I work with students and multiple collaborators to study how the environment shapes the behavior and physiology of humans and non-human primates (and now dogs and children, too!). I am a Professor at the University of Arizona and largely conduct research in Madagascar. I use a variety of methods, including hormonal and gut microbiome analyses. For more information on the Laboratory for the Evolutionary Endocrinology of Primates, see LEEP. For information on our lemur facial recognition project, see LemurID (temporarily disabled).

Prospective Graduate Students...

Please reach out via email to discuss your interests and see if our program is a good fit for you. I'm happy to set up a virtual meeting, and put you in touch with students who have worked with me.

Other researchers at UArizona outside of the School of Anthropology who study or have studied primate behavior, ecology, and evolution include Drs. Dieter Steklis, Netzin Steklis, Jennifer Verdolin, Lauren Petrullo, Julienne Rutherford, and Elise Lauterbur.

Recent news from LEEP and UA Biological Anthropology

Big news for Paige Wagstaff! Paige won the award for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award! She was also interviewed by PeerJ about her Award for Outstanding Student Presentation at the AABAs. 05/02/2025

LEEPers Katie King, Amit Hanadari-Levy, Maddie Grant, and Paige Wagstaff presented their research at the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference in Baltimore, MD. Paige won the award for Outstanding Student Presentation! We are super proud of all of our students. 03/13/2025

LEEPers Katie King, Amit Hanadari-Levy, and Paige Wagstaff presented their research at the Southwestern Association of Biological Anthropologists conference at the University of New Mexico. Paige won the award for best undergraduate poster presentation! We are super proud of all of our students. 11/14/2024

Our new research on fat storage and drought tolerance in lemurs living in seasonally dry tropical forests is out! This article is open access and featured as the cover story in an upcoming issue of Integrative Conservation. You can access the article here. 09/24/2024

LEEP Director Stacey Tecot was honored with a Woman of Impact award from the University of Arizona This year the Women of Impact cohort will be honored alongside Young Women of Impact, selected from high schools in southern Arizona. You can read more about the award here. 09/6/2024

Gita Gnanadesikan’s dissertation research on the heritability of puppy oxytocin and cortisol concentrations is now published, and it is the issue’s cover story! Gita conducted her hormonal analyses in LEEP. You can access the article here. 08/08/2024

The second paper to come out of our research on dog-child interactions is out! Check out our new article on the effects of human-animal interaction on salivary and urinary oxytocin! This follows up on our previous research on glucocorticoids in child-dog interactions, and involves several members of LEEP. It’s the Editor’s pick, free to access for 3 months. You can access the article here. 08/02/2024

Check out our new article on the influence of ecology and genetics on the gut microbiome in a pair-living lemur species! This grew out of the Master’s thesis of LEEPer Laura Diakiw. You can access the open access article here. 07/06/2024

New LEEP research shows that we can recover microbial DNA from 20 year-old, desiccated fecal samples from red-bellied lemurs! We also compare gut microbiota across primary and secondary forest sites. You can access the open access article here. 06/14/2024

Our video won four Telly awards! The video of our research, ‘Lemurs on the Verge’, most recently won a Gold Telly for documentary short form, and Silver Tellys for editing, directing, and videography & cinematography! We’re especially happy that the team in Madagascar was recognized. Director Özlem Özgür created a beautiful video that you can see on Vimeo. 05/21/2024

Our video is an ‘Official Selection’ for the IMDb Chicago Women Film Fest! The video of our research, ‘Lemurs on the Verge’, has received several nominations and awards and we are thrilled to see so much attention on red-bellied lemurs! Director Özlem Özgür created a beautiful video that you can see on Vimeo. 03/12/2024

Our video won an Impact Docs award! The video of our research, ‘Lemurs on the Verge’, won an Impact Docs award of Excellence for Short Documentary! Director Özlem Özgür created a beautiful video that you can see on Vimeo. 02/12/2024

New LEEP research published that can help expand oxytocin research! Several people in LEEP were part of an international team that published a new study validating neurophysin I as a surrogate biomarker for oxytocin. This study opens the door to easier, faster, and less expensive oxytocin studies that require less sample. You can access the article here. 1/10/2024

Our video won an Emmy! The video of our research, ‘Lemurs on the Verge’, won an Emmy for Directing, Long Form from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Rocky Mountain Southwest! Director Özlem Özgür created a beautiful video that you can see on Vimeo. 11/07/2023

The video of our research, ‘Lemurs on the Verge’, was nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for three regional (Rocky Mountain) Emmys! Özlem Özgür was nominated for best producer for environment/science long form content, and best director and editor for long form. You can see the video on YouTube. 11/03/2023

The Southwestern Association of Biological Anthropologists met in Tucson this year! Graduate students Arielle Liu and Katie King presented their research, and all LEEPers helped make sure the event went smoothly. 10/28/2023

Faculty Feature: Stacey Tecot on Arizona Environment You can check it out here! 07/26/2023

Our new publication documents circadian rhythms in fecal glucocorticoids in red-bellied lemurs, and explores predictors of circadian changes in fecal GCs across mammals. You can check it out here! “Diurnal fecal glucocorticoid metabolite rhythms in a cathemeral primate, the red‐bellied lemur (Eulemur rubriventer), and across mammalian species” 05/31/2023

Read about our ecological storytelling project in a new publication! This commentary describes a few projects in Madagascar, and how they were impacted by COVID-19. It includes a little bit about a storytelling project our lab has been working on, which highlights the ecological histories and expertise of tourist guides and research technicians in the Ranomafana area. It is LEEP member Arielle Liu's first publication! It's in a special issue entitled New Ideas in Conservation Education. An overdue catalyst: Limitations imposed by COVID-19 improved capacity building in community-led environmental education in Madagascar 04/25/2023

Join us on Science Friday on Arizona Public Media! Learn about our latest research on the relationship between paternal care and estradiol levels in red-bellied lemurs. Episode 360: Looking at lemur behavior in Madagascar. 03/24/2023

Our research covered in UA Now! Learn about our latest research on the relationship between paternal care and estradiol levels in red-bellied lemurs here! 02/21/2023

New video about our research! Learn about our research, red-bellied lemurs, and the people we work with in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar in this video created by the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences on YouTube. 02/13/2023

New pub alert! Read about how estradiol levels may help facilitate paternal care in red-bellied lemurs here. Authors from LEEP include two undergraduate LEEP alumni, Madalena Birr and Juliana Dixon, and Stacey Tecot. 02/10/2023

Read about red-bellied lemurs and rufous mouse lemurs in Stacey’s interview with the Lemur Conservation Network for #World Lemur Day! You can read the interview here. 10/12/2022.

New mega-collaborative pub alert! Factors influencing terrestriality in primates of the Americas and Madagascar, which you can find here. This research was also covered by multiple media outlets including the Washington Post. 10/08/2022.

New pub alert! Nonhuman Primate Paternal Care: Species and Individual Differences in Behavior and Mechanisms, with Toni Ziegler, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, Anne Savage, and Chuck Snowden. In the book Patterns of Parental Behavior: From Animal Science to Comparative Ethology and Neuroscience, which you can find here. 10/06/2022.

Congratulations to LEEP grad student Katie King! Katie won first prize in the American Society of Primatologists virtual student poster competition for her research on oxytocin and affiliation in Verreaux’s sifaka. See her announcement here. 08/30/2022.

LEEP welcomes new lab coordinator Madison Grant! You can read more about Maddy on our LEEP site here. 08/21/2022.

Gita Gnanadesikan's work in LEEP on the specificity of oxytocin urine immunoassays is online! You can see the article here, and it's free to access for the next 50 days. 06/14/2022.

Congrats to Katie King, who received an American Society of Primatologists Conservation Grant! She will work with the Guides Association of Ranomafana to continue a conservation education program in the forest, and you can read more about it here, 04/29/2022.

Congrats to Arielle Liu, a new NSF Graduate Research Fellow! Arielle plans to conduct research in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar on the effects of climate change on red-bellied behavior and physiology. You can read more about it here, 04/04/2022.

Elizabeth Carranza is in the Arizona Daily Star! Elizabeth spoke with a student journalist about our collaborative work with the Arizona Canine Cognition Center here, 05/06/2022.

We are SO excited about our new red-bellied lemur face recognition application! With partners at the University of Arizona Tech Core, we now have a web interface that we can use to identify individual red-bellied lemurs. This noninvasive tool enhances our research in so many ways. You can more about the application here, 03/31/2022.

We published a new study using agent-based modeling to understand the mechanisms of collective decision making! Our collaborative team was brought together and supported by the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, and included experts in a variety of systems, from cells to primates. You can read it here, 10/23/2021.

Several LEEPers presented their work at the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology virtual conference!! Gita Gnanadesikan presented work on urinary oxytocin in mice and Verreaux's sifaka, and Li-Dunn Chen presented work on black-and-white ruffed lemur androgens and agonism. Here are the full details:

Gnanadesikan G, Hammock EAD, Tecot SR, Lewis R, MacLean EL. Developing a new extraction method to minimize interference in immunoassay of urinary oxytocin.

Chen L-D, Ravoniarinalisoa V, Louis E, Cook E, Hays A, Tecot S, Johnson S. (2021). Changes in fecal androgen levels and agonism rates in the mating versus post-mating seasons in black-and-white ruffed lemurs.

08/17/2021.

Gita Gnanadesikan's work in LEEP on the specificity of oxytocin plasma immunoassays is online! You can see the early view article here, 07/26/2021.

Stacey Tecot and collaborator Andrea Baden talk lemurs and life on the Leakey Foundation's Lunchbreak Science live-streamed webinar series for Earth Day! You can watch the recording here, 04/22/2021.

Our work on red-bellied lemurs is included in a new publication on fermented food feeding in primates! We're happy to have contributed to this collaborative project spearheaded by Dr. Katie Amato. You can read the article here, and read coverage in The Economist here, 03/26/2021.

Red-bellied lemurs make the NYT! We're happy to be included in the conversation about aged lemurs finding companionship at the Duke Lemur Center this Valentine's Day. You can find it here, 02/14/2021.

Congratulations to Gita Gnanadesikan, on her most recent publication on breed differences in dog cognition! AND it's open access! You can find it here, 02/01/2021.

Ph.D. candidate Gita Gnanadesikan and Dr. Stacey Tecot presented at the first Animal Behavior Society Twitter Conference! See Gita's presentation here, and Stacey's presentation here, 01/27/2021.

LEEP welcomes its newest members, Arielle Liu and Katie King! Both are first-year graduate students who will be studying red-bellied lemurs in Madagascar and conducting hormone analyses in LEEP. 08/16/2020.

Best Practices in Field Primatology in the Age of COVID-19 Stacey Tecot and colleagues offered some advice on how primatologists should ethically conduct research during the COVID-19 pandemic in the August edition of the Conservation Action Network, now available to download. This is just part of the conversation, and we welcome others to join in and offer their perspectives. Access the Action Letter here, and see the Spanish version here. Also see the American Society of Primatologists website to donate to the new Emergency Fund to support habitat country primatologists preventing COVID transmission to project personnel, wildlife, and local communities around their field sites. Click the "donate" button here, 08/13/2020.

Congratulations to Gita Gnanadesikan! Gita's research on the genetic bases of dogs was recently covered by Smithsonian Magazine. You can read about it here. 07/31/2020.

New grant on Preserving Knowledge of Endemic Species in Madagascar Through Storytelling, from the School of Anthropology! This project will support interviews with Research Technicians and Tourist Guides in the Ranomafana region, conducted by Stacey Tecot, Clara Randimbiarimanana, and Arielle Liu. 05/16/2020.

Britt Singletary and Stacey have a new publication on multimodal signaling in pair-bonds! This work was part of Britt's Master thesis work, and you can read it in early view here. 02/03/2020.

Congrats to Madalena Birr, who won best undergraduate poster at SWABA (Southwestern Assoc. of Biological Anthropologists)! She presented on her work investigating the relationships between estradiol levels and paternal behavior in red-bellied lemurs. She also presented this work at the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology in Kruger National Park, South Africa. This work was supported by the Leakey Foundation, the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the University of Arizona, Hunter College, and the Rowe Wright Primate Fund. 11/04/19.

Britt Singletary and Stacey Tecot have a new publication on red-bellied lemur pair-bonds! This work was conducted at the Duke Lemur Center, and you can read about it here. 10/24/19.

We received a UA Faculty Seed Grant to continue our lemur facial recognition work! In collaboration with Tech.Global and Dr. Rachel Jacobs, we will develop an app that can be used in the field, while providing coding training to Engineering undergrad Ryan Alterman. 06/14/19.

Our paper on the red-bellied lemur gut microbiome is popular! It's one of the top 20 most downloaded papers in the Journal of Animal Ecology, from Jan 2017 – Dec 2018! Read it for free here through July 15, 2019! 06/06/19.

Drs. Eadie and Tecot were awarded a Co-Teaching Mini-Grant! They'll be applying active learning methods and philosophies to ANTH364-Natural History of our Closest Relatives, for Fall 2019. This is possible thanks to funding to the Association of American Universities from Northrup Grumman Foundation and support from the University of Arizona's Provost's office. 06/05/19.

Madalena Birr presented her research on paternal care and estradiol! LEEP member Madalena presented her Honor's thesis research at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology expo and the Honor's expo. Her video fast-pitch was in the top 10, and she was chosen to compete in the Honor's fast-pitch competition. Her abstract was also accepted for the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology meeting in South Africa! See her great poster here! 04/20/19.

Why cuddle? Just in time for Valentine's Day! Our collaborator and past Research Assistant extraordinaire, Aura Raulo, talks about her experiences on our project, including how the messiness of science can lead to inspiration, and her own research path. Listen here! 02/14/19.

We have a new publication in Conservation Physiology: "Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite profiles in diademed sifakas increase during seasonal fruit scarcity with interactive effects of age/sex class and habitat degradation". This was a collaboration with Mitch Irwin and Jean-Luc Raharison. You can read it here, Open Access! 02/06/19.

Arizona Canine Cognition Center and LEEP awarded grants from the NICHD and WALTHAM foundation! The research will investigate the biology of human-animal interactions, with a focus on dogs and children. 10/10/18. Updated 12/20/18.

Proud to be a part of a large, interdisciplinary team that contributed to "Evolutionary trends in host physiology outweigh diet in structuring primate gut microbiomes" in the ISME Journal. You can read it here. 08/10/18.

We have a new publication on "Interannual Variation in Diet, Dietary Diversity, and Dietary Overlap in Three Sympatric Strepsirrhine Species in Southeastern Madagascar" in the International Journal of Primatology. You can read it here. 05/08/18.

Our publication on allomaternal care and androgens is online! See the original paper in Physiology and Behavior, titled “Profiling caregivers: Hormonal variation underlying allomaternal care in wild red-bellied lemurs, Eulemur rubriventer” here. 05/02/18.

Our latest publication on the lemur gut microbiome is online! See the original paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology, titled “Social behavior and gut microbiota in red-bellied lemurs: In search of the role of immunity in the evolution of sociality” here, and coverage on Popular Science and UANews. 12/05/17.

Our latest publication on bamboo lemurs and climate change is online! See the original paper in Current Biology, titled “The culm before the storm: global climate change driving the extinction of the greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus)” here, and coverage on Scientific American/PBS Newshour, Newsweek, and UANews.10/17.

Our new paper on mouse lemur hormones and parasites is out! The article, titled “Aggression and hormones are associated with heterogeneity in parasitism and parasite dynamics in the brown mouse lemur” can be found in Animal Behaviour, here. 10/17.

NSF research grant for Stacey Tecot! The Collaborative Research, titled “The Function and Mechanism of Male Intrasexual Relationships in a Variable System: Resistance, Tolerance, or Bonding, and the Role of Females,” includes colleagues at University of Texas at Austin: Rebecca Lewis (UT PI), Anthony Di Fiore, and Lauren Meyers. Read the abstract of the project on the NSF website here. 9/01/17.

LemurFaceID in the German news! German Public Radio featured LemurFaceID and it was also covered in Die Welt, one of Germany's 3 big nationwide newspapers. See the print version here, and the original publication here 9/17/17.

Laura Diakiw presents her work at the annual American Society of Primatologists conference! Laura's beautiful poster was co-authored by Stacey Tecot (University of Arizona), Aura Raulo (Oxford University), Avery Lane (University of Washington), Amanda Mancini (Hunter College), Katie Amato (Northwestern University), and Andrea Baden (Hunter College)!

Laura Diakiw successfully defended her Master's thesis! Laura's thesis on red-bellied lemurs, entitled 'Determinants of the adult microbiome: Kinship, dispersal, and social relationships' wowed her committee!

Lemur face recognition software in the news! Our publication on lemur face recognition was covered in over 100 media sources! See the original publication here 2/17/17.

Lab and BioAnth intern Ariana Garcia spoke about her research on Thesis Thursday on KXCI! Hear what she has to say here 2/17/17.

LEEP welcomes new Postdoc Lab/Research tech Allison Hays! Read more here.

Awards for Graduate Student Laura Diakiw Laura received 2nd place in the School of Anthropology photo contest for her photo of baboons in Rwanda, and she was awarded funding to continue her research in Rwanda this summer from the School of Anthropology's William and Nancy Sullivan Scholarship and the Institute for the Environment's Environmental Travel Award.

LEEP members present their work. Analyses done in LEEP with the help of Dr. Lizzy Eadie and Krista Jacobson, as well as several other undergraduate interns, were presented at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Undergraduate intern Juliana Costanzo presented her work in two poster sessions and did a phenomenal job! Her work was supported by the School of Anthropology.

Tecot, SR, Costanzo, J, Eadie, E, Hawley, C, Razanajatovo, S, Arroyo, AS, Baden, AL. (2016). Profiling caregivers: hormonal variation underlying allomaternal care in wild red-bellied lemurs. In the symposium ‘Allomother-infant relationships across the Primate order: biomarkers, bonding, buffering, and other bidirectional effects’. American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

Costanzo, J, Baden, AL, Tecot, SR. (2016). The relationship of estradiol to paternal care behavior in wild-living red-bellied lemurs (Eulemur rubriventer). American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for Laura Diakiw! Laura received three years of support from the NSF based on her dissertation research proposal on how a 'Westernized' diet impacts the gut microbiome in baboons in Rwanda. Covered by UANews 4/6/16

More grant news! In collaboration with Kathy Jack and Eva Wikberg, we have received a third grant for "Making an alpha male: Socioendocrinology of dominance in male white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus)" from the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration! 3/23/16

Another grant for Ph.D. student Britt Singletary! Britt received funding from the UA Graduate and Professional Student Council for her dissertation research on how caregivers influence communicative and cognitive competence during early development. 3/22/16

The special issue on Eulemur is out! It includes our new publication on anthropogenic and climatic effects on the distribution of Eulemur species. Kamilar J and Tecot S. Anthropogenic and Climatic Effects on the Distribution of Eulemur species: An ecological niche modeling approach. International Journal of Primatology. 37:47-68.

Two LEEP members present at the UA Undergraduate Biology Research Program Conference January 23rd! Juliana Constanzo presents her research on paternal care and estradiol in wild-living red-bellied lemurs, and Ariana Manson presents her research on maternal nutrition and health in conflict zones of northern Kenya.

Double grant news! In collaboration with Kathy Jack and Eva Wikberg, we have received two grants for "Making an alpha male: Socioendocrinology of dominance in male white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus)" from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation and the Nacey Maggioncalda Foundation! 12/9/15

Abstracts on the hormonal underpinnings of allomaternal care have been accepted for the 2016 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists! Undergraduate Juliana Constanzo will present the work she conducted in LEEP as a UBRP student. Our field and lab groups will also participate in a symposium entitled 'Allomother-infant relationships across the Primate order: biomarkers, bonding, buffering, and other bidirectional effects'. 12/9/15

Another grant for Ph.D. student Britt Singletary! Britt received funding from the UA School of Anthropology for her dissertation research on how caregivers influence communicative and cognitive competence during early development. 11/2/15

New publication on the relationship between the pituitary gland and life history traits! Kamilar J and Tecot S. Connecting proximate mechanisms and evolutionary patterns: Pituitary gland size and mammalian life history. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 28:1997-2008. doi: 10.1007/s10764-015-9875-8

Grant for Ph.D. student Britt Singletary! Britt received funding from the SBSRI for her dissertation research on the relationships between signaling and allomaternal care and their impact on child development. 10/1/15

Hear LEEP member and Undergraduate Biology Research Program student Juliana Costanzo talk about her research on the radio! https://ubrp.arizona.edu/juliana-costanzo-speaking-on-kxcis-thursday-thesis-07302015/ 7/15

How to support our work!

If you are interested in supporting our student interns in the lab and field, our work with lemurs or storytelling in Madagascar, further development of our lemur facial recognition system, or our work with new (human) mothers in Tucson, you can contact Stacey Tecot or click on the button below to make a donation.

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