The study of primate behavior and ecology has been an ongoing area of research for over 50 years, building on the pioneering work of such people as C. R. Carpenter, Washburn and DeVore, C. R. L. Hall, J. J. Petter, and the Altmanns. There are relatively few of the 300 plus species of living primates that have not been the object of at least a survey; many have been studied for a complete year; and a few taxa have been the subject of long-term efforts lasting decades (e.g. Strier et al. 2006). Primatology has grown to become an integral part of anthropology or zoology in most parts of the world and a discipline that is the focus of numerous national and international organizations, more than half a dozen specialist journals and numerous book series.

Although year-long studies of a single species have long been the standard research protocol in primatology, some of the greatest advances in our understanding of primate behavioral ecology have come from coordinated studies of numerous species at a single site. Because all of the species are living in the same habitat with identical climatic and phonological variations, they enable a clearer insight into species-specific differences and similarities in adaptive strategies. The comparative, synecological studies of the primate assemblages such as those conducted at Makokou in Gabon, Morondava in Madagascar, Kibale Forest in Uganda, Kuala Lompat in Malaysia, Raleighvallen-Voltsberg in Suriname, and Manu in Peru stand out as milestones in the history of primatology and have disproportionately advanced our understanding of the relationship between behavior and ecology in primate evolution.