Research

Sarah Turner received her PhD in primatology (Anthropology) from the University of Calgary. Before joining Concordia University in and becoming a co-researcher in QCBS, Sarah was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology at McGill University and postdoctoral member of QCBS. Her research focuses on the behavioural ecology and behavioural plasticity of nonhuman primates and other animals, especially on how behaviours are influenced by human-induced environmental change. She and her students conduct fieldwork at the Awajishima Monkey Center in Japan, observing the behaviour of free-ranging Japanese macaques with physical disabilities, testing hypotheses related to behavioural plasticity and diversity, mother-infant interactions, habitat use, and social behaviours. She and her students also conduct collaborative field research in northeastern Brazil related to captive welfare, rehabilitation and release of bearded capuchin monkeys, and habitat use and behaviours in Endangered blond capuchin monkeys living in a small fragment of Atlantic Forest. Her students in the Primatology and Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies lab work on a variety of related projects, under the umbrella of biodiversity, conservation, and animal behavioural flexibility in response to human-induced environmental change.