hrs after each class meeting. I do not provide slides in advance.)
Assignment Categories:
20% Assignments (quizzes, films, etc.)
14% Journal entries (4) for A Primate’s Memoir
22% Exam 1
22% Exam 2
22% Final Project chosen from these options:
Readings:
- Primate Adaptation & Evolution(3rd Ed.) John G. Fleagle, San Diego: Elsevier, 2013 – Select chapters available on Canvas
- A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Robert M. Sapolsky, New York: Touchstone, 2002. (Available as an eBook through UW libraries)
- Supplemental readings available on Canvas
Grade Scale: