Susan Lappan PhD

Education: Ph.D. 2005 New York University; M.A. 1999 New York University; B.A. 1989 Duke University. Areas of Research/Interest: Biological anthropology, primate behavior, ecology, conservation biology, small apes; Indonesia, Malaysia. Background: Dr. Lappan is a biological anthropologist and behavioral ecologist interested in the relationships among habitat characteristics, social organization, and male and female reproductive strategies. Her research primarily uses behavioral and ecological data from wild populations of nonhuman primates. Taxonomically, most of her research has been on the behavioral ecology of gibbons (family Hylobatidae), the small apes of Asia. Since 2000, she has been conducting research on wild siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) in the Way Canguk Research Area, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia in collaboration with the Universitas Indonesia, the Universitas Lampung, and Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Program. In 2007, she collaborated with researchers from Ewha Womans University in South Korea and the Institut Pertanian Bogor in Indonesia to initiate a research project focusing on Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch) in the Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, Java, Indonesia. One of the most important goals of her research is to contribute to the conservation of primates and primate habitats.

There are 16 included publications by Susan Lappan PhD:

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Are Social Media Reports Useful For Assessing Small Ape Occurrence? A Pilot Study From Peninsular Malaysia 2020 36 Citizen science-based research has been used effectively to estimate animal abundance and breeding patterns, to monitor animal movement, and for biodiversity conservation and education. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of using social media observat...
Comparison Of Two Methods For Measuring Daily Path Lengths In Arboreal Primates 2007 70 Researchers have used a variety of methods to measure patterns of animal movement, including the use of spatial data (mapping the position of a moving animal at specified intervals) and direct estimation of travel path length by pacing under a moving...
Diet And Ranging Behavior Of The Endangered Javan Gibbon (Hylobates moloch) In A Submontane Tropical Rainforest 2010 91 Altitude influences forest structure and food abundance and distribution, which in turn affect primate feeding and ranging patterns. Javan gibbons (Hylobates moloch) are endemic to forests spanning a broad range of altitudes on Java, Indonesia. Most ...
The Effects Of Lactation And Infant Care On Adult Energy Budgets In Wild Siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) 2009 98 In mammals with biparental care of offspring, males and females may bear substantial energetic costs of reproduction. Adult strategies to reduce energetic stress include changes in activity patterns, reduced basal metabolic rates, and storage of ener...
Female Songs Of The Nonduetting Javan Gibbons (Hylobates moloch) Function For Territorial Defense 2017 35 Duets in territorial, pair-living primates may function to maintain intragroup cohesion, promote intergroup avoidance, and assist in territorial and resource defense, as well as advertising and reinforcing pair bonds. Despite the absence of duetting ...
Flowers Are An Important Food For Small Apes In Southern Sumatra 2009 76 Flowers are included in the diets of many primates, but are not generally regarded as making an important contribution to primate energy budgets. However, observations of a number of lemur, platyrrhine, and cercopithecine populations suggest that som...
The Human-Primate Interface In The New Normal: Challenges And Opportunities For Primatologists In The COVID-19 Era And Beyond 2020 105 The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 and human responses to the resulting COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 have rapidly changed many aspects of human behavior, including our interactions with wildlife. In this commentary, we identify challenges an...
Long-Term Effects Of Forest Fire On Habitat Use By Siamangs In Southern Sumatra 2020 112 Forest fires can cause direct mortality to wildlife, and the associated habitat damage can reduce carrying capacity and population densities. However, little is known about long-term responses of animals to fire in the wet tropics. From 2000-2015, we...
Male Care Of Infants In A Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) Population Including Socially Monogamous And Polyandrous Groups 2008 104 While male parental care is uncommon in mammals, siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) males provide care for infants in the form of infant carrying. I collected behavioral data from a cohort of five wild siamang infants from early infancy until age 15–...
Mating In The Presence Of A Competitor: Audience Effects May Promote Male Social Tolerance In Polyandrous Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) Groups 2014 61 Audience effects on sexual behavior, including changes in copulation frequency and duration in the presence of conspecifics, have been reported in multimale – multifemale groups of several primate species. We examined the interaction of male sexual b...
Patterns Of Dispersal In Sumatran Siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus): Preliminary mtDNA Evidence Suggests More Frequent Male Than Female Dispersal To Adjacent Groups 2006 70 Gibbons of both sexes have been observed emigrating from their natal groups, but the consequences of dispersal in gibbons are poorly understood, and it is unclear whether these are the same for both sexes. I sequenced a 350-bp fragment of mitochondri...
Primate Research And Conservation In Malaysia 2019 182 Malaysia is inhabited by more than 25 nonhuman primate species from five families, one of the most diverse primate faunas on earth. Unfortunately, most Malaysian primates are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentat...
Responses Of Javan Gibbon (Hylobates moloch) Groups In Submontane Forest To Monthly Variation In Food Availability: Evidence For Variation On A Fine Spatial Scale 2012 42 Primates tend to prefer specific plant foods, and primate home ranges may contain only a subset of food species present in an area. Thus, primate feeding strategies should be sensitive to the phenology of specific species encountered within the home ...
Social Polyandry Among Siamangs: The Role Of Habitat Quality 2017 93 In species where females do not associate spatially with other females, males usually range over an area including the home ranges of multiple females or defend the home range of one female. Nevertheless, social polyandry (multimale–unifemale groupin...
Social Relationships Among Males In Multimale Siamang Groups 2007 154 I quantified social and spatial interactions among adults in 4 multimale siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) groups to evaluate the importance of aggression and avoidance in mediating male-male relationships. Actual genetic relationships among adults ...
Song Functions In Nonduetting Gibbons: Evidence From Playback Experiments On Javan Gibbons (Hylobates moloch) 2016 33 Territorial, pair-living primates usually perform long-distance calls as duets in which adult males and females coordinate their calls. Previous studies using playback experiments have shown that gibbon duets convey information about the status of th...