Department of Primatology
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 (341) 3550 - 200
fax: +49 (341) 3550 - 299
Alexander Mielke

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Primatology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig, Germany
e-mail: alexander_mielke@[>>> Please remove the brackets! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research Interest
My primary research interest lies in comparative animal social cognition and social complexity, as well as animal communication. Currently, I am a doctoral research student in the Taï Chimpanzee Project, comparing the socio-cognitive skills of sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys) and Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the wild to understand which aspects of the social environment of a primate species drive the evolution of complex and flexible social knowledge and behavioural strategies. I especially focus on similarities and differences in the grooming behaviour of both species, and the flexibility of social relationships over time. To this end, I combine behavioural observations and field experiments to achieve both an understanding of the animals' natural behaviour and test resulting hypotheses in a more controlled fashion. In a previous project, I developed an automated analysis tool to identify primates individually by their voice.

