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Alex Pritchard (he/him)

@pritcharda.bsky.social
531 followers 811 following 30 posts

Postdoctoral Scholar @ UCDavis. SNA | decision making | uncertainty | sociality | interdisciplinary | individual differences | experiments | multi-methods

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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Ooooo, thanks for sharing! Here are my votes!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This work was the culmination of collaboration across multiple research and technical units, and I am thrilled to see it out in print!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In this manuscript, we formally analyzed how the social behavior preceded the managed split and its continuity afterwards. Did the macaques' social communities offer insight into change over time? Was our split reflective of preceding dynamics?
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The macaques capitalized on the opportunity to oust the alpha matriline! We stepped in to split the group informed by our social behavioral knowledge, up until that point, and using the expert knowledge of our observers.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Check out our new article in @royalsociety.org's Open Science! @nbri-ucdavis.bsky.social We enabled space selection for a large group of rhesus macaques. Instead of one large enclosure, we provided two connected with a corridor to enable self-selection of smaller groups. doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
doi.org
Enabling a group split in captivity through proactive enclosure design and reactive social management
Abstract. Fissioning from one group into two or more is a solution to spatial and social tension. Captive settings, however, usually do not facilitate fiss
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Lots of interesting reading to produce this, especially as this abnormal behavior shows a lot of parallels to trichotillomania-by-proxy in humans and barbering in mice.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
We also examined a few health outcomes, including alopecia condition (yes, hair plucking is associated with hair loss...) and hair cortisol (maybe social hair plucking is associated with female CORT).
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
One interesting outcome is that social hair plucking can be 'tolerated' in affiliative contexts, yet also be used as a 'punishment' in high aggression contexts. To be clear, this behavior looks difficult to endure as a recipient!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Social hair plucking exhibits directional rank flow similar to aggression yet has kin biases similar to those for grooming. I think there's good tentative evidence that it is socially transmitted, but we would need more work to explore transmission.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I worked with Julia Salamango (then an observer, now working towards her PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara) to examine how social hair plucking resembles both agonistic and affiliative behaviors, using data in the McCowan-Vandeleest Laboratory of Biobehavioral Complexity.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This paper began after I was fascinated by the abundance of social hair plucking during our affiliation scans. When I suggested that we incorporate it into our protocol, I was told we had several years worth of data on this behavior!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Our new article is out this week on social hair plucking, published as open access in JAAWS! doi.org/10.1080/1088...
The figure is from the open access paper and shows animals that produce social hair plucking (dark blue), received (orange), and produced as well as received (light blue). Differences in size correspond to more giving and/or reception of social hair plucking. Note the variance across groups in prevalence of hair plucking!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
This article demonstrates the nuances that can occur at integrating emergent levels of sociality, and at reversing our assumptions of 'causality' in coupled processes. All this to say: IT'S VERY COOL! Give it a read here: lnkd.in/gUH3Xpdn
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Happy to have worked with Rosemary Blersch for her new article in a special issue of Animal Behaviour on multilayer networks for animal sociality. What is the interplay between social behavior and dominance rank change? Do these associations change with greater levels of social complexity?
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Reposted by Alex Pritchard (he/him)
Christina Nord @ina820.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
New paper out in Ecology & Evolution! 🐺🐄 We were invited to collaborate on this project based on the McCowan-Vandeleest lab’s work using hair cortisol as a welfare indicator in non-human primates — a method we’re now bringing to a very different species and ecology. 🧵 1/8 @vanditto.bsky.social
Cattle encounter gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the study area in California's Sierra Nevada. Top: A B. taurus bull and a member of the Lassen Wolf Pack (Canis lupus). Bottom: A first calf heifer (B. taurus) and a member of the Lassen Wolf Pack. Image credit: K.W. Tate and T.L. Saitone.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Part of my continued work with the McCowan-Vandeleest (@vanditto.bsky.social) Laboratory for Biobehavioral Complexity.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
In a seasonally breeding primate, how much does the shared experience of motherhood alter behavior? We examined social behaviors, connectivity, and markers of health across reproductive phases. Read about the maternal experience in Animal Reproduction Science! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The social circumstances of the maternal experience and its biobehavioral associations, in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)
Motherhood is a physiologically and behaviorally demanding process. We sought to examine how such changes might be expected to alter a mother’s social…
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
The latter should be widely applicable to works relying on ICC and ordinal, Likert scales. This manuscript was a really enjoyable passion project that helped me refine a lot of how I think about ratings, reliability, and what goes on under-the-hood of these measures!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
This article was a really fun synthesis, out now! I bridged meta-analyses for the current state of interrater reliability in primate personality research with expectations simulated off of how we collect ratings and measure their reliability. doi.org/10.1037/com0...
doi.org
APA PsycNet
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Brenda McCowan is not on BlueSky, but Jessica Vandeleest is! ( @vanditto.bsky.social )
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Did we succeed?! Yes, but with important time-of-day and rank-based effects! Also, what even is social tolerance!? Read more here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Pleased to have been a part of this project, now detailed by Dr. Rosemary Blersch (not on BlueSky) based on work in the McCowan-Vandeleest Laboratory for Biobehavioral Complexity. Studies often examine effects of clumped resources, we decentralized food provisioning to increase social tolerance.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Food Distribution, But Not Market Forces, Predict Behavioral Social Tolerance in Rhesus Macaques
Decentralizing food resources in rhesus macaques reduced aggression, increased co-feeding and promoted social tolerance, suggesting that distributed resources could enhance group stability and welfar....
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Development is lots of 'figuring things out'! But, how do we understand relationships as infants transition away from play🙃? Is play a precursor to other social behaviors, or is proximity or contact🤗 more reflective of partner choice? Read our new work! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Delineating connectivity and quality of peer–peer pre-pubescent rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) relationships, by examining coupled social behaviours | Royal Society Open Science
Infant experiences have lifetime implications for individuals’ social competence. Therefore, lifelong trajectories can be informed by a nuanced understanding of who developing individuals connect with...
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Reposted by Alex Pritchard (he/him)
Megan Petersdorf @meganpetersdorf.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
🚨 New paper! 🚨 🐒 White-faced capuchins experience high rates of infanticide. 🐒 Infanticide is costly to female reproduction. 🐒 Do females exhibit the Bruce effect (termination of pregnancy) to reduce these costs? 🐒 Spoiler: Nope! Read more ▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Female capuchins sits on a branch, looking away from the camera. A young capuchin holds onto her back, looking at the camera. Photo: Nick Chapoy
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Cool! I had to look up this creature. Speculated it was a gannet relative, but looks like a cormorant relative! We saw cormorant's diving for schools of fish in Maine. They were remarkably aggressive and would even cause visible waves (whether through their efforts or the fish, not sure)!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Combining multiple behavioral measures of social relationships can reveal stronger associations with biomarkers of health! From @vanditto.bsky.social and the McCowan-Vandeleest lab.
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
New paper from Nalina Aiempichitkijkarn, who recently graduated from the McCowan-Vandeleest laboratory. She is now a postdoc @ California State University, Long Beach! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Assessing the Sociodemographic Factors Associated With Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Infection Among Free‐Ranging Long‐Tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Thailand
This study combines behavioral observations with noninvasive biological sample collection, using freshly defecated feces and rope-baited oral cells, to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC....
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Including co-authors: @vanditto.bsky.social, @elidebruyn.bsky.social, and many who (I think?) are not on BlueSky!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Excited to share the outcomes of our new paper introducing predictability to group management practices. A challenging endeavor, because management practices often share unreliable cues. Really happy with how this turned out, possible through lots of support! authors.elsevier.com/a/1khW2cF2Ow...
authors.elsevier.com
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Reposted by Alex Pritchard (he/him)
NSF Center for Analysis and Prediction of Pandemic Expansion @nsfappexcenter.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
NSF APPEX invites Seed Ideas for new Working Groups to tackle pandemic risk & response. Have a bold idea to study pandemic expansion? We want to work with you! Learn more: appex.org/seed/
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
I would certainly appreciate being included!
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
Personality has been one of my favorite topics to research. I was thrilled at the opportunity to publish on personality ratings from three species of wild macaques! Multisite field studies, like this one, are a rarity. NSF-Funded Out Now! doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org
Personality trait structures across three species of Macaca, using survey ratings of responses to conspecifics and humans
Comparative studies reliant on single personality surveys to rate wild primates are scarce yet remain critical for developing a holistic comparative understanding of personality. Differences in survey...
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Alex Pritchard (he/him) @pritcharda.bsky.social · 20/11/2023
Are you a primate researcher? Please consider contributing to our research survey! Add your knowledge of direct, indirect, or absent human-primate interactions at sites you have visited. Just 15 minutes of your time!
bit.ly
Human-Nonhuman Primate Interactions
This survey has been designed to collect information on the diversity of emergent and shared histories of human-nonhuman primate (NHP) interactions, at sites that responding primate researchers freque...
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