Overview
My research focuses on the behavior and ecology of non-human primates, including how primates balance cooperation and competition in their breeding strategies. In addition, I examine how animals mitigate the costs of temperature extremes through behavior and the use of microhabitats. Our results help us better understand the vulnerabilities of species facing more extreme weather fluctuations. [note that Dr. Digby is not accepting graduate students at this time]
General Research Interests include:
Evolution of Primate & Human Social Behavior
Primate Behavioral Ecology
Mammalian Reproductive Strategies, Mating Systems, and Infanticide
Primate Microhabitat Use
Primate Behavioral Thermoregulation
Marmosets and Tamarins
Lemurs
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Associate Professor of the Practice of Evolutionary Anthropology
·
2009 - Present
Evolutionary Anthropology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Undergraduate Studies of Evolutionary Anthropology
·
2021 - Present
Evolutionary Anthropology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Scholarly Works
Reproductive skew, cooperative breeding, and eusociality in vertebrates: Hormones
Book section · January 1, 2026 Reproductive skew, the degree of asymmetry in direct reproductive success among individuals within a social group, is most pronounced in cooperatively breeding and eusocial species. In these animals, reproductive failure in males is usually mediated by inh ... Full text CiteCooperative breeding
Book section · January 1, 2018 Cooperative breeding is a social system in which group members help raise dependent young that are not their own, often delaying their own reproduction. This system of altruistic infant care has long raised questions about how a seemingly maladaptive syste ... Full text CiteCross-species parasite patterns: Pinworm prevalence in captive lemurs.
Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY · January 1, 2013 Link to item CiteEducation
University of California, Davis ·
1994
Ph.D.