Mel Zarate

Matriculated September 2020

Research Interests

Conservation; population and landscape genetics; altitude adaptation and habitat suitability of endangered new world monkeys.

About

Mel Zarate is an ecologist and primatologist that has been working in Dr. Christopher Schmitt’s lab since beginning her master’s in ecology, behavior, and evolution in 2018 at BU. She is currently investigating the population structure and genetic diversity of the Critically Endangered Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey using samples that she collected in Peru during her field season in 2019, and samples she intends to collect in future field seasons. With the goal of contributing her research to conservation efforts, Mel is interested in how the genetics of different subpopulations of the species may be impacted by habitat fragmentation and geographic barriers using novel landscape mitogenomic methods.

Before starting her Ph.D. at BU, Mel obtained a B.S. in biology and environmental studies from Denison University and has studied the influences of anthropogenic activities on many taxa, such as amphibians, elephants, and invertebrates. In the Spring of 2020, she completed her master’s thesis investigating the habitat suitability of the yellow-tailed woolly monkey by using environmental variables and newly discovered localities of the species.

Awards & Grants

• NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG). (Fall 2023).
• Long-term (GRAF) Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship. (used Fall 2022).
• International Primatological Society Research Grant. (2022).
• Primate Action Fund. (2022).
• Boston University Denton Award for Most Outstanding Master’s Thesis. (2020).
• American Society of Primatologist award. (2019)
• Marsh Biodiversity Foundation award. (2019)
• Primate Conservation, Inc. award. (2019)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). (June 2019 – June 2022).

Publications

• Zarate, M. A., Charpentier, E., Shanee, S. and Schmitt, C. A. In prep. Expanded distribution and predicted suitable habitat for the Critically Endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey. In review.

• Grube, N. T., Gagnon, C. M., & Zarate, M. A. (2022). Primatology and evolutionary anthropology at the 91st meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews.

• McHugh, S. M., Cornejo, F. M., McKibben, J., Zarate, M., Tello, C., Jiménez, C. F., & Schmitt, C. A. (2020). First record of the Peruvian yellow-tailed woolly monkey Lagothrix flavicauda in the Región Junín, Peru. Oryx, 54(6), 814-818.