Kerne Rayner

Research interests

• Behavioral Ecology
• Evolution of Social Behavior
• Cognitive Development and Social Learning

My work focusses on the social and ecological drivers of curiosity. Through studying wild infant Assamese macaques from birth, I explore what factors elicit and facilitate curiosity and exploration, how this behaviour develops as the infants age and how they respond to new information presented by seasonal variation. This project is part of the RTG 2906: Curiosity.

Education

• August 2024 - Present: PhD student
  Department for Behavioral Ecology, University of Göttingen, Germany
  BeCoG PhD Program: Behavior and Cognition
  Research group RTG2906: Curiosity
  Project: Social and Ecological drivers of Curiosity in infant Assamese Macaques
• August 2020 - June 2022:MSc Biology with specialization in Animal Ecology, Lund University
  MSc Thesis in cooperation with Utrecht University
  Thesis: How infant presence influences social behaviour between adults in Barbary macaques
• August 2019 - June 2020: Postgraduate certificate in education in biology secondary, Exeter University
• September 2011 - June 2015: Bsc Zoology, University of Bristol
  Thesis: Partner choice in Three-spined Sticklebacks