Scholars@Duke
Susan C. Alberts

Susan C. Alberts

Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Biology
Biology
Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708-0338
130 Science Drive, Rm 137, Duke Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708

Featured Works

The Bruce effect should be defined by function, not mechanism: comments on ‘How to escape male infanticide: mechanisms for avoiding or terminating pregnancy in mammals’

Journal article Mammal Review · October 1, 2021 Featured Publication Bartoš et al. (2021; Mammal Review 51: 143–153; https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12219) reviewed the mechanisms involved in the ‘Bruce effect’ – a phenomenon originally documented in inseminated female house mice Mus musculus, who block pregnancy following expo ... Full text Cite

Maternal death and offspring fitness in multiple wild primates.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · January 2021 Featured Publication Primate offspring often depend on their mothers well beyond the age of weaning, and offspring that experience maternal death in early life can suffer substantial reductions in fitness across the life span. Here, we leverage data from eight wild primate pop ... Full text Cite

Social bonds, social status and survival in wild baboons: a tale of two sexes.

Journal article Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · November 2020 Featured Publication People who are more socially integrated or have higher socio-economic status live longer. Recent studies in non-human primates show striking convergences with this human pattern: female primates with more social partners, stronger social bonds or higher do ... Full text Cite

Accelerated reproduction is not an adaptive response to early-life adversity in wild baboons.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · October 2020 Featured Publication In humans and other long-lived species, harsh conditions in early life often lead to profound differences in adult life expectancy. In response, natural selection is expected to accelerate the timing and pace of reproduction in individuals who experience s ... Full text Cite

Effects of body size on estimation of mammalian area requirements.

Journal article Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · August 2020 Featured Publication Accurately quantifying species' area requirements is a prerequisite for effective area-based conservation. This typically involves collecting tracking data on species of interest and then conducting home-range analyses. Problematically, autocorrelation in ... Full text Cite

Social bonds do not mediate the relationship between early adversity and adult glucocorticoids in wild baboons.

Journal article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · August 2020 Featured Publication In humans and other animals, harsh conditions in early life can have profound effects on adult physiology, including the stress response. This relationship may be mediated by a lack of supportive relationships in adulthood. That is, early life adversity ma ... Full text Cite

Genetic ancestry predicts male-female affiliation in a natural baboon hybrid zone

Journal article · 2020 Featured Publication ABSTRACT Opposite-sex social relationships are important predictors of fitness in many animals, including several group-living mammals. Consequently, understanding sources of variance in the tendency to form opposite-sex relationships is importan ... Full text Cite