A recent essay by award-winning science writer Emily Anthes titled "In Defense of Dumb Dogs: Your pet is (probably) not a genius, and that’s OK" has generated countless emails, texts, and in-person comments.In a 2013 interview in Scientific American, dog expert Dr. Brian Hare, co-author of The Genius of Dogs with Vanessa Wood and founder of the Duke Canine Cognition Center, was asked, “What is the biggest misconception people have about the dog mind?” His answer: “That there are ‘smart’ dogs and ‘dumb’ dogs.... There’s… read more about Duke Canine Researchers Stress the Importance of Being Dog Literate and Dog Smart »
The world’s largest-known group of chimpanzees recently burst into a lethal conflict. Much like in a civil war, the group fractured into two. Then one faction began killing their former group mates on the other side, researchers write today in the journal Science. It’s an exceedingly rare event: scientists estimate that chimpanzee communities split, on average, every 500 years.The paper is “a tour de force,” said Joseph Feldblum, an evolutionary anthropologist affiliated with Duke University, who was not involved… read more about Joseph Feldblum Discusses the Two Hundred Chimpanzee War »
On the last full day of his life, Basie, a large gregarious male chimpanzee, woke up at dawn in a tree nest he’d fashioned from branches and leaves, surrounded by other chimps also dozing in nests, as he’d done nearly every day for 36 years in the forest. After an ordinary day of swinging between trees and snacking on ripe figs, danger appeared. A patrol group of about 13 adult chimps from the opposing faction arrived as daylight began to fade. Three adults surrounded Basie, who jumped from a tree. Then 10 chimps… read more about Duke Primatologist Anne Pusey Emphasizes How Chimpanzee Societies Crumble »
For years, two sets of chimpanzees lived as one in Uganda’s Kibale National Park — grooming, interacting and patrolling their territory in a cohesive community.Then suddenly, one set charged the other, touching off yearslong bloodshed that researchers are comparing to a human civil war.“It was just chaos,” said John Mitani, a professor emeritus in anthropology at the University of Michigan who had been following the chimpanzees for two decades when the violence began in 2015. “They started to scream, shout, chase each other… read more about Duke Professor Emerita Observed Violent Split Among Ngogo Chimpanzees »
Duke University is known for its top-tier academics, cutting-edge research, and legendary basketball team, but if you ask students their favorite thing about Duke, a number of them will answer, “The puppies.” A group of Duke students have stepped up to keep the Duke Puppy Kindergarten open. Vanessa Woods, with the Duke Puppy Kindergarten, joined Jeff Hamlin to discuss how the students helped. read more about Duke Professor Shares How Students Stepped In to Save Puppy Kindergarten »
DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — Duke University is known for its top-tier academics, cutting-edge research, and legendary basketball team, but if you ask students their favorite thing about Duke, a number of them will answer, “The puppies.” “I honestly think it’s the best part of my Duke experience,” said Clara Cornick, who volunteers with Duke Puppy Kindergarten. At Puppy Kindergarten, future service dogs play, learn, and socialize, gaining skills that will help them in their work. “They are much more confident than dogs… read more about Duke University Professor Highlights Student Effort to Help Puppy Kindergarten »
Herman Pontzer, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinguished honors in the scientific community. Pontzer’s research explores the physiology of humans and apes to better understand how ecology, lifestyle, diet and evolutionary history shape metabolism and health. His work also examines how ecological and evolutionary forces influence musculoskeletal design and patterns of physical activity.… read more about Duke Professor Herman Pontzer Elected AAAS Fellow »
A new analysis has revealed that aerobic exercise raises total daily calorie burn far less than expected, especially when people diet at the same time.The finding recasts a basic assumption of weight loss: calories spent in a workout do not simply stack onto the body’s daily total. Across 14 trials, the missing calories surfaced in the gap between what workouts should have added and what the body actually spent.Working through those records at Duke University, Herman Pontzer found that aerobic exercise usually increased… read more about Duke Professor Herman Pontzer Emphasizes That “Your Workout Isn’t Burning as Many Calories as You Think” »
It’s common to hear athletes describe themselves and their teammates as “dawgs,” but Duke’s locker room, quite literally, featured a canine companion.Rina is the team puppy. She wore a “service dog” vest and purple bedazzled collar. It coordinated well with Coach Kara Lawson’s jacket. About 10 minutes later, Rina sat peacefully on the podium — she was a very good girl — during Lawson’s pregame March Madness news conference. Lawson said it was Rina’s last day with the program before attending graduation outside the campus… read more about Duke Women’s Basketball's Team Dog is a Canine Cognition Center Puppy »
It's a recurring question that confronts weight-watchers whoseenormous appetite for exercises does not quite translate into weightloss: why don't I lose nearly as much weight as I burn calories?An analysis of 14 trials spanning 450 people has, by some distance,provided answers. In what they described as a 28 percent rule,researchers at Duke University in the US observed that the human bodymakes up for an exercise in increased activity by reducing energyexpenditure on other biological functions by 28 percent. This… read more about Herman Pontzer On What Happens When Exercises Don’t Trigger Weight Loss »
Online tools have long promised to demystify and streamline calorie tracking. Because if you can track your calories, you can create a calorie “deficit.” And taking in fewer calories than you expend ("calories in, calories out"—or CICO, as it’s known) has long seemed like the most airtight theory in health.And so many calorie-tracking apps depend on CICO for users. MyFitnessPal, the genre’s OG, launched way back in 2005. More than 20 years later, the service now holds a database of nutritional information for more than 11… read more about Herman Pontzer Breaks Down Why Calorie Tracking Doesn’t Always Lead to Weight Loss »
Doug Boyer, associate professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, received the American Association of Biological Anthropologists (AABA) Mid-Career Research Award, which honors mid-career scholars whose work has significantly advanced biological anthropology. Boyer’s research focuses on primate evolution and its environmental context, combining fossil discovery, analytical methods and a commitment to open and inclusive data sharing that has reshaped how comparative biological data are used worldwide. Boyer has been… read more about Doug Boyer Wins American Association of Biological Anthropologists Mid-Career Research Award »
No, chimpanzees and other great apes cannot breed with monkeys. Even though we often think of primates – the order of mammals that includes great apes such as chimps and ourselves, gibbons, monkeys and much smaller mainly arboreal creatures such as bushbabies, galagos and lemurs – as being closely related, the common ancestor for this group goes back tens of millions of years.How long ago?The animals that became great apes split from those that became monkeys an estimated 25-30 million years ago. That’s a lot of time for… read more about Jenny Tung Discusses How "20-30 Percent of all Primate Species Interbreed With One Another" »
For years, weight loss advice has sounded simple enough: move more, burn more calories, lose weight. Go for a run, hit the gym, sweat it out. But over the past decade, a growing body of research has started to question how effective exercise really is when it comes to shedding kilos. Several large studies now suggest that exercise alone may not lead to the kind of weight loss most people expect. That does not mean exercise is pointless. It just means the story is more complicated.One of the strongest explanations comes from… read more about Duke Professor Talks About The Science Behind Exercise and Body Weight »
Most dog owners think their dog is the best, smartest dog to ever walk the planet. Of course, they're all correct because it's obviously a tie between every dog that has ever existed. But a new study from Duke's Canine Cognition Lab confirms that dogs are actually a lot smarter than humans initially gave them credit for.The study spanned five years as PhD student, Hannah Salomons and the rest of the Duke team partnered with a national service dog organization, Canine Companions. They were joined by other organizations to… read more about Hannah Salomons Explains How New Duke Study Reveals Dogs Are Smarter Than Originally Thought, Anticipating Unsaid Commands »
From primate biology to modern weight loss debates, Herman Pontzer, PhD, traces how evolution shaped a metabolism built for movement, adaptation, and survival. Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer, PhD, thought he knew what he’d find when he traveled to Tanzania to live among the Hadza, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer communities on Earth. The Hadza walk miles each day across the dry savannah, hunting game and gathering roots, berries, and honey. Surely, Pontzer figured, they must burn more… read more about Why Exercise Doesn’t Burn More Calories — And Why That’s Not the Point »
As a corner of Africa heats up, new research by Chris Drea shows how the future of the species rests with powerful matriarchs making tough choices for survival. read more about Why Alpha Females Reign Supreme in Meerkat World »
Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has invited its faculty to submit proposals for the creation of new research initiatives on campus.Following the successful launches of the SPACE Initiative and the Society-Centered AI Initiative, the Trinity Research Initiative will support new directions for interdisciplinary research through seed funding for nascent research collaborations, community-building, and complementary educational and outreach activities.Open to all areas of research and… read more about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Invites Proposals for New Research Initiatives »
In 2018, Hannah Salomons began a research journey that would span five years, several cities and more than 100 puppies training to be service animals.A project that began in her first year as a Ph.D. student evolved into one of the most detailed longitudinal studies ever conducted on puppy cognition.The goal? To understand how puppies develop thinking skills such as memory, impulse control, and the ability to interpret human gestures. She also is looking to uncover clues about how these skills evolved, and whether early… read more about Inside the Minds of Puppies: How Do They Develop Their Thinking Skills? »
Colder weather means it’s time to curl up with a book. New readings from Duke authors include everything from a mystery and a middle-grade novel to books on privacy, hip-hop and fast fashion. Below is a roundup of some of the most recent and upcoming published titles. Many of the books, including new editions of previous titles, can be found on the “Duke Authors” display shelves near the circulation desk in Perkins Library. Some are available as e-books for quick download. Most can also be purchased through the… read more about Books for When There’s a Chill in the Air »
Whether you realize it or not, you spend a large chunk of your day weighing conflicting evidence. It is a hallmark of human rationality that shows up in many of our decisions. But new research shows we might not be alone in our ability to revise our beliefs in light of new information—chimpanzees can do it, too.Belief revision is the process by which humans evaluate an overall set of evidence and make the best choice, discarding weaker evidence in favor of stronger evidence, like a jury does during a witness testimony. It’s… read more about Brian Hare Quoted on Chimpanzees Weighing Evidence to Make a Smart Choice »
I walked into Penn Pavilion with the plan to stop by one or two tables for a quick chat. I left hours later with a bag full of free goodies and a newfound understanding of what being a student at Duke can look like.The seemingly endless aisles of tables featuring academic departments, certificate programs and student resources felt like a maze of different opportunities and possibilities. Each table was decorated to be its own vibrant universe. While I may have stopped by a few tables for their bowls full of treats or the… read more about A First-Year Student’s Perspective on the Majors Fair »
Jane Goodall, pioneering chimpanzee researcher, conservationist, and animal rights activist, died on Wednesday at the age of 91.Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks about Goodall's life, work and legacy with Dr. Anne Pusey, former director of the Jane Goodall Institute Center for Primate Studies and emeritus professor at Duke University. read more about Anne Pusey: Remembering Jane Goodall's Life and Work »
I owe my career to Jane Goodall.In 1970, she had already been studying chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania for 10 years and was seeking a research assistant to join her team. I was finishing my zoology degree at Oxford and in search of graduate school opportunities to study animal behavior. Her former PhD advisor in Cambridge received our letters at the same time and put us in touch, changing my life forever.I worked with Jane and her team following the chimpanzees daily over five magical years. After gaining my… read more about Anne Pusey: Remembering Jane Goodall »
What’s the science of what makes humans special? Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O’Reilly explore how we evolved to be different from each other, what's up with Neanderthal DNA, and humanity's superpower with evolutionary anthropologist, Herman Pontzer. read more about The Power of Adaptability with Herman Pontzer »
A newly released study from Duke University’s Pontzer Lab, housed in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, looks at the correlations between economic development, daily energy expenditure and the rise in a country’s obesity level. While many experts have offered that rising obesity rates are due to declining physical activity as societies become more industrialized, the findings show that people in wealthier countries expend just as much — or even more — energy daily. In… read more about New Duke Study Finds Obesity Rises with Caloric Intake, Not Couch Time »
We think of friendship as offering people we meet in the course of our lives our support without strings – not stemming from family ties, sexual attraction, personal gain or duty. Friendship works on an emotional level to enhance our lives in ways that cannot always be quantified. read more about Duke Study Explored the Social Lives of 37 Female Chimpanzees to See if Sisterhood Exists in the Animal World – with Amazing Results »
Pastoralist animal herders in northern Kenya endure some of the harshest conditions on the planet. But efforts to improve their health may be undermining their most successful survival strategies. read more about Health Lessons From Animal Herders in Kenya »
Obesity is uncommon among Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Tsimane forager-farmers in Bolivia, Tuvan herder-farmers in Siberia and other people in less-developed nations. But it’s widespread among those of us in wealthy, highly industrialized nations. Why? A major study published this week in PNAS brings surprising clarity to that question. Using objective data about metabolic rates and energy expenditure among more than 4,000 men and women living in dozens of nations across a broad spectrum of socioeconomic… read more about What Causes Obesity? A Major New Study from Duke Researchers Is Upending Common Wisdom »