Gibraltar Macaques Project
Dr Sylvain Lemoine
Dr Sylvain Lemoine is an Assistant Professor in Biological Anthropology in the Archaeology Department at the University of Cambridge. He created the GMP in 2022, establishing a new long-term field site for the study of non-human primates in human-primate interfaces. His main research interests include inter-group interactions and conflicts, evolution of social relationships and cooperation, animal culture, behavioural flexibility and adaptability, and non-human primates conservation. Dr Lemoine is a member of the administration council of the Société Francophone de Primatologie (SFDP), and member of the Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB) and the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB).
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Eleane Jao
Eleane Jao is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, working under the supervision of Dr Sylvain Lemoine. Her research combines machine learning and computer vision with behavioural ecology to study the Gibraltar's Barbary macaques, from individual identification to the dynamics of human-macaque conflict in a shared, tourist-heavy landscape, looking at personality traits in the macaques as an adaptive response to anthropogenic pressure. Before coming to Cambridge, Eleane completed an MSc in Human Evolution and Behaviour at UCL, where her dissertation used thermal imaging to examine physiological responses during grooming interactions in wild baboons, work later published in Royal Society Open Science. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley and worked as a Software Engineer at Meta, building machine learning systems and privacy infrastructure, before returning to research. Her broader interests lie in how AI and technology can be applied non-invasively to the study of wild primate populations.
Lalie Ferrand
Lalie Ferrand is pursuing a Master’s degree in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, specializing in Conservation Ecology, at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. She is interested in primates, their behaviour, and the challenges of coexistence between humans and non-human primates.
Her research experience includes a project in French Guiana on primate niches under varying levels of anthropogenic pressure. She is currently participating in the Gibraltar Macaques Project, studying individual foraging strategies in Barbary macaques living across an anthropized environment and facing varying levels and typology of tourist pressure.
She hopes to pursue research on human-wildlife coexistence while incorporating the social sciences into conservation. She also aims to raise public awareness through communication and art.
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Martin Nicourt
Martin Nicourt is a Master's student in Ecology and Functional Evolution at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France. His interests focus on social play, communication, and social learning from ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Inspired by his background in martial arts and theatre acting, Martin aims to bridge these experiences with his interest in animal social behaviour and behavioural ecology. He is currently investigating newly observed behaviours in the Gibraltar macaque population, examining the different factors influencing its emergence, distribution and maintenance within the population.
