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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Title: Social behavior and health in wild baboons
Abstract: Social behavior can have profound effects on health. In this talk, I will present two projects that address the sociality-health axis in one of the best-studied populations of wild primates in the world: the Amboseli Baboon population in Kenya. In the first project, I discuss the effects of social connectedness on female longevity. In the second project, I discuss new research on social effects on the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Both projects reveal striking effects of social behavior on health-related phenotypes, and they provide strong evidence that the strength and identity of social bonds mediate diverse outcomes, from host-associated microbial communities to individual life spans.
