Research Interests


Gary D. Mitchell, PhD,    Professor Emeritus, University of California, Davis         

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Research Interests

My research interests were in the fields of behavioral primatology and human ethology. My work focused on the behavioral development of various species of primates from birth through adulthood. I also studied nonverbal public human behavior in zoos and malls. I did research on golden bellied mangabeys and on several species of macaques, primarily rhesus.  I’ve been interested in the effects of early experience and current environment on behavior in laboratories and in zoos.  Maternal and paternal behaviors of monkey and human adult males, and behavioral sex differences, were career-long interests. Earlier in my career, I did statistical cohort research on schizophrenia in state hospitals. My work was interdisciplinary and this showed in the places I published and where I gave talks. Anthropologists, biologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, veterinarians, and zoologists were several of the professionals with whom I’ve worked. What I was interested in for most of my productive research years was the area of primatology, a discipline probably best understood from a visit to the ASP website at https://www.asp.org/ . Its official journal is the American Journal of Primatology (both the society, ASP, and the journal, AJP, were founded by Dr. Joe Erwin). Here is the link to the journal: AJP Home Page. In the last few years before my retirement, my research was in the area of zoo biology, primarily centered on the behavior of non-human primates and people in zoo settings. The nature of the area of zoo biology is best seen by perusing titles and abstracts of papers published in the journal Zoo Biology (founded by Dr. Terry Maple).  For Zoo Biology website click: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/.

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