Emily Wroblewski

PERSONAL HISTORY
I came to the University of Minnesota in 2003 to pursue my Ph.D. studying chimpanzee behavioral ecology with Dr. Pusey. Like most of us in the Center for Primate Studies, my interest in science and animals started at an early age. Some of my favorite memories are of me and my siblings exploring the wilds of the undeveloped land that surrounded our house. I remember finding an old piece of plywood under which all sorts of insects made their home. I would return to it every day to "feed" them and see what was still there and what new types of insects had moved in. It was no surprise then that I got a B.S. in Biology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. While I was at DePaul, I studied captive lions, tigers, leopards and cougars in wildlife refuges, and I also worked in a developmental neurobiology laboratory. After I graduated in 2000, I wanted to gain more research experience before applying to graduate school, so I worked for the Northwestern University Medical School Children's Memorial Institute for Education and Research studying eye development. I also volunteered as a docent at Lincoln Park Zoo.

RESEARCH
For my Ph.D. research I have combined my laboratory skills with my interest in animal behavior. I use genetics to determine who the fathers of chimpanzee offspring are, and I am interested in whether paternal relatives (who descend from the same father) treat each other differently than individuals that are not related. While we have been studying the Gombe chimpanzees for over 40 years, only recently have we developed the genetic techniques to figure out who the fathers of offspring are in a non-invasive way - meaning we do not have to use tranquilizers, draw blood, or otherwise disturb the chimpanzees. We are not able to tell with certainty using mating behavior alone because female chimpanzees often mate with many of the males in the community.

Why do behavioral ecologists care if relatives treat each other differently? There is abundant data in primates showing that maternal relatives (who descend from the same mother) show a behavioral bias - showing more positive behavior and less negative behavior. However, only a few studies investigated if this happens with paternal relatives, though results indicate that bias does occur. Whether animals treat their relatives differently is interesting to behavioral ecologists because it can help us explain why altruistic behavior (behavior that is costly for the actor but that benefits the recipient) has evolved. This type of behavior contradicts what we would expect to occur. Since animals compete for mates and resources to survive and reproduce, we would expect them to behave selfishly. However, anyone who watches animals knows that some animals sometimes help others. Why would they do this? One possible reason is that altruism might be advantageous to animals is if they behave altruistically towards their relatives, with whom they share a proportion of genes. If the behavior helps their relatives survive and reproduce better than they could do themselves, then altruism could spread through a process called kin selection. In the same way, it would not be advantageous to direct negative behavior towards relatives and hinder their success. Furthermore, we would expect it to be equally as advantageous to bias behavior towards maternal and paternal relatives - the genes are of equal evolutionary value no matter what side they come from! In this context, I am asking 3 questions about the paternal relatives I identify using genetics: 1.) Do fathers spend more time with and show preferential behavior towards their infant offspring when they are young and vulnerable? 2.) Do male adolescents associate with their fathers when they leave their mothers and are fathers less aggressive with them compared to unrelated males? and 3.) Do paternal relatives such as fathers and daughters or half-siblings avoid the negative consequences of inbreeding by avoiding mating with each other? Stay tuned for results…