Dr Esther Clarke

Contact Dr Esther Clarke

Biography

I gained my PhD from the Centre for Social Learning and Cultural Evolution at St Andrews University where I studied wild white-handed gibbons in Thailand. In particular I focused on their anti-predatory behaviour and vocalisations and used the comparative approach to describe my findings in relation to the evolution of primate vocal communication in general, including human language.

Now I am studying captive gibbon vocalisations and reproductive endocrinology and examining the role of the endocrine system on the primate vocal apparatus.

Media

BBC Radio 4's Today Programe, 8th April 2015; "Gibbon calls could shed light on human speech": http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nnsc3

Research Interests

• Primate behaviour
• Primate endocrinology
• Primate vocal communication
• The evolution of primate cognition

Publications

Journal Article

• Miyagawa, Shigeru & Clarke, Esther (2019). Systems Underlying Human and Old World Monkey Communication: One, Two, or Infinite. Frontiers in Psychology 10: 1911.
• Clarke, E., Reichard, U. H. & Zuberbühler, K. (2015). Context-specific close-range “hoo” calls in wild gibbons (Hylobates lar). BMC Evolutionary Biology 15(1): 56.
• Clarke, Esther, Reichard, Ulrich H. & Zuberbühler, Klaus (2012). The Anti-predator behaviour of wild white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 66(1): 85-96.
• Clarke, E., Reichard, U.H. & Zuberbühler, K. (2006). The syntax and meaning of wild gibbon songs. PLoS ONE 1(1): e73.

Conference Paper

• Clarke, E., Zuberbühler, K. & Reichard, U. H. (2014), Vocal communication in gibbons, in Cartmill, E. A., Roberts, S., Lyn, H. & Cornish, H. eds, 10th International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EVOLANG10). Vienna, Austria, World Scientific Publishing, Hackensack, NJ, 413-414.

International Collaboration

• Dr Michael Coen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Dr Michael Heistermann, German Primate Center

Selected Grants