About
I'm a primatologist and artist from Texas and am currently a BioAnthropology PhD candidate at Indiana University - Bloomington in PEEL, Co-director of the Himalayan Langur Project, and a 2024-25 CTRD NIH Pre-doctoral trainee
2020: M.Sc Primate Behavior & Ecology, Central Washington University
2017: BA Anthropology Honors, The University of Texas at Austin
Research
General research
My primary scholarship and research rests in investigating the role of motherhood and its practices across primates, with a focus on multi-species overlap in changing landscapes. This includes maternal behavior, parenting, offspring relationships, and development.
I use genetic, physiological, behavioral, ethnographic, and community-based research methods to investigate motherhood and primate life, as well as create holistic community relationships and conservation plans through education and art.
PhD research
My research aims to understand how mother-offspring dyads respond to anthropogenic stressors (food loss, human interactions, dog attacks, disruptive sounds) and investigate how social buffering effects dyad physiology (GMB and endocrine system) and behavior. Social buffering is a critical process for species, group, and individual survival and provides insight into primate adaptation, life history, and conservation, within changing landscapes.
Disciplines: Biological Anthropology, Primatology, Conservation, Ethnography, Visual Anthropology, Studio Art
Perspectives: Ethnoprimatology, Bioethics, Community Based Conservation, Umwelt (Ethology), OneHealth
Previous work: Belize & Costa Rica - Alouatta sp.; South Africa - Papio ursinus; Chimp Sanctuary NW; Thailand - Macaca fascicularis; Bhutan - Macaca mulatta & Semnopithecus schistaceus; India - Semnopithecus schistaceus
Teaching
Indiana University
Global Climate Change & Human Health (HUBI)
Gestation & Early Development (HUBI)
Becoming Human (ANTH)
Introduction to Biological Anthropology (ANTH)
Central Washington University
Introduction to Biological Anthropology (ANTH)
Publications & Documents
Bolt, Laura M., Owens-Crux, Jenna L., Grant, Madison T., Coggeshall, Elizabeth M. C., Russell, Dorian G., Merrigan-Johnson, Carrie, Jacobson, Zachary S., Schmidt, Zachary T., Kaser, Francesca V. E., and Schreier, Amy L. (2024). Edge effects and social behaviour in three platyrrhines. American Journal of Primatology
Schreier, A.L., Bolt, L.M., Russell, D.G., Jacobson, Z.S., Merrigan-Johnson, C., Coggeshall, E.M.C. (2021). Mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in a Costa Rica forest fragment do not modify activity budgets or spatial cohesion in response to anthropogenic edges. Folia primatologica.
Bolt, Laura M., Schreier, Amy L., Russell, Dorian G., Jacobson, Zachary S., Merrigan-Johnson, Carrie, Matthew C. Barton, and Coggeshall, Elizabeth M. C. (2019). Howling on the edge: Mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) howling behaviour and edge effects in a fragmented rainforest in Costa Rica. Ethology.
Bolt, L.M., Russell, D.G., Coggeshall, E.M.C., Jacobson, Z.S., Merrigan-Johnson, C., & Schreier, A.L. (2019). Howling by the river: Howler monkey (Aloutta palliata) communication in an anthropogenically-altered riparian forest in Costa Rica. Behaviour.
Theses
MSc: “Group differences in mother-infant Macaca fascicularis behavior, parasite load, and body condition within an anthropogenically altered forest”
BA Honors: “The gut microbiome analysis of three genera of new world monkeys”
Art & Photography
