Alexa Duchesneau

Grant Type

Dissertation Fieldwork Grant

Institutional Affiliation

Yale U.

Grant number

Gr. 10501

Approve Date

April 6, 2023

Project Title

Duchesneau, Alexa (Yale U.) "Nutrition, diet, life history and fitness: A case study with female white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus)"

ALEXA DUCHESNEAU, then a graduate student at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, was awarded funding in April 2023 to aid research on “Nutrition, Diet, Life History and Fitness: A Case Study with Female White-faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus),” supervised by Dr. David Watts. The project is a study exploring what monkeys require to live and reproduce and answer the question: does what you eat throughout your lifetime impact your lifespan and reproduction? This question is important to ask for humans, because optimal nutrition has been shown to interact with survival and reproduction in other species. However, these dynamics are largely unknown in humans and challenging to explore, because we are long lived and must account for countless social, political and cultural influences. After 15 months with 8 focal monkeys and 524 food samples, laboratory results are illuminating food nutrients within selected monkey foods. So far, it seems as though capuchin chosen foods may be relatively high in fat content and relatively low in protein content. It is possible that these findings could indicate that high fat, low protein foods are important for large-brained, long-living species, such as humans. It is also possible that food selection between individuals could be such that food selection impacts individual survival and reproduction. Continued laboratory and statistical analyses will refine and contextualize these results.