Under her maiden name, she first published "Control of the Hand in Lower Primates" in 1962.[3] Jolly began studying lemur behavior at Berenty in 1963[4][5][6] and was first to propose female dominance in a primate society. She encouraged field studies that contributed to knowledge about Malagasy wildlife and advised many researchers; she briefed Jane Wilson-Howarth and colleagues before their first expedition to Madagascar in 1981. Since 1990 Jolly had returned for every birthing season to carry out research assisted by student volunteers.[7] She 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.