2018-2019 (3 months)
visiting PhD student
I am a PhD student from Mexico, I work at the Behavioural Ecology laboratory in the Autonomous University of Puebla under the supervision of Dr. Alejandro Moyaho. I am interested in animal communication and cognition. In my research I include aspects of animal physiology (i.e. neurological and endocrinological mechanism) and ecology. My current work focuses on the hypothesis that yawning has a communicative function, particularly in the context of agonistic encounters between male siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens); more recently I’ve also started to test if there’s yawn contagion in the same species of fish. Currently, I am a visiting student to the CoPAN group from Leiden University, and I will be visiting Apenheul to collaborate in the yawn contagion project between orangutans, bonobos and hopefully gorillas. I expect to assist with obtaining more information on whether or not yawning is contagious in these species, and a deeper knowledge of their behaviour