James E. Loudon
Office: 211 Flanagan Building
Telephone: 252-737-1263
E-mail: loudonj@ecu.edu
About Me
I am holistically trained anthropologist who focuses on the behavioral ecology of nonhuman primates. I have several research foci including stable isotope ecology, nutritional ecology, primate parasitology, and ethnoprimatology. My ethnoprimatological work focuses on the interconnections between humans and long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. The population of macaques I study inhabit a sacred monkey forest that surrounds a Hindu temple complex that is approximately ~800 years old. As a result, the local people have been in close contact with the macaques at this site for several centuries. Today the Ubud Monkey Forest Sanctuary is a popular tourist destination allowing for unique studies that examine how the macaques at the site interact with tourists and the local Balinese people they live among. This work also examines how macaques adapt to the pressures of living in large, complex nonhuman primate societies while inhabiting urban areas. There are a number of research questions to pursue at the site and I am the co-director of the Balinese Macaque Ethnoprimatology Field School. Each year I take undergraduate and graduate students to the field site and teach them how to collect primatological and ethnographic data. This field school is coordinated through ECU’s Study Abroad Office. For those interested in the field school click here for the Study Abroad Office:
https://piratesabroad.ecu.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=10654
For further information about the Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, the macaques at the site, and the program click the following links: