Amy M. Scott

Graduated May 2021

Research Interests

Indonesia, primate behavior and ecology, orangutans, reproductive strategies, sexual conflict

About

Amy is a PhD candidate studying Bornean orangutans in Dr. Cheryl Knott’s lab. She is interested in orangutan reproductive strategies, particularly in how sexual conflict shapes male and female behavior and interactions. Her doctoral research combines behavioral data collection in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia; long-term behavioral data analysis; non-invasive genetic paternity analysis; and GIS analysis. Amy’s primatology experience also includes working as a field assistant for the Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project, studying wild white-faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica, and as a field assistant for the Boston University Vervet Monkey Project, sampling vervet growth, genomics, and health indicators in South Africa. 

Awards

• Cora Du Bois Fellowship (2020)
• The Leakey Foundation Research Grant 
• Boston University Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship (GRAF)
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
• Dean’s Fellowship

Publications

• Scott, A.M., Knott, C.D. & Susanto, T.W. (2019). Are male orangutans a threat to infants? Evidence of mother-offspring counterstrategies to infanticide in Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). International Journal of Primatology, 40(3), 435-455.
• Knott, C.D., Scott, A.M., O’Connell, C.A., Scott, K.S., Laman, T.G., &Susanto, T.W. (2019). Possible male infanticide in wild orangutans and a re-evaluation of infanticide risk. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 7806.