I study the intersection between intergroup dynamics, cooperation, and social bonds in chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest living relatives, as windows into our past. I am especially interested in questions like what shapes collective action and the emergence of group-level cooperative actions? How does cooperation and social bond maintenance support costly life history trajectories? And how do individuals navigate social decisions beyond the dyad? I approach these questions by observing wild chimpanzees at two sites I co-direct, the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire and the Moyen-Bafing National Park, Guinea. I also study wild bonobos at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, DR Congo in collaboration with Martin Surbeck. In my studies I combine behavioral data of social interactions and cooperative exchange together with endocrine biomarkers that reflect underlying physiology of these processes.
