Mauricio Cantor

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Hi everyone! My name is Mauricio Cantor. I received a B.Sc. in Biology (2008) and a M.Sc. in Ecology (2011) studying how spatiotemporal mechanisms could shape the social and population dynamics of an endemic South American dolphin. Currently, I am a Ph.D. student in Canada interested how cultural transmission of vocal behavior in the sperm whales off the Galapagos Islands could drive their social organization and affect the fitness of individuals. Further info

• What are your main interests?

I am most interested in the ecology of interactions both among species and individuals. My current research aims to describe patterns of non-human societies, reveal the potential mechanisms that generate them and model spread of information through the population. I have been using dolphins and whales species as models, due to their high motility and high cognitive capability that confers plasticity and complexity to their social systems, in addition to exciting field logistical challenges, such as sailing offshore for several months in remote places.

• What sort of expertise can you bring to the group?

My background in biology includes both theoretical and empirical experiences in community ecology, population dynamics, socioecology in organisms of both marine and terrestrial habitats. I have been working with some tools of network theory, multivariate techniques and mark-recapture methods.

• What do you hope to get out of the CSSS?

1.expand my background on complex systems, beyond the biological field. 2.expose myself to programming techniques and computation modeling, especially agent-base models and network techniques 3.have a first contact with nonlinear dynamics, scaling theory, information theory, which I have had none experience.

• Do you have any possible projects in mind for the CSSS?

I would like to address how cultural groups can emerge in animal populations within which interacting individuals learn behavior from each other. We could use agent-based models to test if such segregation into groups with different behavior could occur only by drift over time, or if transmission biases need to be at play. Transmission biases that could be introduced in the models are: Conformism (when individuals adopt the most popular behavior in their groups) and Symbolic Marking (when individuals primarily interact only with others who share a particular behavior that defines the social group identity). Such biases drive culture and social structure in humans and there is much debate about whether of not they are exclusive features of human culture. Providing evidence that the processes generating the complex and diverse cultures in human populations are also at play in non-human societies is a crucial step towards evaluating the contrasts and convergences between human and non-human culture. If you are interested, I would love to chat more about: m.cantor at ymail.com