"Vertical Climbing Efficiency in Primates"
Click image for larger version.
Jandy Hanna
Duke University
The goal of this project is to understand the metabolic costs of climbing among primates with adaptations to climbing compared to more generalized species, and to determine whether differences in step length may explain differences in metabolic costs. To do this, I encourage subjects to climb a variable-speed rope treadmill for approximately 30 minutes. During this climbing period, I collect oxygen consumption data in order to assess metabolic costs, and videorecord the climbing for future step length analyses. At the Duke Lemur Center, I am working with three species of prosimians: Loris tardigradus (the slender loris), Cheirogaleus medius (the fat-tailed dwarf lemur), and Nycticebus coucang (the slow loris). These data will be important for understanding climbing form-function relationships and how such relationships have influenced primate locomotor evolution.