Professor Diane M. Doran-Sheehy
Ph.D. University at Stony Brook, 1989
Contact Information:
email:
Diane.Doran@sunysb.edu
Phone: (631) 632-9445
Research Interests:
Dr. Doran-Sheehy's research focuses on the behavioral ecology of African apes. Her research approach is comparative; she has studied all African ape species, including chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. Her research has focused on three major areas: 1) positional behavior of African apes to provide models for understanding early hominid locomotor behavior, 2) the relationship of foraging strategy and social organization in western lowland gorillas in order to assess how ecological factors influence social behavior, and 3) niche separation of sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees to ascertain the role of interspecific competition in the evolution of social behavior of closely related species. Currently she is habituating western lowland gorillas at the Mondika Research Center, a study site she established in 1995 in the Ndoki-Sangha National Park of the Central African Republic. Her long-term research plans, to conduct concurrent studies of foraging strategy and social behavior in ten sympatric primate species at Mondika, will provide numerous research opportunities for interested Stony Brook IDPAS students.
