Some Reading Suggestions
Compiled by the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section on Human-Primate Interactions
Methods
Chua, L. et al. 2022. Using Ethnographic Research for Social engagement: A Toolkit for Orangutan (and Other) Conservationists plus other resources (in English and Bahasa Indonesia).
DePuy, W., Thung, P., Schreer, V. and Erb, W. M. 2025. Navigating scale and interdisciplinary dynamics in conservation social science. Conservation Biology 39.
Denscombe, M. 2021. The good research guide: Research methods for small scale projects, 7th edition. London: Open University Press.
Drury, R. et al. 2011. Less is more: The potential of qualitative approaches in conservation research. Animal Conservation 14: 18-24.
Gerson, K. & Damaske, S. 2021. The Science and Art of Interviewing. Oxford University Press.
Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.L. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, Aldine.
Glickman, J. A. et al. 2023. Social science research. In: IUCN SSC guidelines on human-wildlife conflict and coexistence. First edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. pp. 125-130. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/50756
Ibbet, H. & St. John, F. A. V. Conservation Social Science: A Handbook for Conducting Research on Rule Breaking in Conservation. Bangor University, UK
Moon, K. & Blackman, D. 2014. A guide to understanding social science research for natural scientists. Conservation Biology 28: 1167-1177.
Musante DeWalt, K. and DeWalt, B. R. 2010. Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers, second edition. Rowman Altamira.
Newing, H. 2011. Conducting Research in Conservation: A Social Science Perspective. Abingdon, Oxford, Routledge.
Parathian, H. E., McLennan, M. R., Hill, C. M., Frazão-Moreinra, A. & Hockings, K. J. 2018. Breaking through disciplinary barriers: Human-wildlife interactions and multispecies ethnography. International Journal of Primatology 39: 749-775.
Peterson, R.B. et al. 2010. Seeing (and doing) conservation through cultural lenses. Environmental Management 45: 5-18.
Rubin, A. T. 2021. Rocking Qualitative Social Science. Stanford University Press.
Small, M. L. & Calarco, J. M. 2022. Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research. University of California Press.
Wutich, A. et al. 2024. Rigorous and systematic qualitative data analysis in biological anthropology. Am. J. Biol. Anthro. 186 (Suppl. 78) e70008.
General
Chua, L. et al. 2020. Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co-optation. A case study from orangutan conservation. People & Nature 2: 42-60.
Dore, K.M. et al. 2018. Ethnographic approaches in primatology. Folia Primatol. 89: 1-12.
Haraway, D. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. London, Routledge.
Hill C.M. et al. Understanding Conflicts about Wildlife: A Biosocial Approach. Berghahn Books.
Fuentes, A. & Wolf, L. 2002. Primates Face to Face: Conservation Implications of Human-Primate Interconnections. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Jost-Robinson, C.A. & Remis, M.J. 2018. Engaging holism: Exploring multispecies approaches in ethnoprimatology. International Journal of Primatology 39: 776-796.
Palmer, A., & Malone, N. (2018). Extending ethnoprimatology: human–alloprimate relationships in managed settings. International Journal of Primatology 39: 831-851.
Riley, E.P. 2013. Contemporary primatology in anthropology: Beyond the epistemological abyss. American Anthropologist 115: 411-422.
Riley, E.P. 2020. The Promise of Contemporary Primatology. Routledge.
Sandbrook, C., Adams, W.M., Buscher, B. & Vira, B., 2013. Social research and biodiversity conservation. Conservation Biology 27: 1487-1490.
Setchell, J.M. et al. 2017. Biosocial conservation: Integrating biological and ethnographic methods to study human-primate interactions. International Journal of Primatology 35: 401-426.
Waters, S., Sengupta, A., Hansen, M. F., King, A. J., Spaan, D., McKinney, T., Ellwanger, A. L., Riley, E. P., Correa, J., Ilham, K., Pebsworth, P. A., Marechal, L. 2025. How and why people provision primates. Primate Conservation 39.
Region – Africa
Ampumuza, C. & Driessen, C. 2021. Gorilla habituation and the role of animal agency in conservation and tourism development at Bwindi, south western Uganda. EPE Nature & Space 4: 1601-1621.
Costa, S. et al. 2013. The good, the bad and the ugly: Perceptions of wildlife in Tombali, (Guinea-Bissau, West Africa). Journal of Primatology 2.
Hardin, R. and Remis, M. J. 2006 Biological and cultural anthropology of a changing tropical forest: A fruitful collaboration across subfields. American Anthropologist 108: 275-285.
Hofner, A. N. et al. 2018. Preserving Preuss’s red colobus (Piliocolobus preussi): An ethnographic analysis of hunting, conservation and changing perceptions of primates in Ikenge-Bakoko, Cameroon. International Journal of Primatology 39: 895-917.
Remis, M. J. & Jost-Robinson, C. A. 2017. Nonhuman primates and “others” in the Dzanga Sangha Reserve: The role of anthropology and multispecies approaches in ethnoprimatology. In Dore K. M., E. P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface (pp. 190-205). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saunders, F. 2011. It’s like herding monkeys into a conservation enclosure: The formation and establishment of the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Conservation & Society 9: 261-273.
Sousa, J. et al. 2017. Chimpanzees, sorcery and nature contestation in a protected area in Guinea-Bissau. Social Anthropology 25: 364-379.
Tumusiime, D. M. & Svarstad, H. 2011. A local counter-narrative on the conservation of mountain gorillas. Forum for Development Studies 38: 239-265.
Wade, A. H. & Malone, N. 2021. Ecological, historical, economic and political factors shaping the human-gorilla interface in the Mone-Oku Forest, Cameroon. Diversity 13:175.
Waters, S. et al. 2018. Understanding human-animal relations in the context of primate conservation: A multispecies ethnographic approach in North Morocco. Folia Primatologica, 89: 13-29.
Waters S. et al. 2019. Interpreting people’s behavior toward primates using qualitative data: a case study from North Morocco. International Journal of Primatology 40:316-330.
Webinar. 2020. The Role of Belief Systems in African Primate Conservation.
Region – Americas
Cormier, L. A. 2003. Kinship with Monkeys. New York, Columbia University Press.
Dore, K. M., Eller, A. R., & Eller, J. L. 2018. Identity construction and symbolic association in farmer-vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) interconnections in St. Kitts. Folia Primatologica 89: 63-80.
Dore, K. M. (2018). Ethnoprimatology without conservation: The political ecology of farmer green monkey (Chlorocebus sabeus) relations in St. Kitts, West Indies. International Journal of Primatology 39: 918-944.
Dore, K. M. 2017. Navigating the methodological landscape: ethnographic data expose the nuances of “the Monkey Problem” in St. Kitts, West Indies. In Dore K.M., E.P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface (pp. 219-231). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Papworth, S., Milner-Gulland, E. J. and Slocombe, K. 2013. The natural place to begin: The ethnoprimatology of the Waorani. American Journal of Primatology, 75: 1117-1128.
Saiyed, S.T. et al. 2025. Entangled existences: An examination of humans and monkeys in Calypso Bay, Saint Kitts. Int. J. Primatol. doi.org/10.1007/s10764-025-00489-z
Shaffer, C. A., et al. 2018. Integrating ethnography and hunting sustainability modelling for primate conservation in an Indigenous reserve, Guyana. International Journal of Primatology 39: 945-968.
Shaffer, C. A., et al. 2022. “Spider Monkey Cotton”: bridging Waiwai and scientific ontologies to characterize spider monkey (Ateles paniscus) filariasis in the Konashen Community Owned Conservation Area, Guyana. International Journal of Primatology 43: 253–272.
Urbani, B. and Lizarralde, M. 2020. Neotropical Ethnoprimatology: Indigenous People’s perceptions of and Interactions with Nonhuman Primates. Springer
Region – Asia
Chua, L. et al. 2021. “Only the orangutans get a life jacket”: Uncommoning responsibility in a global conservation nexus. American Ethologist 48: 370-385.
Fair, H. & Schreer, V. 2025. Lively gifts and exclusive commodities: Rethinking encounter value in orangutan conservation. Geoforum 159: e104213
Govindrajan, R. 2018. Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas, University of Chicago Press.
Hilser, H. et al. 2023. Cultivating care: Behaviourally informed strategies to safeguard the future of the Sulawesi crested black macaque (Macaca nigra). International Journal of Primatology 44: 764-790.
Knight, J. 1999. Monkeys on the move: The natural symbolism of people-macaque conflicts in Japan. The Journal of Asian Studies, 58: 622-647.
Knight, J. 2003. Waiting for Wolves in Japan. Oxford University Press.
Knight, J. 2011. Herding Monkeys to Paradise: How Macaque Troops are Managed for Tourism in Japan. Brill, UK.
Ohnuki-Tierney, E. 1987. The Monkey as Mirror. Princeton University Press.
Oram, F., et al. 2022. “Engaging the enemy” orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus morio) conservation in human-modified environments in the Kinabatangan flood plain of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. International Journal of Primatology 43: 1067-1094.
Permana, S., et al. 2020. Traditional conservation and human-primate conflict in Ujungjaya Village Community, Ujung Kulon, Banten, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 2.
Peterson, J. V., Riley, E. P. & Oka, N. P. 2015. Macaques and the ritual production of sacredness among Balinese transmigrants in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. American Anthropologist 117: 71-85.
Peterson, J. V. & Riley, E. P. 2017. Sacred monkeys? An ethnographic perspective on macaque sacredness in Balinese Hinduism. In Dore K. M., E. P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-Nonhuman Primate Interface, pp. 206-218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Riley, E. P. (2010) The importance of human-macaque folklore for conservation in Lore-Lindu National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Oryx, 44: 235-240.
Schreer, V. 2023. The absent agent: Orangutans, communities, and conservation in Indonesian Borneo. Conservation and Society 21: 17-27.
Thach, H. M. et al. 2018. Slow loris trade in Vietnam: Exploring diverse knowledges and values. Folia Primatologica 89: 45-62.
Region – Europe
Radford et al. 2018. On the rocks: Using discourse analysis to examine relationships between Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) and people on Gibraltar. Folia Primatologica 89: 30-44.
Inclusivity and Ethics
Ampumuza, C. 2023. Living with gorillas? Lessons from Batwa-gorillas’ convivial relations at Bwindi Forest, Uganda. Conservation and Society 20: 69-78.
Beck, J. M. et al. 2021. The application of reflexivity for conservation science. Biological Conservation 262
Bezanson, M. et al. 2023. Words matter in primatology. Primates.
Bezanson, M. & McNamara, A. 2019. The what and where of primate field research may be failing primate conservation. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 28: 166-178.
Blair, M. E. 2019. Toward more equitable and inclusive spaces for primatology and primate conservation. International Journal of Primatology 40: 462-464.
Cadman, R. et al. 2024. Using positionality and reflexivity to support equity in partnership-driven research. Conservation Biology e14396
Cardinal, C. et al. 2022. Working from the inside out: Fostering intrinsic motivation and expanding our criteria for conservation success. International Journal of Primatology 43: 1177-1202.
Conservation Social Science. https://consosci.org/en-us/Research-Ethics
Garland, E. 2013. The elephant in the room: Confronting the colonial character of wildlife conservation in Africa. African Studies Review 51: 51-74.
Harper, J. 2002. Endangered Species: Health, Illness and Death Among Madagascar’s People of the Forest. Carolina Academic Press.
Hill, C. M. 2002. Primate conservation and local communities: Ethical issues and debates. American Anthropologist 104: 1184-1194.
Kaechele, N. et al. 2024. A primer for the practice of reflexivity in conservation. Conservation Letters
Keller, E. 2008. The banana plant and the moon: Conservation and the Malagasy ethos of life in Masoala, Madagascar. American Ethologist 35: 650-664.
Keller, E. 2009. The danger of misunderstanding ‘culture’. Madagascar Conservation and Development 4: 82-85.
Leblan, V. 2016. Territorial and land-use rights perspectives on human-chimpanzee elephant coexistence in West Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, nineteenth to twenty first centuries). Primates. 57: 359-66.
Malone, N., et al. 2017. Incorporating the ethnographic perspective: The value, process and responsibility of working with human participants. In Dore K.M., E.P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface, pp. 176-189. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLennan, M. R. & Hill, C.M. 2013. Ethical issues in the study and conservation of an African great ape in an unprotected, human-dominated landscape in Western Uganda. In MacClancy J. and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethics in the Field: Contemporary Challenges, pp. 45-66. New York: Berghahn Books.
Montana, J. et al. 2020. The need for improved reflexivity in conservation science. Environmental Conservation 47: 217-219.
Newing, H. et al. 2024. Conservation and Human Rights: An Introduction. Available in English, French & Spanish
Palmer, A. 2020. Ethical Debates in Orangutan Conservation. Routledge, UK.
Parreňas, J. S. 2018. Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation. Duke University Press
Riley, E. P. & Bezanson, M. 2018. Ethics of primate fieldwork: Toward an ethically engaged primatology. In Brenneis D. and K. B. Strier (Eds.), Annual Review of Anthropology 47: 493-512.
Rodrigues, M. A. 2020. Neocolonial Narratives of Primate Conservation.
Rodrigues, M. A. et al. 2022. Narratives of positionality in primatology: Foreign/range country-collaborator perspectives from Africa and South America. International Journal of Primatology 43:1133-1158.
Rubis, J. M. 2020. The orangutan is not an indigenous name: Knowing and naming the maias as a decolonizing epistemology. Cultural Studies 34: 811-830.
Rubis, J. M. & Theriault, N. 2019. Concealing protocols: Conservation, indigenous survivance, and the dilemmas of visibility. Social & Cultural Geography 21: 962-984.
Sandbrook, C., et al. 2021. Principles for the socially responsible use of conservation monitoring technology and data. Conservation Science and Practice 3.
Schreer, V. et al. 2024. Doing social science with conservation: Co-reflexivity on the project model in conservation. Oryx.
Section on Human-Primate Interactions Webinar 2020. Decolonising Primate Conservation
Setchell, J. M. 2019. Inclusive science. In: Studying Primates: How to Design, Conduct and Report Primatological Research, pp. 45-52. Cambridge University Press.
Setchell, J. M. et al. 2024. Promoting equitable research partnerships in primatology. International Journal of Primatology
Thung, P. H. 2024. The politics of invisibility: Insights from a community-based conservation from a village forest in west Kalimantan, Indonesia. Conservation & Society 22: 145-155.
Waters, S., et al. 2022. Decolonizing primate conservation practice: A case study from north Morocco. International Journal of Primatology 43:1046-1066.
IUCN SSC PSG Section on Human-Primate Interactions 