Alison Jolly (born 1937) is a primatologist, known for her studies of lemur biology. She has written several books for both popular and scientific audiences and conducted extensive fieldwork on Lemurs in Madagascar, primarily at the Berenty Reserve, a small private reserve of gallery forest set in the semi-arid spiny desert area in the far south of Madagascar.
She holds a BA from Cornell University, and a PhD from Yale University; she has been a researcher at the New York Zoological Society, Cambridge University, University of Sussex, Rockefeller University, and Princeton University; she is currently a Visiting Scientist at the University of Sussex.[1]
Under her maiden name, Alison Bishop, she first published "Control of the hand in lower primates" in 1962.[2] Jolly began studying lemur behavior at Berenty in 1963.[3] Since 1990 she has returned for every birthing season to carry out research assisted by student volunteers.[4] She has focused on ring-tailed lemur demography, ranging, and especially inter-troop and territorial behavior, in the context of the fivefold difference in population density from front to back of the reserve.
Her scientific books include Lemur Behavior: A Madagascar Field Study and Lucy’s Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution.[5] Her non-technical works include Madagascar: A World out of Time and Lords & Lemurs: Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar.[6] She has also written numerous articles for consumer magazines and scientific journals.
In June 2006, a new species of mouse lemur, Microcebus jollyae, was named in her honor.[7][8]
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Alison Jolly is married to Richard Jolly the noted development economist.[9]