Rachele Malavasi

I am young researcher in animal acoustic communication. My main research skills are in bioacoustics and behavioral ecology.

Recently my interest towards human-animal relation has grown. I have been involved in a volunteering activity with herd of horses, where I could appreciate the role of social and cognitive learning, and the role of humans as "mediator of knowledge".

This experience led me to the conclusion that I'd love to improve my research abilities into this field, and into the world of farm animals welfare as well.
By studying cognitive abilities of farm animals, I believe it is possible to make a breach into something taken for granted, that farm animals are to be used like tools because they feel nothing or because they are non sensient. If we re-learnt to read these animals' signals, I believe we would act differently towards them, and this would be beneficial for both.

I took a degree in Biology (spec. Zoology). In March 2011 I concluded my PhD in Environmental Science (Urbino University, Italy). My thesis is titled “Cooperation among songbirds through vocal coordination – hypotheses and empirical evidences ”. My work proposes the hypothesis that different bird species living in the same community could express a cooperative behaviour through the coordination of their songs (see "Talks" - 3rd Symposium of Acoustic Communication in Animals, Cornell University).

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Rome, Italy

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