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Mars: The Ultimate Voyage
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2025-05-24 12:00 - 13:00

Earth, Moon and Sun
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We Are Stars
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Carolina Science Cafe | Primate Survival
2025-06-03 18:00 - 19:00 | Haw River Tap & Table, 300 E Main St C, Carrboro, NC, 27510, United States
Growing up wild: The challenge of survival for young primates

Join us for our next installment of the Carolina Science Cafe, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s free, current science awareness program. For the August cafe, we will welcome Dr. Susan Alberts, the Robert F. Durden Professor of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University.

Many animals are ready to take on the world as soon as they hatch or are born – they can feed themselves, move where they need to go, and defend themselves against predators. Primates – including lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans – are not like this. They are not only born helpless, but they also develop very slowly, often requiring years to achieve full independence. In this presentation, we’ll talk about the survival gauntlet that young primates face in reaching adulthood, and we’ll hear some vivid examples of how their lives depend on the help of others, including mothers, other family members, age mates, and more distant adults. To tell these stories, Prof. Alberts will draw on her 40 years of experience studying the wild baboons of the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya.

Research in the Alberts Lab investigates the evolution of social behavior, particularly in mammals, with a specific focus on the social behavior, demography, life history, and behavioral endocrinology of wild primates. Their main study system is the baboon population in Amboseli, Kenya, one of the longest-running studies of wild primates in the world, ongoing since 1971.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Cafe is hosted at Haw River Tab & Table in Carrboro on Tuesday, June 3rd, starting at 6:00 p.m. with light appetizers available for all attendees.

About the Speaker

Susan Alberts is Dean of Natural Sciences in Trinity College of Arts & Science at Duke University, and The Robert F. Durden Distinguished Professor of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology. She studies the behavior, ecology, physiology, and genetics of wild populations of large mammals, using longitudinal, individual-based data. She has spent 40 years studying wild baboons in Kenya, and she also studied the socioecology of African elephants for 10 years. She received her B.A. from Reed College, her Ph.D. from University of Chicago, and pursued postdoctoral research at the Harvard University Society of Fellows. She has been on the faculty at Duke University since 1998, supervising undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral researchers. She spends several months each year at her field site in Kenya, and has two children, Michele aged 27 and Teresa aged 21. She is a member of National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Learn More!

Carolina Science Cafe is produced by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and sponsored by the UNC Chapter of Sigma Xi.

You do not need to register…just show up!
