Alison Jolly (born Alison Bishop: May 9, 1937 – February 6, 2014) was an American primatologist, known for her studies of

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

biology. She wrote several books for both popular and scientific audiences and conducted extensive fieldwork on Lemurs in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, primarily at the Berenty Reserve, a small private reserve of gallery forest set in the semi-arid spiny desert area in the far south of

Biography

Born on May 9, 1937, in

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, to painter Alison Mason Kingsbury and poet Morris Bishop, she held a BA from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, and a PhD from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

; she had been a researcher at the

New York Zoological Society New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

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, and

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. In 1998, she was made Officer of the National Order of Madagascar (''Officier de l'Ordre National, Madagascar''). At the time of her death she was a visiting scientist at the

. Under her maiden name, she first published "Control of the Hand in Lower Primates" in 1962. Jolly began studying lemur behavior at Berenty in 1963 and was first to propose female dominance in a primate society. She encouraged field studies that contributed to knowledge about Malagasy wildlife and advised many researchers; she briefed Jane Wilson-Howarth and colleagues before their first expedition to Madagascar in 1981. Since 1990, Jolly had returned for every birthing season to carry out research assisted by student volunteers. She focused on

ring-tailed lemur The ring-tailed lemur (''Lemur catta'') is a medium- to larger-sized strepsirrhine (wet-nosed) primate and the most internationally recognized lemur species, owing to its long, black-and-white, ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of fiv ...

demography, ranging, and especially inter-troop and territorial behavior, in the context of the fivefold difference in population density from front to back of the reserve. Her scientific books include ''Lemur Behavior: A Madagascar Field Study'', ''The Evolution of Primate Behavior'' and ''Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution''. Her non-technical works include ''Madagascar: A World Out of Time'' and ''Lords & Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar''. She also wrote numerous articles for consumer magazines and scientific journals. Jolly was the author of two series of children's books—The Ako Books and The Fiddle Stories. In 2005, she published the first story in the series of Ako Books. The purpose of this series of books is to teach to children around the world about the different types of lemurs and their critical habitats in Madagascar.

Eponym

In June 2006, a new species of mouse lemur, '' Microcebus jollyae'', was named for Jolly.

Personal life

In 1963, Alison Jolly married Richard Jolly, the development economist."Alison Bishop, Zoologist, Wed to Arthur Jolly", ''New York Times'', 20 October 1963. She died at home in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

, in February 6, 2014, aged 76. Her son

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

is a playwright and screenwriter.

Publications

* ''Lemur Behavior: A Madagascar Field Study'', University of Chicago Press, 1966 * ''The Evolution of Primate Behavior'', ''New York,'' 1972 * ''Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution'', ''New York,'' 1976 * ''A World Like Our Own; Man and Nature in Madagascar'', Yale University Press, 1980 * ''Madagascar: A World Out of Time'', 1984 with Frans Lanting & Gerald Durrell * ''Madagascar, Key Environments Series'', ''Pergamon Press, Oxford,'' 1984 * ''Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution'', ''Cambridge. Harvard University'' ''Press,'' 1999 * ''Lords and Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings with Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar.'' ''Boston, Houghton Mifflin.'' 2004 * ''Ringtailed Lemur Biology: Lemur catta in Madagascar. New York, Springer. 2006'' * ''Thank You, Madagascar: The Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly'', 2015

Children's books

* ''Ny aiay Ako (Ako the Aye-Aye)'', 2005 * ''Bitika the Mouselemur'', (2012) * ''Tik-Tik the Ringtailed Lemur'', (2012) * ''Bounce the White Sifaka'', (2012) * ''Furry and Fuzzy the Red Ruffed Lemur Twin'', (2012) * ''No-Song the Indri'', (2012) * ''Fiddle and the See-Throughs'', (2013) * ''Fiddle and the Flint-Boy'', (2013) * ''Fiddle and the Headless Horseman'', (2013) * ''Fiddle and the Falling Tower'', (2013) * ''Fiddle and the Smugglers'', (2013) * ''Fiddle and the Fires'', (2013)

References

Literature cited

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolly, Alison Women primatologists American primatologists * Human evolution theorists American children's writers Academics of the University of Sussex American expatriate academics American expatriates in the United Kingdom Cornell University alumni 1937 births 2014 deaths 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American zoologists American women academics 21st-century American women Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Madagascar