Cords, Marina

Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology; Professor of Anthropology; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP)

Affiliation/Department
Professor
Education
PhD 1984 University of California, Berkeley
Telephone
212-854-7337
Email
marina.cords@columbia.edu
Website
http://www.columbia.edu/~mc51/

Research Description
Marina Cords studies the social behavior and behavioral ecology of primates. She is interested in both proximate and ultimate explanations of social systems and social cooperation, particularly in animals (like primates) that form long-lasting individualized social relationships. Her work on proximate mechanisms has addressed behavior that maintains cohesiveness within social groups, paying special attention to grooming, dominance, reconciliation after aggression, and conventions of ownership that settle potential conflicts of interest before they escalate. Her work on ultimate explanations of behavior concerns reproductive and social strategies (both within and between groups) among forest guenons, especially blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis). Dr. Cords is also interested in social and ecological relations between species. She has carried out behavioral experiments with captive?monkeys as well as field research on a population of wild guenons in an East African forest since 1979.
Research Keywords:?Animal social behavior, Behavioral ecology, Ethology, Ecology, Socioecology, Primatology?

Representative Publications
Cords, M., Nikitopoulos, E. 2015. Maternal kin bias in affiliative behavior among wild adult female blue monkeys. American Journal of Primatology 77: 109-123. doi:10.1002/ajp.22315
Roberts, S., Nikitopoulos, E., Cords, M. 2014. Factors affecting low resident male siring success in one-male groups of blue monkeys. Behavioral Ecology 25: 852-861. doi:10.1093/beheco/aru060
Roberts, S. & Cords, M. 2013. Group size but not dominance rank predicts the probability of conception in a frugivorous primate. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 67:1995-2009. doi: 10.1007/s00265-013-1607-5
Cords, M. 2007. Variable participation in the defense of communal feeding territories by blue monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, Kenya. Behaviour 144: 1537-1550. doi: 10.1163/156853907782512100