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Vittorio Baglione Daniela Canestrari Maddie Cusimano Benjamin Hoffman Jen-Yu Liu Sara Keen Christian Rutz Mark Johnson
FORMER Marta Vila Taboada Claudia Wascher Ruben Vera Gomez Elisa Chiarati Diana Bolopo Eva Trapote Hugo Robles Diez Thomas Bugnyar Paolo Zucca Ronald Noe Giuseppe Bogliani Orazio Miglino Manuel Soler Sruz
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*** Research Interests and Main Results I have been investigating cooperative behaviour of carrion crows since 1999, when I started my Master at Pavia University ( Italy ). I obtained my PhD in Cambridge (UK) in 2005, studying the factors determining the division of labour among crow group members. In cooperative crow groups, some individuals (the dominant pair and most adult male immigrants) have access to reproduction, while others (retained offspring and immature immigrants) do not breed and may obtain indirect fitness benefits from helping at the nest. I analysed the individual trade-off between benefits and costs of care through behavioural observations and experimental manipulations. I also investigated the relationship between brood parasitism (when a bird species lays its eggs in the nest of another species, the host) and host social behaviour. Cooperative crows are parasitized by the Great spotted cuckoo Clamator glandarius , a brood parasite specialised in corvids. I am currently analysing the costs of brood parasitism on cooperative crows, the effect of group size on cuckoo reproductive success, and the effect of group size on parasitism rate, in order to investigate whether cooperative host behaviour represents a benefit or a disadvantage for the brood parasite. My current research leverages novel ethological approaches (such as the use of biologgers) with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools to investigate vocal communication in carrion crows. Understanding animal language is a growing area of interdisciplinary research that spans fields such as biology, linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Decoding how animals communicate provides profound insights into their cognition, social structures, and evolutionary pathways. *** Publications https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniela_Canestrari/publications |
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