Episode Details

Dr. Christopher Schmitt (evopropinquitous.net) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at UCLA, and his research in primatology focuses on primate development and life history. He joins Jesse, Matt and Andy this week to talk about his high school experiences with field work in Argentina, primate infanticide, collecting howler monkey urine, capucin monkeys sticking their fingers in each others eyes to chill out, the risks of taking selfies with dead hippos when there are lions nearby, floating vegetation islands that transport animals, old world/new world ape divergence, why certain primates are getting obese, Koko the gorilla's nipple obsession, competing brands of chimp-taggin RFID chips and how to get involved in field work right where you live.