Projects

Questions about the behavioral ecology of open-habitat chimpanzees center on two (potentially related) topics: the social consequences of low population density, and the use of chimpanzee adaptation to arid, open (mosaic) habitats as a model for understanding early hominin adaptation to similar paleoenvironments... 

Open habitat chimpanzee study sites are characterised by their extreme seasonality and open, dry, and hot environment (see here). Consequently, we have been actively monitoring the physical environment of the man study area since 2008, with temperature, rain, wind, and humidity loggers deployed across the study area... 

Acoustic monitoring of especially threatened landscapes has become a key tool for conservationists. While passive acoustic monitoring – the deployment of acoustic sensors that remotely record all sounds – can be used to understand chimpanzee behaviour (as we showed here), it can also be used to assess... 

Since 2011 we have conducted monthly follows of a single troop of yellow baboons in the study area, focusing on space use, diet, and activity budget.  Moreover, by simultaneously monitoring chimpanzee and baboon ranging and diet in the study area, we have begun to investigate feeding competition intensity between these two... 

Since 2012 we have conducted monthly follows of what began as a single troop of red-tailed monkeys focusing (like with the baboons) on ranging, diet, and activity budget.  Moreover, by simultaneously monitoring chimpanzee and baboon ranging and diet in the study area, we have begun to investigate feeding competition intensity between these three species. In 2017, the troop split into two, and since then we have followed both daughter troops. 

Since 2011, we have been leared and overseeing ecosystem-wide surveys of chimpanzee and other wildlife presence, abundance, and distribution. Currently (2023-2024), this work is led by Devon Thurston and James Parsons. See more of their work by clicking below!