University of Wisconsin–Madison

People Type: Undergraduate Researcher

Altman, Brandon

Projects Brandon contributes to data entry for the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and in 2025-2026 participated in a weekly NVBP journal club with other UW-Madison undergraduates and Dr. Bryer.

Anderson, Isabelle

Projects Isabelle worked on data entry for the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and then went to South Africa in summer 2025 and completed a project on indigenous and alien plant foods in the chacma baboon diet. She and other members of the team published a short report in 2026 in the South African regional journal …

Berghoff, Elana

Projects Elana conducted a literature review of L’Hoest’s monkey ecology and completed a project on L’Hoest’s monkey plant foods at Kanyawara, Kibale National Park, Uganda, which she presented at the American Association of Biological Anthropologists’  Committee on Diversity (COD) Undergraduate Symposium in 2026 in Denver, Colorado.

Brungardt Alvarez, Sam

Projects Sam worked with Dr. Bryer on primate behavioral methods training and data organization, including in exploring guenon feeding on exotic versus indigenous plants in Uganda.

Jones, Griffyn

Projects Griffyn received the Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship in 2026 to study risk taking by chacma baboons in Nature’s Valley, South Africa, and to collaborate with the NGO NVT’s Urban Conservancy to better understand baboon attractants in residential areas.

Ralphe, Gabrielle

Projects Gabby worked on data entry for the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and then went to South Africa in summer 2025 and completed a project on grooming equitability in chacma baboons before and after a group fusion. She and other members of the team published a short report in 2026 in the South African regional …

Smith, Natalie

Projects Natalie completed an independent study with Dr. Bryer during which she did a comprehensive review of literature in multiple disciplines that directly relate or infer relationships between nutrition and tool use in living and extinct primates.

Treuthart, Madeline

Projects Maddie contributed to data entry for the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and participated in a weekly NVBP journal club with other UW-Madison undergraduates and Dr. Bryer.

Vazquez Chavez, Luis

Projects Luis completed a project compiling a food list for L’Hoest’s monkeys at Bwindi National Park, Uganda. In Summer 2026, he joined our partner NGO NVT as a summer intern and piloted a primate fecal spore identification protocol in collaboration with mycologist and NVBP collaborator Colin Haley.

Whitson, Kyra

Kyra contributes to data entry for the Nature’s Valley Baboon Project and in 2025-2026 participated in a weekly NVBP journal club with other UW-Madison undergraduates and Dr. Bryer. To explore her interest in primate microbiome and nutrition, she presented a poster at the UW-Madison Undergraduate Symposium in 2026 reviewing fiber variation in the human diet.