Millbrook Scientist Advances Global Primate Research
Boarding school amenities like cutting-edge facilities and innovative programming are wonderful, but it’s the people who make Millbrook, Millbrook. Understanding the value of our faculty, Millbrook maintains a generous professional development fund that faculty members can draw on to improve themselves and further their personal or professional goals. Perhaps the best illustration of the value of this fund in producing tangible results is the work of Science Instructor Dr. Kerry Dore, a primatologist who has continued doing research in St. Kitts and Nevis since coming to Millbrook in 2022.
Working at Millbrook has afforded Dr. Dore the support and flexibility to process the data she has collected in St. Kitts and Nevis over the years while simultaneously teaching her classes (Advanced Biology and Independent Science Research). Specifically, Millbrook professional development funds have enabled her to present her findings around the world, most recently at an International Primatology Society conference in Malaysia in the summer of 2023. As a result of her participation in this meeting, Dr. Dore guest edited and published multiple scientific papers in a December 2025 special issue of the International Journal of Primatology on managing primate populations that thrive alongside human societies (AKA “synanthropic primates”). “This special issue is essentially a synthesis of what we presented at that meeting,” she explained.
Dr. Dore’s research focuses on the complex relationship between primates and humans in St. Kitts and Nevis and the broader Caribbean. In her primary contribution to the special issue, titled “An Integrated Ethnoprimatological and Economic Approach for Managing Green Monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) in St. Kitts and Nevis,” Dr. Dore collaborated with Dr. Adam Daigneault, a renowned economist from the University of Maine, to go beyond theoretical analysis and offer practical solutions to manage the monkey population and help local farmers coexist humanely with their monkey neighbors. Additionally, as a coauthor on a paper titled “Entangled Existences: An Examination of Humans and Monkeys in Calypso Bay, Saint Kitts,” led by Sana T. Saiyed, Dr. Dore and her coauthors explore complex human perceptions of the roughly 30,000 African green monkeys on the 70-square-mile island by interviewing the residents and workers of a local neighborhood and documenting residential monkey behavior. Their results show that monkey behavior does not always align with local reports, and that residents and workers have complex perceptions of the monkeys that are rooted in their own place in society.
The special issue of the International Journal of Primatology features 11 more articles on primate-human interaction in other regions, including India and Saudi Arabia. “All of these papers aim to provide practical strategies that support both humans and primates in places where primates are very happy to be eating our crops or breaking into our kitchens,” Dr. Dore summarized. Research like Dr. Dore’s and her colleagues’ on synanthropic primates is becoming increasingly important as humans continue to alter landscapes at unprecedented rates.
Dr. Dore’s work continues, as she’s off to England in June to present more primate research at the “Pathways Europe: Human Dimensions of Wildlife” conference—another trip sponsored by Millbrook. Importantly, Dr. Dore publishes and presents her research with Millbrook School as her primary academic affiliation. Having scientific research published under Millbrook’s name is a major boost to the school’s credibility as an ideal place for high school students interested in the sciences to study. With a scientist of Dr. Dore’s caliber as a member of the science faculty and with the Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo on campus, Millbrook offers high school students hands-on experience in conservation and biology that no other school can offer.
Working at Millbrook has afforded Dr. Dore the support and flexibility to process the data she has collected in St. Kitts and Nevis over the years while simultaneously teaching her classes (Advanced Biology and Independent Science Research). Specifically, Millbrook professional development funds have enabled her to present her findings around the world, most recently at an International Primatology Society conference in Malaysia in the summer of 2023. As a result of her participation in this meeting, Dr. Dore guest edited and published multiple scientific papers in a December 2025 special issue of the International Journal of Primatology on managing primate populations that thrive alongside human societies (AKA “synanthropic primates”). “This special issue is essentially a synthesis of what we presented at that meeting,” she explained.
Dr. Dore’s research focuses on the complex relationship between primates and humans in St. Kitts and Nevis and the broader Caribbean. In her primary contribution to the special issue, titled “An Integrated Ethnoprimatological and Economic Approach for Managing Green Monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) in St. Kitts and Nevis,” Dr. Dore collaborated with Dr. Adam Daigneault, a renowned economist from the University of Maine, to go beyond theoretical analysis and offer practical solutions to manage the monkey population and help local farmers coexist humanely with their monkey neighbors. Additionally, as a coauthor on a paper titled “Entangled Existences: An Examination of Humans and Monkeys in Calypso Bay, Saint Kitts,” led by Sana T. Saiyed, Dr. Dore and her coauthors explore complex human perceptions of the roughly 30,000 African green monkeys on the 70-square-mile island by interviewing the residents and workers of a local neighborhood and documenting residential monkey behavior. Their results show that monkey behavior does not always align with local reports, and that residents and workers have complex perceptions of the monkeys that are rooted in their own place in society.
The special issue of the International Journal of Primatology features 11 more articles on primate-human interaction in other regions, including India and Saudi Arabia. “All of these papers aim to provide practical strategies that support both humans and primates in places where primates are very happy to be eating our crops or breaking into our kitchens,” Dr. Dore summarized. Research like Dr. Dore’s and her colleagues’ on synanthropic primates is becoming increasingly important as humans continue to alter landscapes at unprecedented rates.
Dr. Dore’s work continues, as she’s off to England in June to present more primate research at the “Pathways Europe: Human Dimensions of Wildlife” conference—another trip sponsored by Millbrook. Importantly, Dr. Dore publishes and presents her research with Millbrook School as her primary academic affiliation. Having scientific research published under Millbrook’s name is a major boost to the school’s credibility as an ideal place for high school students interested in the sciences to study. With a scientist of Dr. Dore’s caliber as a member of the science faculty and with the Trevor-Lovejoy Zoo on campus, Millbrook offers high school students hands-on experience in conservation and biology that no other school can offer.
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