Odile Petit

Conférences du Jardin des Sciences

Prix décerné à C. Sueur

Publications

Odile Petit

Address

Ethology of Primates
Department Ecology, Physiology and Ethology
IPHC - UMR 7178, CNRS-UDS
23 rue Becquerel
67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2
Tel : +33.3.88.10.74.57
Fax : +33.3. 88.10.74.56
e-mail : odile.petit(at)c-strasbourg.fr

Site d’initiation à l’éthologie des primates : http://obsprimato.u-strasbg.fr

Position

Scientist, permanent position, CNRS.

Profile

Born 16 july 1966

1996 - PhD in Neurosciences and Ethology, University of Strasbourg, with honours.

2002 - Ability to supervise research, University of Strasbourg.

Current research

Collective phenomena, decision-making process, physical cognition

Studying groups on the move is the most direct way to approach consensus decision making. Our studies performed on several semi-free ranging primate species indicate that these processes seem to depend on the social relationships linking group members. These preliminary studies must be completed, by studying other species so as to generalize the hypothesis of an influence of the social system over group movements.

In our studies on physical cognition, in a first project we investigate if animals use reasoning or learning to solve problems and how they interpret their world.

In the second project, we study manipulative abilities within capuchins to determine the extent to which the observed differences in frequency of tool use traditions between the species in the wild are due to fundamental cognitive differences between species, as opposed to differences in habitat types at the various study sites for wild populations.