Scholar reflects on three decades of field research

SIU News


White-handed gibbons are forest-dwelling small apes. They have long arms, which help them swing from tree branch to tree branch as they travel. They are bipedal and walk upright on the ground or across tree branches. These gibbons are in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. (Photo provided)

April 28, 2017
Scholar reflects on three decades of field research
by Andrea Hahn
CARBONDALE, Ill. – After nearly 30 years, they seem to recognize his footsteps and his voice. 
When Ulrich H. Reichard, associate professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, goes into Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park rainforest alone, the family group of gibbons he’s been studying since 1989 go about their business and ignore him. For a researcher in the field, it’s good to be ignored. When Reichard brings along someone else, perhaps a student researcher, the gibbons initially draw back, showing caution. 
“When I bring someone new, I put a hand on the person or stand physically close so the gibbons recognize that person as a sort of companion and not threatening,” he said. “Other researchers have noticed similar behavior. We have to be careful not to anthropomorphize, to give human personalities to gibbons. As scientists, we can’t make assumptions about behavior. But they do seem to recognize me.” 
Justin D’Agostino, a Fulbright Scholar, is a Reichard advisee, and will use his Fulbright scholarship to study siamang, a large gibbon species, in Indonesia beginning in September. Florian Trébouet, a doctoral student, is currently in Thailand studying, not gibbons but stump-tailed macaques, a study he began in 2009 and continues with Reichard’s advisement. Reichard said sometimes students find field research intimidating once they realize how much more difficult and uncertain it is than laboratory research. However, the rewards, he said, are incalculable. 
“I find that the animals I’ve been studying so long mean a lot to me,” ...

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