top of page

In the Media

  • X
  • instagram-6338392_1280
  • LinkedIn_logo_initials

Selected TV & Media

Segment about our bioactive plant paper on BBC News (2024).

Deeper dive into our pharmacology paper from the AP (2024).

Highlight of our study on chimpanzee first-aid on BBC News (2025).

Short piece about my recent study on NBC News (2025).

In Print

On the Radio

Selected Podcasts

A podcast for World Extreme Medicine in which we discuss fieldwork and the medicinal behaviors of our closest living relatives.

A chat with Neuroverse about my research, my background, and my winding scientific pathway.

An in-depth chat with Johnathan Benaiah about the mysteries of the Budongo Forest, conservation in Uganda, and the ecological importance of local knowledge.

A Primatologist and Space Architect walk into a futurist time capsule...

Selected Talks

  • 2025: The Armelagos Lecture (Emory University, US) "A Look Inside the Shared Medicine Cabinet" 

  • 2025: The Explorers Club Monday Night Lecture Series (NYC, US) "The Radical Act of Giving Nature Rights: Panel Discussion"

  • 2025: PaleoEvo Lecture Series (Oxford University, UK) "Bark Feeding as a Possible Medicinal Behavior in Chimpanzees" 

  • 2024: The Explorers Club Lecture Series (London, UK) "My Time with the Budongo Chimpanzees" 

  • 2024: The European Federation of Primatology Conference (Lausanne, Switzerland) "Healthcare behaviors in the wild chimpanzees of Budongo Forest" 

  • 2024: Guest Lecture (University of Stirling, Scotland) "A Shift in How We Study Great Ape Diets"

  • 2024: The Explorers Club HQ (NYC, US) "Chimpanzee Forest Pharmacies" 

  • 2023: International Primatological Society (Kuching, Malaysia) “Bark Stripping in Budongo Forest”

  • 2023: Paleo Primate Field School (Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique) “Studying Primate Self-Medication Using Natural Historical Approaches”

  • 2023: American Society of Primatology (Reno, US) “Bark Stripping in Budongo Forest: Evaluating the Evidence for a Putative Self-Medicative Behavior”

  • 2023: Primate Society of Great Britain (University of Cambridge, UK) “Applying Collocation and APRIORI Analyses to Chimpanzee Diets”

  • 2023: The Burn Meeting (St. Andrews, UK) “Applying Collocation and APRIORI Analyses to Chimpanzee Diets”

  • 2022: Conservation Lecture Series (Oxford Brookes University, UK), “Tackling Methodological Challenges with Interdisciplinary Solutions”

  • 2022: Oxford Anthropological Society Pub Series (Oxford University, UK), “Ethical Debates in Zoopharmacognosy Research”

  • 2022: Primate Conversations Lecture Series (Oxford University, UK), “Interpreting the ‘Goddess of Nature’ in Today’s World” 

  • 2021: Guest Lecture: Yale Architecture School Lecture (New Haven, US), “Animal Houses: Hospitality in the Natural World”

Public Talks

A ~1 hour talk on the importance of natural history in primatological fieldwork, as part of the Primate Conversation Lecture Series at the University of Oxford.

A ~13 minute talk at the Explorers Club HQ in New York City in April 2024, where I discuss my research on wild chimpanzees and preview a short documentary I directed and produced with funding from the Explorers Club Expedition Grant

Upcoming Talks/Panels

  • March, 2026: Bioneers Conference (Berkeley, US) 

  • November, 2025: Dubai Future Forum Panel Discussion (Dubai, UAE) 

  • November, 2025: The Explorers Club (New England Chapter) Guest Lecture (Providence, US) 

Scientific Papers

Freymann, E. & Taylor D (Accepted) Fire-crested alethes (Alethe castanea) follow humans and bushbuck in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. Front. Bird Sci. 4:1677075. 

Freymann E, Hobaiter C, Huffman MA, Klein H, Muhumuza G, Reynolds V, Slania NE, Soldati A, Yikii ER, Zuberbühler K and Carvalho S (2025) Self-directed and prosocial wound care, snare removal, and hygiene behaviors amongst the Budongo chimpanzees. Front. Ecol. Evol. 13:1540922. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2025.1540922

Wessling, E. G., Whiten, A., Soiret, S. K., Scholfield, K., Samuni, L., Rutz, C., Freymann, E.,… Sanz, C. (2025). Concerted conservation actions to support chimpanzee cultures. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 380(1925), 20240143. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0143​​​​

Freymann, E., Badihi, G., Hobaiter, C., Huffman, M., Muhumuza, G., Orbell, S., … Carvalho, C. (2024). The Adaptive Role of Bark in the Diet of Budongo Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). International Journal of Prim. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-024-00445-3
 

Freymann, E., Carvalho, S., Garbe, L. A., Dwi Ghazhelia, D., Hobaiter, C., Huffman, M. A., … Schultz, F. (2024). Pharmacological and behavioral investigation of putative self-medicative plants in Budongo chimpanzee diets. PLOS ONE, 19(6), e0305219. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0305219
 

Freymann, E., d'Oliveira Coelho, J., Hobaiter, C., Huffman, M. A., Muhumuza, G., Zuberbühler, K., & Carvalho, S. (2024). Applying collocation and APRIORI analyses to chimpanzee diets: Methods for investigating nonrandom food combinations in primate self-medication. American journal of primatology, e23603. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23603
 

Freymann, E., Huffman, M. A., Muhumuza, G., Gideon, M. M., Zuberbühler, K., & Hobaiter, C. (2023). Friends in high places: Interspecific grooming between chimpanzees and primate prey species in Budongo Forest. Primates. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-023-01053-0
 

Soldati, A., Fedurek, P., Crockford, C., Adue, S., Akankwasa, J. W., Asiimwe, C., Freymann, E.,… Hobaiter, C. (2022). Dead-infant carrying by chimpanzee mothers in the Budongo Forest. Primates, 63(5), 497–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-00999-x

©2025 by Elodie Freymann

bottom of page