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Brieanna Richards recieved her M.S. in Biology from Sonoma State University in July, 2008. Her thesis focused on the effects of stimuli on ring-tail lemur (Lemur catta) behavior. During the course of her resesarch, she collected behavioral data on a group of captive ring-tail lemurs at Safari West wildlife preserve in Santa Rosa, CA to: 1) compare the behavior of the captive group to wild populations, 2) assess the effects various types of naturally occurring stimuli have on the group's behavior when compared to baseline conditions, and 3) assess if individuals behave differently under various stimuli conditions. Her results indicate: 1) significant differences exist between the Safari West group and wild populations of ring-tail lemurs in terms of time allocated to inactivity, feeding, vocalizing and vigilance, 2) that various types of stimuli significantly affect locomotion, grooming, vigilance and vocalization behaviors in the captive group, but not inactive, scent-marking and feeding behaviors, and 3) individual lemur behavior did not significantly vary. Finally, Brieanna's thesis explores possible future enrichment techniques for the Safari West ring-tail lemurs. Brieanna is currently adjunct faculty in Biology at College of Marin.
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