A scientist’s memoir that delves into the history of primate field studies and the women who shaped the discipline of primatology, including Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birutė Galdikas and Alison Jolly.

Since the 1970s, the science of primatology has been dominated by women—a unique reversal, with men usually outnumbering women in other science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Sisters of the Jungle shines a light on a scientific discipline in which women take the lead while transporting readers to the far corners of the earth to understand our closest living relatives. Keriann McGoogan’s journey as a primatologist has taken her to Belize and Madagascar studying wild primates, including howler monkeys (the loudest living primate) and lemurs (the most endangered group of animals on the planet). Against this backdrop, she explores the stories of the many women who came before her. Intrepid scientists like Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birutė Galdikas and Alison Jolly broke boundaries, made astonishing discoveries and ultimately shaped the trajectory of an entire branch of science.

Keriann McGoogan has a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Toronto. She spent months living in Belize, kayaking rivers in search of black howler monkeys and coping with the hardships of field science, including rainy-season floods, wasp stings and two bouts of malaria. Her memoir and first book, Chasing Lemurs: My Journey into the Heart of Madagascar (Prometheus, 2021), chronicled her nineteen months studying groups of endangered lemurs in an isolated forest region. McGoogan lives in Guelph, ON.

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