CICASP | Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology

Join us on The PrimateCast as we cover the 25th Congress of the International Primatological Society.

The PrimateCast rolled out its mobile podcasting unit once again to cover the meetings of the International Primatological Society held between August 11-16, 2014. The theme of this year's congress, which was held at the Melia Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, was 'meeting the challenges of conserving primate diversity'.

The PrimateCast On Location at IPS 2014

In the fifth and final installment of this series from IPS 2014, we chat with five researchers about topics ranging from social network efficiency and leadership to cultural evolution, yawning and elephant cognition and conservation. In the first interview, Dr. Cedric Sueur talks about social networks and how their structures, which depend on group size and surprisingly relative necortex ratios, determine efficiency of information flow. We then hear from Dr. Odile Petit, Dr. Sueur's former graduate advisor, about her work on the development of a social credibility index, which might help explain what it is about certain primate individuals that makes a good leader. The third interview discusses cultural evolution with Dr. Nicolas Claidiere, who explains how his cutting-edge work with baboons provides insight into the process of cumulative culture in humans. Dr. Jorg Massen then tells us about something we are all very familiar with but understand almost nothing about: yawning! During the interview, Dr. Massen relates his insightful work demonstrating both proximate and ultimate explanations for this ubiquitous behavior. Finally, Dr. Joshua Plotnik ends the podcast by telling us about his work on elephant cognition, and how a better understanding of how elephants think can help us develop better solutions when it comes to reducing human-elephant conflicts, a critical issue in the conservation of these magnificent animals.

For anyone seeking more information about our guests and their activities, please click on their institution names in the list below to follow links to their respective academic pages.

List of Interviews in part 5

Click one of the researcher names below to skip directly to that segment of the podcast.

*Please allow time for the audio to buffer if you have a slower internet connection

• Introduction to the episode and interview with graduate student and podcast volunteer Cecile Sarabian
• Dr. Cedric Sueur [Professor] University of Strasbourg, CNRS-IPHC
• Dr. Odile Petit [Director of Research] University of Strasbourg, CNRS-IPHC
• Dr. Nicolas Claidiere [Postdoctoral Researcher] Aix-Marseille University, CNRS
• Dr. Jorg Massen [Postdoctoral Researcher] Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna
• Dr. Joshua Plotnik [Lecturer in Conservation Biology] Think Elephants International, Mahidol University
• Podcast wrap-up and introduction to next episode.

 

We'd like to sincerely thank all of our guests on this episode as well as on the entire series of podcasts from our coverage of the 25th Congress of the International Primatological Society. We look forward to Chicago 2016.

Be sure to check out our other podcasts featuring interviews with leading scientists in primatology and beyond.

Join us on The PrimateCast, and feel free to visit us at Facebook and Twitter and leave comments and feedback on this or any other podcast in the series. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

This podcast series was brought to you by CICASP, and was produced by Andrew MacIntosh.