Dr Elliot Howard-Spink

Elliot (He/They) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour. Elliot has an undergraduate degree and doctorate from the University of Oxford. His doctoral research focused on the nut cracking tool-use behaviours of wild chimpanzees. Elliot's research interests span animal cultural processes, animal cognition, the development of behaviours through exploration and learning, and understanding how animals experience old age in the wild. 

Currently, Elliot is researching how immature orangutans learn about the different types of food they can eat in their natural environments, and how this developmental process is guided by interactions with older individuals. To answer this question, Elliot draws from a mixture of data from the wild, and computer simulation.

Elliot can be contacted at [email protected]