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. |
| 2009-2013 | M. Sci. Palaeobiology, University College London |
Research Experience:
Fieldwork
| 2020, 2023 | Researcher, Greater Mahale Ecosystem Research and Conservation (Issa Valley, Tanzania) |
| 2020 | Assistant 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) |
| 2012 | Excavation Swabian Jura Project, Hohle Fels, Middle Palaeolithic (Germany) |
Teaching
| 2023 | Supervision of a Tanzanian graduate research assistant during fieldwork at GMERC |
| 2021-2023 | Post-Graduate teaching assistant, School of Anthropology, University College London |
Scientific outreach
| 2023 | School visits, organising and delivering workshops on chimpanzee conservation and research to 10-13year olds (Uvinza and Kigoma, Tanzania) |
| 2023 | Guest on The AnthroBiology Podcast |
| 2020-present | Social media team member, Projet Primates France/ Project Primates Inc. |
| 2019 | Podium presentation “You, Me and Chimpanzees”, Bitesize talk series at The Brighton Museum (Brighton, UK). |
| 2017 | Podium 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:
| 2023 | Leakey 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
2024
Drummond-Clarke, R. C., Kivell, T. L., Sarringhaus, L., Stewart, F. A., & Piel, A. K. (2024). Sex differences in positional behavior of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) living in the dry and open habitat ofIssa Valley, Tanzania (advance online). American Journal of Biological Anthropology, e25007. |
Open Access2023
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. |
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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. |
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].