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Brendan Barrett

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Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

e-mail: brendan_barrett@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

personal website   ORCID  

I am an evolutionary behavioral ecologist and evolutionary anthropologist interested in how extragenetic inheritance systems such as culture and territorial inheritance are influenced by (and in turn influence) ecology, sociality, and life history. My research integrates natural history-informed field research, hierarchical Bayesian statistical modeling, and game-theoretical and population modeling. I am jointly appointed as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture here in Leipzig as well as the Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Radolfzell, DE. Some of my ongoing research questions include:

  1. What predicts individual variation in social learning strategies and how does individual behavior shape population-level cultural dynamics?
  2. How does sociality and ecology influence both the origins and maintenance of cultural traits in populations?
  3. How is social learning utilized by organisms across different life history stages?
  4. How do organisms integrate both personal and social information and what are the implications of this for structuring cultural variation and dynamics?
  5. What social and ecological factors predict territorial bequeathal and dispersal?

I currently study foraging innovation and cultural transmission in white-faced capuchin monkeys in Coiba National Park, Panama where I started a field site in 2017. I also work with capuchins at the Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve, Costa Rica where I have worked in various guises since 2008. I also help run a long-term field site examining dusky-footed woodrat dispersal, ecology, and behavior at the Quail Ridge Reserve in Napa County, California, USA. My research tends to be motivated by theoretical interest rather than taxonomic affinity, but most of my interests are of great relevance to evolutionary anthropology and are conducive to study in nonhuman and human primates.

Publications

2024

Jacobson, O. T., Barrett, B. J., Perry, S. E., Finerty, G. E., Tiedeman, K., & Tiedeman, M. C. (2024). A new approach to geostatistical synthesis of historical records reveals capuchin spatial responses to climate and demographic change. Ecology Letters, 27(5): e14443.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2023

Denninger Snyder, K., Tiedeman, K. M., Barrett, B. J., Kibwe, M., Hijmans, R. J., & Wittemeyer, G. (2023). Differentiated drivers in wildlife-induced damage necessitate species-specific mitigation strategies in the western Serengeti, Tanzania. Biological Conservation, 285: 110202.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2021

Canteloup, C., Cera, M. B., Barrett, B. J., & van de Waal, E. (2021). Processing of novel food reveals payoff and rank-biased social learning in a wild primate. Scientific Reports, 11: 9550.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2020

Barrett, B. J., & Perry, S. E. (2020). Innovations, social learning and traditions in white-faced capuchins: Experimental and observational approaches. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 171(S69), 18-19.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Dogandzica, T., Barrett, B. J., Monteza-Moreno, C. M., Carlson, M., Zwyns, N., & Crofoot, M. (2020). The archaeology of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) stone tool use. Folia Primatologica, 91(3), 307-308.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Monteza-Moreno, C. M., Dogandžić, T., McLean, K. A., Castillo-Caballero, P. L., Mijango-Ramos, Z., Del Rosario-Vargas, E., Crofoot, M. C., & Barrett, B. J. (2020). White-faced capuchin, Cebus capucinus imitator, hammerstone and anvil tool use in Riparian habitats on Coiba Island, Panama. International Journal of Primatology, 41, 429-433.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2019

Barrett, B. J. (2019). Equifinality in empirical studies of cultural transmission. Behavioural Processes, 161, 129-138.
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Barrett, B. J., Zepeda, E., Pollack, L., Munson, A., & Sih, A. (2019). Counter-culture: Does social learning help or hinder adaptive response to human-induced rapid environmental change? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7: 183.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Greggor, A. L., Trimmer, P. C., Barrett, B. J., & Sih, A. (2019). Challenges of learning to escape evolutionary traps. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7: 408.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Städele, V., Roberts, E. R., Barrett, B. J., Strum, S. C., Vigilant, L., & Silk, J. B. (2019). Male–female relationships in olive baboons (Papio anubis): Parenting or mating effort? Journal of Human Evolution, 127, 81-92.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2018

Barrett, B. J., Monteza-Moreno, C. M., Dogandzic, T., Zwyns, N., Ibanez, A., & Crofoot, M. C. (2018). Habitual stone-tool-aided extractive foraging in white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus. Royal Society Open Science, 5(8): 181002.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote