BU staff success

Date: 12 March 2013

Mammals of Africa is a series of six volumes with contributions from Dr. Amanda Korstjens.

Her work has taken her to the tropical forests of Indonesia to study Thomas Langurs (a type of primate), the Ivory Coast where she studied black-and-white and olive colobus monkeys for her PhD, Costa Rica where she followed spider monkeys and, more recently, she studied red colobus monkeys and their mating strategies in Uganda.

Senior Lecturer in the School of Applied Sciences, Dr. Amanda Korstjens, has contributed to a new multi-volume unique reference work on African mammals which was recently published by Bloomsbury.

Mammals of Africa is a series of six volumes which describes in unprecedented detail every currently recognised species of African land mammal. This is the first time that such extensive coverage has ever been attempted and the volumes incorporate the very latest information and detailed discussion of the morphology, distribution, biology and evolution of Africa’s mammals.

Talking about how she initially got involved, Dr. Korstjens said “I was approached by Professor John Oates whilst I was completing my PhD thesis work in 2000. Professor Oates is one of the top people in the field, so it was a great honour to be asked by him.”

“He wanted me to contribute a chapter on the behaviour and ecology of Colobus verus, a species of monkey found in West Africa. Further down the line I was asked by the editors to write a profile on Colobus polykomos too. This was a huge project but I’m delighted that I was able to significantly contribute to such a unique collection of books.”

To look at a sample of this book please head to issuu.com.