1.4 million Swiss Francs to study wolves
NCCR researchers Klaus Zuberbühler, Gwendolyn Wirobski (University of Neuchâtel), and Friederike Range (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna) have received a 1.4 million CHF WEAVE grant from the Austrian Science Fund and the Swiss National Science Foundation to study communication and cognition in wolves and dogs.
Wolves are highly social and cooperative animals. “Researchers have paid considerable attention to wolf howling in the past,” says Gwendolyn Wirobski “But surprisingly little is known about the subtle vocal and visual signals wolves use to cooperate successfully, such as facial expressions.” Through their work, the researchers aim to learn more about the evolutionary roots of language, stepping away from the usual primate-centred perspective.
A wolf pup at the Bern Animal Park. © Anna Constantini
Thanks to this grant, they will be able to combine observational studies in zoos and wild parks affiliated with the new Comparative Intelligence Research Infrastructure (CIRI) network of the NCCR Evolving Language with an experimental approach at the Core Facility Wolf Science Center in Austria. “This grant will allow us to kickstart our work on canids, wolves and dogs in particular, following the creation of the SIG Canid Cognition within the NCCR Evolving Language last year,” shares Gwendolyn Wirobski. The first research focus is on the ontogeny of communicative abilities in canids, i.e. how the capacity to communicate develops during a wolf or a dog’s life (see the video below of a newly born pup). The second is to understand how adult canids communicate before, during and after they solve a problem, to coordinate time and space, recruit cooperators and negotiate the outcomes of their actions. “In addition, we will compare wolves to their domesticated cousins, dogs, to learn more about how the domestication process and their life experience socializing with humans may have impacted their communicative abilities,” adds the team.
