Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology

We had a fab journal club today featuring the work of Jennifer Linden - a PhD student from @zslofficial.bsky.social / @ox.ac.uk - talking to us all about her research on African #wilddog conservation and climate change! 🌍🐶🐆

✨Meet the team!✨ @vascom.bsky.social is a PhD student exploring the intersection of behaviour, plastic pollution, and human perspectives. His research examines moor macaque interactions with #plastic, human perceptions of wildlife–waste interactions, and arts-based approaches to raise awareness 🐒♻️🗑️

How elephants pass on crucial survival skills to next generations Scientists are finding elephant youths respond differently to danger if they grew up without elders.

Check out this fascinating article about elephant knowledge, featuring our very own Dr. Lucy Bates 🧠🐘🌍

We are recruiting a Lecturer in Psychology: mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web... and a Teaching Fellow: mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web.... Come and join the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology 🐶🐵🐴🐘🕷️🧒 www.port.ac.uk/research/res...

✨Meet the CCEP team!✨ @sophiemilward.bsky.social specialises in #SocialCognition, studying the drivers of human coordination with others. She studies child / adult behaviour across diverse cultures to identify how our social coordination abilities develop and are influenced by our surroundings 👥🌍🧠

Some dogs can pick up hundreds of words – do they learn like children? Some dogs can remember the names of hundreds of objects.

I wrote a thing….
eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Webinar: Donkeys as Agents of Drought Resilience for Pastoralist Communities

5th February at 11am GMT/2pm EAT
port-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/89107947069

We are pleased to invite you to our webinar and panel discussion sharing the findings from our British Academy-funded project.

Hope to see you there!

Sharing the first results from one of my PhD studies at the SCDTP final year conference felt like a real milestone 💫🐴
#SCDTPFYC2526

It was a fab day at the SCDTP @scdtp.bsky.social Final Year Conference yesterday! CCEP students presented their fab PhD research showcasing their projects in equid communication and elephant behaviour; in person and from the field! Congrats to Tapinder and @sasha-touille.bsky.social 🐘🐴 #SCDTPFYC2526

New podcast episode featuring our research @uop-ccep.bsky.social 🐒

@estherherrmann.bsky.social and I talk about some of our findings on chimpanzee and macaque cognition and why protecting these species matters. Listen here: shows.acast.com/399a0c03-e9d...

#primates #evolution #psychology

Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...

Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵

How Elephants Say They Like Them Apples

🐘 New Paper on Elephant Gestures Featured in The New York Times

📰 NYT article:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/s...

The study is part of Vesta Eleuteri’s PhD research, supervised by me and Catherine Hobaiter, in collaboration with Josh Plotnik and Lucy Bates.

Excellent talks, nice chats, great city! #CSF2025 #Hamburg

Horses have a complex repertoire of facial expressions, just like primates The study has created a catalogue of horse facial expressions to help people understand how to read these incredible animals.

Check out my article in The Conversation, all about our latest paper, which created an extensive catalogue of horse facial expressions 🐴 Thank you so much for inviting me to contribute! #TheConversation #equineresearch #facialexpressions

theconversation.com/horses-have-...

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

We have created the first anatomically based ethogram of horse facial behaviour, covering a broad range of distinct behaviours from aggression through to play 🐴

Check it out here: peerj.com/articles/193...

@leanneproops.bsky.social
@uop-ccep.bsky.social

Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Curiosity is adaptive, enhances learning, and reduces uncertainty. Social curiosity is defined as the motivation to gain information about the actions, relationships, and psychology of others. Little ...

New paper just dropped🎉 With novel "Curiosity Boxes", we find that chimps & children are very curious about social interactions, & some even give up a reward to gain info! Fun collaboration with @alisongopnik.bsky.social, @janengelmann.bsky.social & others royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

🌍 You can find us here: www.port.ac.uk/research/res...

Postdoctoral Fellowships call: 6 steps to prepare your application These tips and tricks will help you find the best host organisation and prepare a successful proposal.

📢 The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship call is now open!
Join our international expert team to explore minds across species.

We study:
🐒 Primates
🐕 Dogs
🐘 Elephants
🐴 Donkeys and horses

🔗 contact one of us to discuss your application: marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/post...
#MSCA

Very grateful for my Jana Robyest Trust Fund grant and Portsmouth Psychology grant for getting me on a plane to Botswana - and to the Elephants for Africa research camp! 🐘🩶 Here to scope out the national park for my PhD field season next year; what a beautiful place 🌍🇧🇼 #SCDTP @scdtp.bsky.social

Today at 1pm UK time the GMP will be featured in the Journal Club of the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology from the University of Portsmouth!

Congrats to our PhD student @vascom.bsky.social who recently won Best Photo at the University of Portsmouth Revolution Plastics PhD Conference! 🥳 🥇 check out his thought-provoking picture of a Moor Macaque in South Sulawesi, Indonesia:🐒🥤📦🛍️
#plasticpollution #primate #phd

Humans are bad at reading dogs’ emotions – but we can do learn to do better Even experts get dog body language wrong at times.

theconversation.com/humans-are-b...

Dr Teresa Romero, Dr Jerome Micheletta, Dr Marine Joly and Dr Francesca De Petrillo in front of their booth „Smart monkeys: how primates think and why they need your help!“

A paper cup with a face of a macaque

Pledge wall with post-it notes left by children who visited the booth

Dr Francesca De Petrillo and Dr Marine Joly present their cognitive tasks using hands-on activities to children

We had a fantastic time showcasing our research at the Science is Wonderful! fair organised by the European Commission in Brussels. Thanks to #MSCA for the invitation and to all children who visited our booth 😃 🐒 @francescadp.bsky.social @jmicheletta.bsky.social @teresa-romero.bsky.social

MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large‐scale collaboration We present MacaqueNet, a global community of macaque researchers who developed the first publicly searchable, standardised database on affiliative and agonistic behaviour. This cross-species database...

So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩

Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...

Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/

Excited to showcase our 🐒 research at the #scienceiswonderful 2025 science fair organised by the #EuropeanCommission #MSCA.
See you in March in Brussels 😃 with @jmicheletta.bsky.social, @teresa-romero.bsky.social, @francescadp.bsky.social

marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/science-is-w...

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You can now apply for our 3 year postdoc looking at the role of culture and group size in social coordination and collaboration in the UK, Uganda and Republic of Korea!

Any questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a dm or email (sophie.milward@port.ac.uk)

mss.port.ac.uk/ce0732li_web...

Congratulations to @louiseloyant.bsky.social, winner of the @primatesocietygb.bsky.social 2024 Napier Medal for her PhD work on inhibitory control across macaque species. What an achievement 🥳💪🥇

Luke Collins, Louise Loyant, Sarah Salphati, Amanda Bartlett and Marine Joly

Thanks to the Bristol Zoological Society for hosting such a great @primatesocietygb.bsky.social meeting! It was nice to catch up with our @uop-ccep.bsky.social PhD students: Luke Collins, @louiseloyant.bsky.social, @sarahsalphati.bsky.social and Amanda Bartlett.

Congrats again Louise!! #proudsupervisor @uop-ccep.bsky.social

Together with @leanneproops.bsky.social and Cressida Bowyer, we are looking for PhD applicants for a project using human behaviour change theory to develop educational programmes promoting the conservation of crested macaques. More information here: www.port.ac.uk/study/postgr...