Primatologist Dr. Alison Jolly proved that females rule, both in the animal kingdom and in the field of scientific study. Studying lemurs in Madagascar, Dr. Jolly found groundbreaking evidence of female dominance in primates, debunking the assertion that males dominate females in every primate species, including humans. In the words of primatologist Patricia C. Wright, “This was a real surprise to people in the ’60s… female leaders were still so rare. And here comes a woman presenting a model of primates where the females are leaders — effective leaders.”
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Lemur Behavior: A Madagascar Field Study
, Dr. Jolly’s study on ring-tailed lemurs, she wrote, “Females have social, spatial and feeding priority over males…all females, whether dominant or subordinate in the female hierarchy, are dominant over male.” According to Dr. Jolly, even the most subordinate females would “at times pounce upon a dominant male and snatch a tamarind pod from his hand, cuffing him over the ear in the process.”
Dr. Jolly fought to protect the lemur population through environmental protection efforts, persuading Madagascar’s government to expand wilderness preserves. She later wrote a series of children’s books in hopes of raising environmental awareness among the country’s youth, chronicling the adventures of Ako, Tik Tik and Bitika, lemurs that confront daily environmental threats. To commemorate her efforts, in 2006, a new species of mouse lemur, the tiny
Microcebus jollyae
, was named in her honor.
