Journal
Animal Cognition
Animal Cognition is an interdisciplinary journal offering current research on all aspects of animal (and human) cognition in an evolutionary framework.
Our world is changing rapidly, and many of our planet’s animals will have to adapt to survive. Fortunately for some species, cognitive flexibility allows them to adapt in real time, thereby providing a strong advantage as their cognitive flexibility allows them to alter their behavior quickly. In this special issue, our multidisciplinary contributors highlight the cognitive adaptations of marine mammals. The cognitive processes of this group are highly informative regarding how animals cope with changes in the environment because, not only did modern marine mammals evolve from numerous, non-related terrestrial animals to adapt to an aquatic lifestyle, but some of these species regularly move between two worlds, land and sea. Here we bring together scientists from different fields and explore the ways in which modern marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions and manatees) utilize their perceptual systems, discuss the constraints and power of individuals’ cognitive flexibility, and showcase how those systems are deployed in social and communicative contexts.
Considering the cognitive processes of the different marine mammals in one issue from varying perspectives will help us understand the strength of cognitive flexibility in changing environments – in marine mammals and beyond.
Please note that this Special Issue is for invited authors only. Contact the Guest Editors if you would like to discuss a proposal to this issue.
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Frederike D. Hanke
University of Rostock, Germany
Studied Biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany where she got interested in sensory systems of semi-aquatic animals and continued this line of research in her PhD at the University of Bochum, Germany. After a Postdoc at the University of Rostock, Germany, and at Lund University, Sweden, she returned to Rostock to stablish her own research group focused on vision in semi-aquatic organisms from periphery to neuroanatomy. She would also like to understand how seals navigate the ocean and which cognitive abilities these animals can rely on.
www.msc-mv.de
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Heidi E. Harley
New College of Florida, Sarasota FL, USA
Heidi studied Philosophy at the University of Colorado, USA, but switched to Psychology during her Master’s and PhD at the University of Hawaii, USA. Currently, she is Chair in Psychology and Director of Environmental Studies at New College of Florida, USA. She’s on the editorial board of Aquatic Mammals and many animal welfare committees. Her research, conducted at public facilities in the U.S., focuses on cognitive processes in dolphins with a particular emphasis on how dolphins recognize objects using echolocation.
www.ncf.edu/directory/listing/heidi-harley/
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Kristy L. Biolsi
St. Francis College, New York, USA
Kristy has a B.S. in Psychobiology from Long Island University and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California focusing on marine mammal cognition. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at St. Francis College. Her current research interests are in comparative cognition, focusing on concept learning with trained, California sea lions, and field work which consists of data collection from surveys and naturalistic observations of the local wild seal population.
https://www.sfc.edu/academics/faculty-directory/kristy-biolsi
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