Why Researchers are Listening to Meerkats at Zurich Zoo
Published: Wednesday, Sep 20th 2023, 10:01
Mise à jour le : Vendredi, 13 octobre 2023, 14:12
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Two researchers from the University of Zurich have been studying the communication of the meerkats that recently moved into the Zurich Zoo. They focused on the different warning signals the animals use, such as barking, growling, whistling and chirping. Meerkats are social animals, and communication plays an important role in their survival and maintaining social relationships. The research team, led by behavioural biologist and professor Marta Manser, studied the communication of the meerkats in the zoo. The two main topics of the research were the development of calls from young meerkats and the reaction of meerkats to calls from other species. Anja Diefenbacher, a master student at the University of Zurich, studied how the calls of young meerkats change in the first months of life. She equipped a group of meerkats in the zoo with a microphone and recorded their calls from birth to four months old. She is looking for differences between different litters and between the two research sites, the Zurich Zoo and the University of Zurich. Doctoral student Nikola Falk studied the reaction of meerkats to calls from related mongoose species to understand how meerkats recognize alarm calls. The goal is to find out if the acoustic structure of meerkat alarm calls is universal or if they learn the calls from other species in the same habitat. Professor Manser is one of the world's leading meerkat experts and leads research at the Kalahari Research Centre in South Africa in addition to her work at the University of Zurich. The Zurich Zoo supports her research activities at both locations.
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