SXU Students Study Animal Behavior
During the fall 2023 semester, Saint Xavier University (SXU) psychology and anthropology students and faculty studied animal behavior at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Faculty members Kelsey Moreno, Ph.D., psychology professor, and Paige Woolfolk, anthropology professor, wanted to provide their students with a high-impact learning opportunity to expand on course topics. In Moreno's course, students were studying animal behavior and cognition, and in Woolfolk's course, students were studying primate behavior, anatomy and locomotion.
"Students in anthropology use primate behavior to better understand human behavior, the behavior of extinct hominins, and our evolutionary past in general. Anthropologists use primate behavior to study non-human primates in their own right and to help with primate conservation since so many species are endangered. Since primates are so closely related to us, we are able to observe their cognition, social behaviors, infant care, mating behaviors and other behaviors to learn more about our closest relatives and ourselves," said Woolfolk.
The students practiced different behavior observation techniques they learned about in class and observed allgrooming (a form of caregiving through physical contact) and locomotion behaviors (swinging through trees, climbing, leaping and walking on all fours). The students noticed in particular how primates use allgrooming to create and maintain social bonds.
Students enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about what it is like for biological anthropologists to work in the field and to practice anthropological methods firsthand.
"It was fantastic seeing students make connections between what they learned in the classroom and the behaviors and adaptations they observed at the zoo. I hope students who attended got a taste for what some anthropologists and psychologists do in the field and learned even more about animal behavior and adaptations," said Woolfolk.