The Many Chimps Project: ontogeny as a source of variation in chimpanzee vocal behaviour
The Many Chimps Project is a large-scale collaborative project that will examine the role ontogeny plays in generating geographic diversity in chimpanzee call acoustics. Early in human ontogeny, the acoustic characteristics of vocal behaviour are relatively similar across populations but show immense geographic diversity later in ontogeny. It is well-documented that adult chimpanzee vocalisations are also geographically variable, but almost nothing is known about how this emerges during ontogeny. This is a critical gap in our understanding of the phylogenetic roots of language. The Many Chimps Project will create a comprehensive database on chimpanzee call acoustics using pre-existing recordings and make comparisons of call acoustics between chimpanzees at the same stage in ontogeny across populations that differ in their ecology, social environment, and genetic composition. This will elucidate the process of chimpanzee vocal ontogeny and identify factors that influence this process, providing novel insights into the phylogenetic roots of language.
We are looking for a PhD student at an American university to conduct research for this project in France, supported by a Chateaubriand Fellowship (https://chateaubriand-fellowship.org). This fellowship will primarily involve helping extract acoustic measurements from ~ 7000 chimpanzee calls using pre-existing recordings of chimpanzee vocalizations from multiple field sites across Africa and then performing data analysis. Previous experience in coding chimpanzee calls, or familiarity with the chimpanzee vocal repertoire will be essential, as well as experience extracting acoustic measurements from audio recordings. An understanding of methodological issues in bioacoustics research will also be critical in order to select recordings that are suitable for analysis (i.e., those with minimal levels of irrelevant spectral noise). Understanding or experience of inter-rater reliability testing will be useful, although training can be provided on this. The fellowship will last 4 – 9 months. The research should be conducted in France, although there are possibilities for remote working depending on the pandemic circumstances. The deadline for the Chateaubriand Fellowship is January 6th 2021. Interested students should contact the supervisors as soon as possible.
Hosting laboratory : ENES Lab (Saint-Etienne, France). https://www.eneslab.com/