Mariana Cravo-Mota

CI am a PhD student at CIBIO/BIOPOLIS and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, working on primate ecology, behaviour and conservation. My academic path has taken me from Central Amazonia, where I studied the ranging patterns, diet and social behaviour of woolly monkeys (Lagothrix cana), to northern Mozambique, where I conducted my MSc research on primate density in the southern region of Quirimbas National Park.
Since 2019, my PhD has focused on western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in Mayombe National Park, Cabinda, Angola. This project marked the beginning of a systematic research programme on great apes in Mayombe, one of the least-studied forest regions for great apes in Africa. Within the PALEO group, my work contributes to broader questions on primate adaptation, behavioural flexibility, sympatry and ecological variation across African landscapes. My PhD is supported by a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and has been funded by the Global Greengrants Fund/Arcus Foundation and the International Primatological Society (IPS).