Alison Govaerts

My goal is to study the collective behavior and decision making in African wild dogs, as well as investigating their vocal repertoire and how vocal communication influences individual and group behavior. I am interested in understanding how group decisions emerge from individual actions, and how this is influenced by the individual’s characteristics and social bonds. African wild dogs have an amazing range of vocalizations, and I want to investigate the role of these vocalizations during decision making processes. I hope to combine high resolution tracking data with recording of vocalizations and direct observations to get a clear picture of how they make decisions, maintain group cohesion and coordinate themselves during different activities.