Credit: Provided by Boston University
Summary:
Andrea DiGiorgio explores what big primates eat and why we should care
Full Text:
Andrea DiGiorgio—former corporate saleswoman, current Boston University Ph.D. candidate—is going to spend 2015 chasing orangutans through the jungles of Borneo, gathering samples of their food.
(Who said science isn’t fun?) Funded by a three-year Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation, DiGiorgio’s goal is to learn more about primates by studying what they eat. Orangutans are endangered and may go extinct in a few decades. Understanding their diets may lead to better conservation strategies. She also hopes to gain understanding about the current (human) obesity epidemic.