Angela (Angie) Achorn is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University. Under her Fulbright US Student Research Grant, she is examining the relationships between scrotal coloration, parasite infections, testosterone, and mating behaviors in crested macaques as per her dissertation project titled, “A Novel Approach to Testing the Hamilton Zuk Hypothesis Using Sulawesi Crested macaques”.

Angie graduated from Rhode Island College with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a minor in Environmental Studies. She earned her master’s degree in Anthropology at Texas A&M. Previously, she has studied cultural perceptions of primates as pets, trash-raiding behaviors by white-faced capuchins, and intestinal parasite infections in three lemur species.

During her Fulbright grant, Angie is collaborating with researchers from Institut Pertanian Bogor, and with local field assistants and forest guides at Tangkoko Nature Reserve, Sulawesi. Before starting her fieldwork, she takes an Indonesian language training in Yogyakarta, under the Critical Language Enhancement Award.