Abby McClain
Program: PhD in Human Paleobiology
Year Entered: Fall 2021
Advisor: Carson Murray
I am a behavioral ecologist interested in how death and loss in social groups can inform what we know about social bonds in nonhuman species. My recent projects explore the influence of social bonds on space use in wild primates — analyzing geospatial and behavioral data from the world's longest running great ape dataset.
You can keep up with the latest from me at https://armcclain.github.io/.
- 2021: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- 2023: American Society of Mammologists Horner Award
- 2024: NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant
- 2024: The Leakey Foundation Research Grant
Abby is interested in the repercussions of sociality on disease transmission and behavior in wild primates. Additionally, she is interested in female chimpanzee immigration strategies and the effects of immigration on the physiology and behavior of individuals and communities over time.
Tags: Social Behavior, Spatial Ecology, Bonds, Social Network Analysis, Behavioral Endocrinology
Research Experience:
2018-2021: Research Assistant, Primate Environmental Endocrinology Lab at Indiana University
Indiana University 2021, Biology (BS), Spanish (BA)
George Washington University, Human Paleobiology (MS)
2025 Animal Behaviour In Revision: Drivers of range shifts in female wild eastern chimpanzees (P. t. schweinfurthii) following female death events. McClain A.R., Foerster S., Feldblum, J. F., Walker K. S., Mjungu, D. C., Pusey A. E., & Murray C. M.
- BISC 1006 The Ecology & Evolution of Organisms
- BISC 1111 Introductory Biology: Cells and Molecules
- ANTH 1001 Introductory Biological Anthropology