Affiliation: University of Lethbridge, Department of Psychology; Adjunct Faculty, National Institute of Advanced Studies, School of Natural and Engineering Sciences

Jean-Baptiste Leca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He is also an Adjunct Faculty with the School of Natural and Engineering Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. Since his PhD in Ethology (2002) at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, Jean-Baptiste has been conducting field research on the mechanisms and evolution of cultural behaviors in non-human primates.

Jean-Baptiste primarily studies the modes of acquisition and expression of more or less functional and sometimes arbitrary forms of object manipulation (e.g., object exploration, object play, extractive foraging, physical and symbolic tool use) and non-conceptive sex (e.g., female-male mounting, same-sex sexual behavior, heterospecific sexually behavior, masturbation) that are socially influenced/learned and culturally maintained in several macaque species.

He employs comparative, longitudinal, (field) experimental, and physiological approaches in his research, that intersect with disciplines such as Psychology, Ethology, Anthropology, Ecology, and Endocrinology.