Manser
Fakultäten » Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät » Evolutionsbiologie und Umweltwissenschaften, Institut für » Animal Behaviour » Prof. Dr. Marta Manser » Manser
Current research project
| Title / Titel | Communication, coordination and cognition in mammals | ||||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Animals living in societies have to coordinate their activities with their group members. This is particularly true for species with high group cohesion and labour division. Meerkats (Suricata suricatta), cooperatively breeding mongoose, forage as cohesive unit and take turns in several behaviours, such as guarding and baby-sitting. We test hypotheses on mechanisms underlying coordination and group decision making involving vocal communication in this species. This brings new insights into a field that has mainly been the focus of primate studies. Furthermore, we study meerkats, living in a simple structured society in comparison to other mongoose species with different social structures (from solitary living species to mongooses living in societies with more complex structure) to answer ultimate questions on communication, coordination and cognitive skills in mammals. | ||||||||
| Publications / Publikationen | Furrer R & Manser MB (2009) ‘The evolution of urgency-based and functionally referential alarm calls in ground-dwelling species.’ American Naturalist, 173, 400-410.Furrer R & Manser MB (2009) ‘Banded mongoose recruitment calls convey information about risk and not stimuli type’. Animal Behaviour, 78, 195-201.Le Roux A, Cherry M & Manser MB (2008) ‘Audience effect on alarm calling in the facultatively social yellow mongoose’. Animal Behaviour, 75, 943-949.Le Roux A, Cherry M & Manser MB (2008) ‘Social and ecological factors affecting scent marking in yellow mongooses’. Journal of Zoology, 275, 33-40.Le Roux A, Cherry M & Manser MB (2009) ‘The vocal repertoire in a solitary foraging carnivore reflects facultative sociality’. Naturwissenschaften, 96, 575-584.Le Roux A, Cherry M, Gygax L & Manser MB (2009) ‘Vigilance behaviour and fitness consequences between a solitary and a group foraging mammal’ Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 63, 1097-1107.Madden JR, Kunc HJ, English S, Manser MB & Clutton-Brock TH (2009) ‘Do meerkat (Suricata suricatta) pups exhibit strategic begging behaviour and so exploit adults that feed at relatively high rates?’ Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 63, 1259-1268.Madden JR, Kunc HJ, English S, Manser MB & Clutton-Brock TH (2009) ‘Calling in the gap: Competition or cooperation in littermates begging behaviour ’. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B, London, B, 276, 1255-1261.Manser MB, Madden JR, Kunc HJ, English S & Clutton-Brock T (2008) ‘Signals of need in a cooperatively breeding mammal with mobile offspring’. Animal Behaviour, 76, 1805-1813.Muller C & Manser MB (2008) ‘Mutual recognition of pups and providers in the cooperatively breeding banded mongoose’. Animal Behaviour, 75, 1683-1692.Muller C & Manser MB (2008) ‘The information banded mongooses extract from heterospecific alarms’. Animal Behaviour, 75, 897-904.Muller C & Manser MB (2008) ‘Scent-marking and intrasexual competition in a cooperative carnivore with low reproductive skew’. Ethology, 114, 174-1185.Weitere Informationen | ||||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | animal behaviour, cognition, communication, coordination, evolution, group decisions, mammals, mechanisms, meerkats, mongoose, signaling, vocalisations, | ||||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Other links to external web pages | http://www.zool.uzh.ch/Research/AnimalBehaviour/Manser_en.html | ||||||||
| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Universität Zürich (position pursuing an academic career) |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Aug 2008 to Jul 2014 |