Student-run speaker series: Friederike Range

On Friday September 15th at 17:00, the student-run speaker series "A spotlight on cooperation" will feature a lecture by Friederike Range, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.

Her presentation, entitled "Differences in cooperative interactions and their underlying mechanisms in wolves and dogs" will be held at the BCCN Lecture Hall, Philippstraße 12, Haus 6.

The seminar will be preceded by a reception with coffee and some snacks at 16:30.

If you plan on joining the seminar, please register using the following form.

Abstract: While cooperation is vital for the survival of many species, there is a considerable degree of variation between and within species in the extent of cooperative behaviours exhibited. Possible factors that have been discussed to contribute to this variation is the extent of tolerance and prosocial behaviours, which are both thought to be necessary to enable cooperation, as well as cognitive skills that might help in the decision of whether to engage in a joint action and/or to coordinate successfully. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Range and her team have investigated cooperate behaviours and the underlying emotional and cognitive factors in wolves and dogs that have been raised and kept similarly allowing for direct comparisons. The study system is fascinating since several domestication hypotheses suggest that dogs are more prosocial and tolerant compared to wolves, promoting cooperative interactions with humans and conspecifics. However, the socio-ecology of wolves and dogs, with the former relying more heavily on cooperative activities, predicts that at least with conspecifics, wolves should cooperate at least as good or even better than dogs. In this talk Dr. Range will present a range of experiments elucidating the underlying mechanisms that explain – at least partly - the variation in cooperative interactions of wolves and dogs both with humans and conspecifics. Her results call domestication hypotheses that suggest selection for increased cooperativeness in dogs as compared to wolves into question. Instead, her research suggests that dogs’ and wolves’ capacity to cooperate has been affected by their different social ecologies (Social Ecology Hypothesis) and by selection for accepting humans' leading role during domestication (Deferential Behaviour Hypothesis).