Crickette Sanz, associate professor of biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, received the 2019 Ai’s Scarf Award, otherwise known as the Women-in-Primatology Award. The honor was announced in Kyoto, Japan, in advance of World Chimpanzee Day July 14, a celebration of “our closest cousin in the animal kingdom.”
The Ai’s Scarf Award celebrates female scholars who dedicate their lives to promoting the research, conservation and welfare of chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates. The award selection committee included famed primatology researcher and conservationist Jane Goodall.
Sanz, together with her husband and collaborator, David Morgan, co-directs the study of wild central chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas in the Goualougo Triangle and Mondika research sites located in northern Republic of Congo.
The selection committee noted: “(Sanz) succeeded in documenting the unique repertoire of tool use by these chimpanzees and also the spectrum of social interactions that occur between sympatric chimpanzees and gorillas. They have also advanced research in this region by introducing camera traps to study ape behavior, improving survey methods to more precisely estimate ape densities, and conducting long-term monitoring of apes at risk of habitat disturbance, poaching and infectious disease transmission.”
Read more about Sanz’s pioneering work:
- Turmoil behind primate power struggles often overlooked by researchers (Sept 17, 2018)
- Wild chimpanzee mothers teach young to use tools, video study confirms (Oct 11, 2016)
- Fire of chimpanzees (Crickette Sanz & Dave Morgan, TEDxGatewayArch, Oct 16, 2014)
- An interview with Sanz in Washington magazine (April 1, 2012)
- About the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project: http://www.congo-apes.org/
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