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Many people ask me how I got into studying gibbons for a living, and quite honestly there is no direct answer to that question, because it wasn’t a direct route. When I was growing up in Burlington, I wanted to be many things: first on the list (so I’m told by my parents) was a “ballerina hockey player” but that’s too far back for me to even remember saying, and I don’t really dance or skate these days so that was probably a bit of a stretch. One clear target that I do know from as far back as I can remember is that I always wanted to get my PhD. By the time I was about 4 or 5 years old, I had firmly established in my mind that I wanted to be called “Dr. Prime” when I grew up because that’s my Dad’s name (he has a PhD in chemistry), and I wanted to be like my Dad. So from the moment I first started school until this very day, that destination has always firmly held the course, and thus likely guided the navigation parameters since then. The rest of the story follows with many sente

In honour of Jane Goodall's talk in my hometown of Burlington, ON, tonight, I am reposting a piece I wrote about my experience volunteering at the Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute prior to starting grad school titled: "Appearances Can Be Deceiving" Enjoy :) --- One day when I was volunteering at the Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute in Ellensburg, Washington, where Washoe (the famous chimpanzee trained in American Sign Language) and her family live, an argument broke out between the chimps. At the time there were 4 chimps living in the facility, in order of dominance rank: Washoe, her adopted son Loulis, Tatu, and Dar. I was in the observation area recording their independent, seemingly peaceful, behaviour for a paper project conducted by Dr. Mary Lee Jensvold when the tension broke out and chaos ensued. The chimps were screaming loudly, jumping from platforms to the ground, and swinging on fire hoses and tires hung around the enclosure for e