SHARON GURSKY-DOYEN | ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Biological Anthropology Program Coordinator

PhD SUNY Stony Brook 1997

Specialty: Primate Behavioral Ecology and Conservation

Current Research Projects: I am presently studying ultrasonic vocalizations in Philippine tarsiers, Tarsius syrichta. From June through October 2010 I collected vocalizations at the Philippine Tarsier Foundation Sanctuary in Corella, Bohol. I made recordings on a Wildlife Acoustics Ultrasonic Song Meter 2 from 29 wild adult resident Tarsius syrichta (23 females and 6 males). I found that the ultrasonic vocalizations fell into three main categories: chirps, twitters, and whistles. Chirps were the most frequent ultrasonic vocalization, followed by twitters and then whistles. While chirps and twitters were emitted by both male and female Philippine tarsiers, whistles were only emitted by adult males. Given that the vocalizations reported in this study were exclusively recorded during capture and handling, it is likely that these particular ultrasonic vocalizations function as a form of alarm call. However, as the long whistle was only given by adult males who were captured at the same time as the female or the group's infant the function of the long whistle might be different than the function of the other relatively lower frequency ultrasonic vocalizations. My future research will focus on elucidating the function of the ultrasonic vocalization for this species.

Courses Taught:
Introduction to Anthropology (Anth 201)
Peoples and Cultures of the World (Anth 205)
Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Anth 225)
Introduction to Primates (Anth 405)
Primate Conservation (Anth 489)
Biological Anthropology (Anth 601)
Primate Behavioral Ecology: The Great Apes (Anth 631)

Current Graduate Students: Nanda Grow, Alicia Krzton, Nichole Roatch, Joshua Sodowsky

Representative Publications:

Gursky-Doyen, S., Salibay C, Cuevas, C. (2011). Conservation Status of the Philippine Tarsier. Folia Primatologica. 82(3):189-196.

Gursky-Doyen S. (2011). Infanticide By a Male Spectral tarsier. (Tarsius spectrum). Primates 52:385-389.

Gursky-Doyen, S. and Supriatna J. (2010). Indonesian Primates. NY. Springer Publishing

Gursky-Doyen, S. (2010). Intraspecific Variation in the Mating System of Spectral Tarsiers. International Journal of Primatology 31:1161-1173.

Gursky-Doyen, S. (2010). Dispersal Patterns in Tarsius spectrum. International Journal of Primatology.31:117-131.