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Rhianna Drummond-Clarke

Doctoral student

Abteilung für Menschliche Ursprünge
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

E-Mail: rhianna_drummond_clarke@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

Research Interests 

My PhD research focuses on characterising chimpanzee positional behaviour in dry and open (savannah) habitat, studying the Issa Valley chimpanzee community in western Tanzania. Through comparing chimpanzee positional behaviour in savannah to more forested habitats, I aim to test hypotheses of human origins which focus on adaptation to an aridifying climate and retreating forests, in particular with regards to the early evolution of human bipedalism. I am currently interested in the ecological drivers of arboreality (and bipedalism) for apes in a savannah landscape, as well as informing savannah chimpanzee conservation strategies. 

Main supervisors : Prof. Dr. Tracy Kivell, Dr. Alex Piel
 

Curriculum vitae

Link to GoogleDocs

Career and Education:

2021-Present  PhD student, Dep. Human Origins, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology & Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research, University of Jena.
2009-2013M. Sci. Palaeobiology, University College London

Research Experience:

Fieldwork

2020, 2023Researcher, Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation (Issa Valley, Tanzania)
2020Assistant manager, Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation (Issa Valley, Tanzania)
2016, 2019 Field assistant/ chimpanzee caretaker, The Chimpanzee Conservation Centre, (Guinea)
2017 Research assistant, Comoé Chimpanzee Conservation Project (Ivory Coast)
2013  Excavation Batallones site three, Late Miocene (Spain)
2012Excavation Swabian Jura Project, Hohle Fels, Middle Palaeolithic (Germany)


Teaching

2023Supervision of a Tanzanian graduate research assistant during fieldwork at GMERC
2021-2023Post-Graduate teaching assistant, School of Anthropology, University College London

   
Scientific outreach

2023School visits, organising and delivering workshops on chimpanzee conservation and research to 10-13year olds (Uvinza and Kigoma, Tanzania)
2023Guest on The AnthroBiology Podcast
2020-presentSocial media team member, Projet Primates France/ Project Primates Inc.
2019Podium presentation “You, Me and Chimpanzees”, Bitesize talk series at The Brighton Museum (Brighton, UK).
2017Podium presentation “Life at the Chimpanzee Conservation Centre”, Bitesize talk series at The Brighton Museum (Brighton, UK).
2011-2013 Assistant Scientific Educator, The Grant Museum of Zoology (London UK).

Research awards and funding:

2023Leakey foundation research grant, for project entitled “Ecological drivers of bipedalism and arboreality in savanna-dwelling chimpanzees”

Languages:

English (native), French (advanced), Swahili (intermediate), German (beginner)
 

Projects and Partners

I am currently conducting my PhD research on the positional behaviour and ecology of chimpanzees of the Issa Valley, western Tanzania, in collaboration with Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation (GMERC) Ltd.

Publications

2023

Drummond-Clarke, R. C. (2023). Bringing trees back into the human evolutionary story: Recent evidence from extant great apes. Communicative & Integrative Biology, 16(1): 2193001.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Drummond-Clarke, R. C., Fryns, C., Stewart, F. A., & Piel, A. K. (2023). A case of intercommunity lethal aggression by chimpanzees in an open and dry landscape, Issa Valley, western Tanzania. Primates, 64(6), 599-608.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2022

Drummond-Clarke R. C., Kivell T. L., Sarringhaus L., Stewart F. A., Humle T., Piel A. K., (2022) Wild chimpanzee behavior suggests that a savanna-mosaic habitat did not support the emergence of hominin terrestrial bipedalism, Science Advances 8, add9752.
DOI

2021

Fryns C., Badihi G., Crunchant A. S., Drummond-Clarke R. C., Howell C., Stewart F. A., & Piel A. K., (2021) Interactions between chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and cattle (Bos taurus) in the Issa Valley, Western Tanzania, African Primates 15, 19-30.

Meeting abstracts

Reuben S. C., Drummond-Clarke R. C., Impact of fires on foraging behaviors of chimpanzees in the Issa Valley, Tanzania: range and vegetation use. The TAWIRI Scientific Conference, December 2023 [Poster presentation].

Drummond-Clarke R. C., Kivell T. L., Sarringhaus L., Stewart F. A., Humle T., Piel A. K., Positional behaviour of chimpanzees living in the savannah-mosaic environment of Issa Valley, Tanzania: Insights to the origins of human bipedalism. The European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) Tübingen, Germany, September 2022. [Podium Presentation].

Drummond-Clarke R. C., Kivell T. L., Sarringhaus L., Stewart F. A., Humle T., Piel A. K., (2021) Locomotor Behaviour of Chimpanzees living in the savannah-mosaic environment of Issa Valley, Tanzania. The Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB)Winter meeting. [Podium Presentation].