The Lewis Honors College hosted a talk as part of its “Ideas That Matter” series on how to care for primates and how complex they are as a species.

On Feb. 3, the University of Kentucky alumna Eileen Dallaire hosted the event on anthropology, which was open to students and staff to attend.

Dallaire talked about why primates are worth studying and how to care for them in the modern world.

Studying primates as her job was not intentional, and something she just happened to do when looking for work. Dallaire said as she was looking for internship opportunities, she reached out to animal organizations.

“They (Humane Society) actually referred me to the Primate Rescue Center, and once I got an opportunity to observe the animals’ experience, and how to care for them, it just clicked and felt like something I was meant to do,” Dallaire said.

The Primate Rescue Center is located in Nicholasville, Kentucky, where it has the goal to “alleviate the suffering of primates,” according to its mission statement on the website.

Psychology being relevant to studying and caring for primates was not something Dallaire expected. Dallaire said she appreciates that her psychology studies caused her to learn deeply about the animals she takes care of.

“What I didn’t recognize is how psychology would not only help me understand the animals themselves, but also the people caring for them, and how to develop systems of teamwork and organization and productivity,” Dallaire said. 

The goal for the talk was to help people learn how nuanced caring for primates is, but also how humans affect their well-being in positive and negative ways, Dallaire said.

“I wanted people to first understand how complex the care is for primates or really many species in captivity, but also use that context to look at all sorts of systems, whether they’re animal systems or human systems,” Dallaire said. “How we participate in those systems, either willingly or unwillingly, by the types of things that we view on social media or support.”

Cearra Miles, a sophomore English major, said she attended the talk because she thought the topic sounded interesting and unique.

Miles said she appreciated how the talk showed the complexity of primates by showing how their behavior is not unlike humans.

“What I didn’t know before was their social groups, the way they form them, and how some of them want to be more distant instead of just having a group,” Miles said. “I feel we see a lot of depicted images of primates always traveling in groups, but there are some that like to keep to themselves, which I thought was very interesting.”

Miles said a talk focused on anthropology is uncommon for UK to have, and it isn’t a topic many students understand.

“I was surprised we were able to have an event like this. I feel we don’t really discuss on our campus the importance of primates and how they are similar to us as well, and the way they behave,” Miles said. “So it was cool to see how I was able to pull my experience and education from anthropology to this event.”

The assistant dean of Lewis Honors College, Sally Foster, said part of her responsibilities are to help students develop as people, and this talk was a way to expose them to a new topic.

“We try to help students become aware of key issues and causes that maybe they wouldn’t normally get to interact with,” Foster said. “The fact that the sanctuary is so close to us, geographically, and the ethical dilemmas are a very interdisciplinary topic.”

The Lewis Honors College will be hosting two more talks in this series on March 3 and March 30.