Today Dr Graham L Banes has a number of qualifications including:
- fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Young International Scientists' Scheme)
- Postdoctoral Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
- Adjunct Professor, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Research Associate, Henry Vilas Zoo.
However, back in 2007 he was simply a University of Aberdeen student applying for funding to conduct his undegraduate expedition, Orang-utan '08, from the Department of Zoology.
He has recently contacted us to announce that the core research component of the expedition has been completed and has now been published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology under the title "Male orang-utan bimaturism and reproductive success at Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia". Dr Banes' paper has made quite an impression in the press too. Here you can read the articles on it in the Washington Post, Discovery News and The Daily Mail.
"I am very grateful for the support of the Alumni Annual Fund, which made this research possible. The research programme we originated in 2008 is still active, and I still spend many months each year continuing my fieldwork in Tanjung Puting National Park. What was initiated as a short research expedition has now become a seven-year longitudinal study of wild orang-utans, from which I was able to earn M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge. I very much appreciate the Fund's support, and we are pleased to acknowledge the Alumni Annual Fund in this and forthcoming publications. We expect at least another two manuscripts will arise from the research funded in 2008."
