Clarence Ray Carpenter (usually credited as C. R. Carpenter) (November 28, 1905 – March 1, 1975) was an American primatologist who was one of the first scientific investigators to film and videotape the behavior of primates in their natural environments. Born in

Lincoln County, North Carolina Lincoln County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,810, making it the most populous "Lincoln County" in the United States. Its county seat is Lincolnton. Lincoln County is incl ...

,Pennsylvania State University Special Collections Library: ''Biographical Note, Clarence Ray Carpenter papers, 1918-1976'', PSUA 149, http://www.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/149.htm , accessed 17 Nov 2013 Carpenter earned his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(1928) and

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

(1929) degrees at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(1932) degree at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. From 1931 to 1934, Carpenter conducted field research on the natural behavior of primates under the sponsorship of

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 ...

professor Robert M. Yerkes. Carpenter's field work, part of the Asiatic Primate Expedition team, has been noted for bringing scientific rigor for primate field studies. This includes determining how to get an accurate count of individuals, recording and interpreting primate calls, and improving understanding of other complex social behaviors. According to

Irven DeVore Irven DeVore (October 7, 1934 – September 23, 2014) was an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, and Curator of Primatology at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. He headed Harvard's Department of Anthropolo ...

, "for the succeeding thirty years almost all of the accurate information available on the behavior of monkeys and apes living in natural environments was the result of Carpenter's research and writing." Carpenter's lar gibbon, ''Hylobates lar carpenteri'', is named in his honor.Groves, Colin P. 1968. A new subspecies of white-handed gibbon from northern Thailand, ''Hylobates lar carpenteri'' new subspecies. ''Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington'', 81:625-628; 628. URL: https://archive.org/details/biostor-82270, accessed 8 Jan 2018. Though known for his innovations in field work, Carpenter also advocated for breeding

rhesus macaques The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...

for scientific experimentation. He initiated an effort to move 400 monkeys from India to Santiago Island, now part of

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, for experimentation.

Books

* ''Behavioral Regulators of Behavior in Primates''. C. R. Carpenter, ed.

Lewisburg, Pennsylvania Lewisburg is a borough in Union County, Pennsylvania, United States, south by southeast of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Williamsport and north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. The population was 5,158 as of the United States Census 202 ...

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

Press, 1974. Hardcover: , .

Films

C.R. Carpenter Primate Studies Series

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

Papers

* "Behavior and Social Relations of the Howling Monkey,"

Comparative Psychology Comparative psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior. The phrase comparative psycholog ...

Monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, May, 1934. * "Field Study in Siam of the Behavior and social Relations of the Gibbon," Comparative Psychology Monographs, Johns Hopkins University, December, 1940. * "Societies of Monkeys and Apes," Biological Symposia, v. 8, 1942. * "Evolutionary interpretation of human behavior," Transactions of the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

, 1942. * "Social Behavior of the Primates," '' Colloques internationaux du

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

,'' v. 34, March, 1950.

References

Biographical sketch
at Primate Info Net. 1905 births 1975 deaths People from Lincoln County, North Carolina American primatologists Duke University alumni 20th-century American zoologists {{US-zoologist-stub