Prof. Dr. Marta Manser
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Curriculum Vitae Publications |
University of Zurich  |
Cognition and Communication
| One of the principal focuses of research in comparative psychology has been the attempt to compare social awareness in man with that in other animals. Research in primates has shown that these animals possess highly developed skills in social interactions with other group members. Primates have relatively large neocortexes, and neocortex size has been shown to correlate positively with group size between species. |
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| If social complexity is of major importance in the evolution of cognitive abilities, one would expect to find evolutionary convergence for specific skills and increased brain size in non-primate species with complex social systems. Relative neocortex size has also been shown to correlate with group size between social carnivore species. We aim to compare the cognitive abilities of social carnivores with varying degree of social complexity in three species within the mongoose (Herpestidae) family: the suricate (Suricata suricatta), banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), and yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata). These species, occupying similar ecological niches, show marked differences in their social organization, with meerkats living in a despotic systems, whereas banded mongoose live in a more egalitarian society, and the yellow mongoose being a non-obligate social species linking to solitary species. We investigate the social skills and environmental knowledge in wild populations of these species, and also attempt to evaluate the mechanisms behind specific behaviour, in particularly in comparison to what is known for other social carnivores and primates. | ||||||||||||||||||||