Alexa Duchesneau

I am interested in nutritional ecology and how nutrient intake across life history stages interacts with fitness outcomes. I am particularly interested in how climate change impacts nutritional landscapes and how this, in turn, alters nutrient availability and fitness outcomes. My study species is white-faced capuchins in Costa Rica, specifically those that have been studied for 30+ years at Dr. Susan Perry’s field site in Lomas Barbudal. I previously spent a year and a half as a research assistant and field manager at Lomas Barbudal and currently act as the secretary for the associated non-profit organization, The Wild Capuchin Foundation. I also collected data for Dr. Joan Silk’s Comparative Analysis of Baboon Sociality Project studying Anubis baboons in Laikipia, Kenya. Locally, I performed endangered species’ conservation strategies with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and took a fellowship guiding naturalist tours and creating outdoors education programs with the Yale Peabody Museum. My scholarship is, in part, funded by the NSF GRFP.