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Mary Brooke McElreath

Abteilung für Verhalten, Ökologie und Kultur des Menschen
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

Telefon: +49 (0) 341 3550 330
E-Mail: mary_mcelreath@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

About me

I am an evolutionary ecologist interested in patterns of behavior and animal cultural traditions.  My research focuses on understanding how animal societies, and the individuals that comprise them, evolve and adapt their behaviors to changing ecological and environmental conditions. My taxonomic focus includes non-human primates and birds. The questions I address have focused on mating, social, and dispersal systems, as well as on innovation, social learning, resource inheritance, and cultural traditions. I use a combination of theoretical modelling and empirical, field-based research to better understand these behavioral dynamics. Current projects include:

(1) Evolutionary Models of Animal Culture and Social Learning. The effects of age-structure, social structure, and biased social learning strategies are important to understanding cultural patterns in species with overlapping generations and complex social systems. This work is contributing to a theoretical basis that can be applied to a wide range of animal culture studies.

(2) Social and Vocal Complexity in Birds. Vocalizations in birds can be socially learned and culturally transmitted, leading to a mosaic of distinct vocal dialects across populations. Theories of the evolution of vocal systems have proposed the “social-complexity” hypothesis, which asserts that the diversity and complexity of communication signals is driven by the complexity of social interactions within groups, at both the proximate (individual, ecological) and ultimate (species, evolutionary) levels. This project will provide an empirical test of the social complexity hypothesis, by investigating the interplay between social dynamics, population structure, and vocal call types in wild parrots.  

(3) Social, Demographic, and Ecological Drivers of Cultural Variation in Capuchins.  We are developing behavioral occupancy models for the analysis of cultural variation in white-faced capuchins.  Our aim is to explore how demography and social structure influence cultural variation and patterns. We will test the theoretical predictions of the primary ratchet model (McElreath et al. 2018): that large group sizes tend to enhance opportunities for cultural evolution, leading to increased prevalence and diversity of cultural traits.  

Publications

2024

Smeele, S. Q., Tyndel, S. A., Aplin, L. M., & McElreath, M. B. (2024). Multilevel Bayesian analysis of monk parakeet contact calls shows dialects between European cities. Behavioral Ecology, 35(1): arad093.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2023

Smeele, S. Q., Senar, J. C., Aplin, L. M., & McElreath, M. B. (2023). Evidence for vocal signatures and voice-prints in a wild parrot. Royal Society Open Science, 10(10): 230835.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2022

Smeele, S. Q., Conde, D. A., Baudisch, A., Bruslund, S., Iwaniuk, A., Staerk, J., Wright, T. F., Young, A. M., McElreath, M. B., & Aplin, L. (2022). Coevolution of relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1971): 20212397.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2019

Kühl, H. S., Boesch, C., Kulik, L., Haas, F., Arandjelovic, M., Dieguez, P., Bocksberger, G., McElreath, M. B., Agbor, A., Angedakin, S., Ayimisin, A. E., Bailey, E., Barubiyo, D., Bessone, M., Brazzola, G., Chancellor, R., Cohen, H., Coupland, C., Danquah, E., Deschner, T., Dowd, D., Dunn, A., Egbe, V. E., Eshuis, H., Goedmakers, A., Granjon, A.-C., Head, J. S., Hedwig, D., Hermans, V., Imong, I., Jeffery, K. J., Jones, S., Junker, J., Kadam, P., Kambere, M., Kambi, M., Kienast, I., Kujirakwinja, D., Langergraber, K., Lapuente, J., Larson, B., Lee, K., Leinert, V., Llana, M., Maretti, G., Marrocoli, S., Martin, R., Mbi, T. J., Meier, A., Morgan, B., Morgan, D., Mulindahabi, F., Murai, M., Neil, E., Niyigaba, P., Ormsby, L. J., Orume, R., Pacheco, L., Piel, A., Preece, J., Regnaut, S., Rundus, A., Sanz, C., van Schijndel, J., Sommer, V., Stewart, F., Tagg, N., Vendras, E., Vergnes, V., Welsh, A., Wessling, E. G., Willie, J., Wittig, R. M., Yuh, Y. G., Yurkiw, K., Zuberbuehler, K., & Kalan, A. K. (2019). Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science, 363(6434), 1453-1455.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2018

Clarke, P. M. R., McElreath, M. B., Barrett, B. J., Mabry, K. E., & McElreath, R. (2018). The evolution of bequeathal in stable habitats. Ecology and Evolution, 8(21), 10594-10607.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

McElreath, M. B., Boesch, C., Kühl, H. S., & McElreath, R. (2018). Complex dynamics from simple cognition: The primary ratchet effect in animal culture. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 12(3), 191-202.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2017

Wells, C. P., Tomalty, K. M., Floyd, C. H., McElreath, M. B., May, B. P., & Vuren, D. H. V. (2017). Determinants of multiple paternity in a fluctuating population of ground squirrels. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71(2): 42.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote