Alice C. Poirier

The University of Calgary · Anthropology and Archaeology

Sensory systems mediate our social interactions, food intake, livelihoods, and other essential daily functions. Age-related decline and disease in sensory systems pose a significant challenge to healthy aging. Research on sensory decline in humans is informative but can often be difficult, subject to sampling bias, and influenced by environmental v...

The sense of smell is an important mediator of health and sociality at all stages of life, yet it has received limited attention in our lineage. Olfaction starts in utero and participates in the establishment of social bonds in children, and of romantic and sexual relationships after puberty. Smell further plays a key role in food assessment and da...

Understanding diet selectivity is a longstanding goal in primate ecology. Deciphering when and why primates consume different resources can provide insights into their nutritional ecology as well as adaptations to food scarcity. Plant pith, the spongy interior of plant stems, is occasionally eaten by primates, but the context is poorly understood....

Program Timing: Trap habituation begins in May. Trapping and sample collection occur annually during the rainforest dry season (June - August). Sample transport and analyses occur between September and April. Capture Overview: Entire primate social groups are captured together in multi-compartment traps in the morning to ensure same day release (~...

Animals deposit odorant signals during social interactions, and to mark territories and resources. Odorants may be direct by-products of essential biochemical pathways, derived from diet and the environment, and/or produced by commensal bacteria. Accordingly, animals in captivity, which are provisioned with artificial diets and environments, may pr...

For female mammals, communicating the timing of ovulation is essential for reproduction. Olfactory communication via volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can play a key role. We investigated urinary VOCs across the oestrous cycle using laboratory mice. We assessed the oestrous stage through daily vaginal cytology and analysed urinary VOCs using headsp...

A common recommendation in the field of animal chemosignaling is to store and transport scent samples frozen, since they are likely to change with time and degrade due to bacterial activity inside the sample containers and the loss of the most volatile compounds. However, we still ignore the exact pattern of change or degradation for these types of...

Olfactory communication is an important mediator of social interactions in mammals, thought to provide information about an individual’s identity and current social, reproductive, and health status. In comparison with other taxa such as carnivores and rodents, few studies have examined primate olfactory communication. Tamarins (Callitrichidae) cons...

Chemosignals are mediators of social interactions in mammals, providing con‐ and hetero‐specifics with information on fixed (e.g., species, sex, group, and individual identity) and variable (e.g., social, reproductive, and health status) features of the signaler. Yet, methodological difficulties of recording and quantifying odor signals, especially...

Chemosignals are mediators of social interactions in mammals, providing con- and hetero-specifics with information on fixed (e.g. species, sex, group and individual identity) and variable (e.g. social, reproductive and health status) features of the signaler. Yet methodological difficulties of recording and quantifying odor signals, especially in f...

Olfactory communication is an important mediator of social interactions in mammals, providing information about an individual’s identity and current social, reproductive, and health status. Callitrichids (i.e. marmosets and tamarins) constitute a good model for the study of olfactory communication, as they make use of a range of odour signals. Call...

For arboreal primates, ground use may increase dispersal opportunities, tolerance to habitat change, access to ground-based resources, and resilience to human disturbances, and so has conservation implications. We collated published and unpublished data from 86 studies across 65 localities to assess titi monkey (Callicebinae) terrestriality. We exa...

While primate trapping is a widely used field methodology, there are substantial health, safety and social risks to handling wild primates, necessitating sharing of best-practice methods to minimize such risks. Yet, comprehensive capture-and-release protocols are rarely published, and updated even less frequently, despite advances that significantl...