Postdoc position on creativity in wild chimpanzees and bonobos

Chimpanzee (Kaija) in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea - one of the Creative Ape Project study sites. Photo credit: Dr. Kathelijne Koops

3-year postdoc on Creative Ape Project

We are offering a 3-year Postdoc position in the Ape Behaviour & Ecology Group of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Zurich, and the Wild Minds Lab of the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, to study creativity in wild chimpanzees and bonobos.

The postdoctoral researcher will work within the Creative Ape Project, which is funded through a SNSF Project Grant. Our aim is to enhance our understanding of the evolution of creativity, and to shed light on whether humans are a uniquely 'creative ape'. To do so we apply a comparative approach, quantifying the creative capacities of wild non-human apes to investigate the underlying drivers that shape creative expression across species. We employ long-term datasets, new field data, detailed manual video-coding, bespoke automated deep-learning models, and advanced modelling, to extract rich information on the ways in which apes (creatively) solve problems in their daily lives.

More details can be found in the advert below.

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