What a pre-conference workshop on Bayesian statistical methods—a powerful toolkit for our community! 📊
Many thanks to Daniel Redhead and Ramona Roller for guiding us through STRAND and to Michael Chimento for the introduction to STbayes.
And thank you to all participants for their energy! 🙌
Yet, that doesn't mean these sister species distribute aggression equally... 👀
Read to find out more as we discuss the significance of these results in light of evolutionary explanations of aggression in the Pan species and our own! ⬇️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Photo credit: Jake S. Brooker
Data from large number of captive groups support findings from studies of wild bonobos and chimpanzees: bonobos are more aggressive than we thought.
🐵💥 After 2000+ hours of observing aggression across 189 zoo-housed bonobos and chimpanzees in 22 groups, we found that the two species are equally aggressive, yet differ in the distribution of aggression across the sexes ♂️♀️
Our study is out now, read more below ⬇️
What I find particularly striking is the within-species between-group variation in rates of observed aggression...
#BioAnth 🧪
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
I'm grateful to have been leading this project which started as my master's research. Nothing would have been possible without the support of co-authors in Utrecht (Edwin van Leeuwen, Tom Roth) and Antwerp (Jonas Torfs, Marcel Eens, Nicky Staes), and the zoos that open their doors to researchers ✨
New publication, and first one as a first author for me! 🥳
Have you heard of the brutal chimpanzee and "hippie" bonobo dichotomy? ☠️🕊️
Today, we report similar aggression magnitudes in 22 captive chimpanzees and bonobos groups - be it all aggression or restricted to contact.
That's a wrap on the Culture Conference 2026! 🎉
Three days packed with fascinating ideas and research, and the kind of conversations you don't want to end.
Thank you to every speaker—talks and posters alike—and to every attendee who joined us in Utrecht or online. You made it unforgettable! 🤩