Dr. Jacinta Beehner

From 2014-2016, a severe El Niño event triggered a drought across Central and South America, leading to unprecedented mortality in a population of white-faced capuchin monkeys in northwestern Costa Rica. The Lomas Barbudal Monkey Project, directed by UCLA’s Susan Perry, has studied this population since 1990. While a devastating setback, researchers were able to study the stress physiology of the surviving monkeys. WEMU’s Caroline MacGregor talks with one of the co-authors of the study, U-M professor of psychology and anthropology, Jacinta Beehner, about while a stronger stress response appears to promote survival in animals, this is not the case for human beings.