Rahel Noser

• PhD
• Researcher at University of Zurich

Understanding animal episodic-like memory is important for tracing the evolution of the human mind. However, our knowledge about the existence and nature of episodic-like memory in non-human primates is minimal. We observed the behaviour of a wild male chacma baboon faced with a trade-off between protecting his stationary group from aggressive extr...

Understanding animal episodic-like memory is important for tracing the evolution of the human mind. However, our knowledge about the existence and nature of episodic-like memory in nonhuman primates is minimal. We observed the behaviour of a wild male chacma baboon faced with a trade-off between protecting his stationary group from aggressive extra...

Efficient space use is a critical challenge for animals relying on stationary resources. It is often difficult with purely observational methods to gain unambiguous insight into any ability of primates to manage and process spatial information. Investigating the visible signs of the decision processes underlying space use often leaves open importan...

Acoustic analyses of primate vocalizations as well as playback experiments are staple methods in primatology. Acoustic analyses have been used to investigate the influence of factors such as individuality, context, sex, age, and size on variation in calls. More recent studies have expanded our knowledge on the effects of phylogenetic relatedness an...

How do humans and animals travel between multiple destinations on a given foraging trip? This question is of theoretical and practical interest, yet few empirical data exist to date. We examined how a group of wild chacma baboons travelled among multiple, simultaneously fruiting mountain fig trees (Ficus glumosa). In the course of a 16-month study,...

Efficient exploitation of large-scale space is crucial to many species of animal, but the difficulties of studying how animals decide on travel routes in natural environments have hampered scientific understanding of environmental cognition. Field experiments allow researchers to define travel goals for their subjects, but practical difficulties re...

Encounters between groups of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) can be viewed as a natural experiment to investigate the nature of these primates' mental representations of large-scale space. During a 16-month field study in a high population density habitat we recorded the foraging routes and the most important resources of a group of 25 individu...

The ability of animals to plan their foraging journeys and to approach resources in a goal-directed way may play a key role in cognitive evolution. Furthermore, optimal foraging theory assumes that animals are adapted to take least-effort routes between resources. Empirical evidence for these beliefs is largely lacking, however. We followed a group...

Sleep was investigated in 10 captive gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada), belonging to two harem groups by continuous infrared video recording (n = 4 males, n = 3 females, n = 3 juveniles). The aim was to investigate the relation between sleep and social status. Social status was assessed during daytime activities, when the two harem groups inter...