“10 years to tool use with the sea monkeys of Thailand”: talk and discussion by Dr Amanda Tan,
Dr Amanda Tan is a psychology graduate from NUS’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences who joined primate researcher Michael Gumert at at NTU for her PhD in primate behaviour. She had sat in on my LSM1303 Animal Behaviour class many years ago and some of my guest lectures at Gumert’s Conservation Psychology class at NTU. So I was very glad last week to be able to proudly introduce her to my class and listen to her speak to them.
It was an excellent session for the students, and she had put it together the night before the lecture as she had just returned from her field site in Thailand. Realising she would be leaving very soon for her post-doctorate in the US, I scrambled to set up this session and was very glad I did – 13 people from the community turned up through storms and floods in Singapore for a very engaging session!
Amanda delivered an informative, delightful and thoroughly inspiring talk about the tool-using long-tailed macaques of Thailand. Covering highlights of the scientific work by Michael Gumert, herself and their collaborators over a decade, she knew to make the research results very accessible and footage of the fascinating behaviours of the macaques did the rest!
A lengthy Q&A session followed in the cosy environment of the RVRC Active Learning Seminar Room during which we realised there were still many aspects of behaviours of not only the sea monkeys, but also of our own forest macaques are far from known. Certainly a motivating talk to be repeated!
Toddycats commented,
“It was so good to hear such research work and appreciation of animals in their habitat! Amanda will be such an inspiration to young ecolologists and girls who aspire to do science or psychology” – Adrian Loo
“A very interesting topic plus well polished talk by Amanda. Really enjoyed listening to stories of stone tools in long tailed macaques. Really can’t imagine the amount of detailed work put in to talk about a decade worth of research.” – Xu Weiting
“Yeah the talk was very engaging and easy to follow! :)” – Joys Tan
And Amanda later said,
“Think I answered more questions at the Q&A after my talk than at my thesis defense! Thanks @sivasothi for inviting me, and everyone who showed such keen interest in the monkeys and the work. I was dreading public speaking, but it turned out to be the most encouraging part of my day.”
Thanks @thelongtails – we hope to hear more from you soon!
NUS Toddycats! 