Professor Michael Cant

About me:

Latest News: Michael was awarded a €3 million ERC Advanced Grant for a project titled "Intergroup conflict and the evolution of animal societies" (INTERGROUP). For further details see press release here.

Research overview: Life forms are a nested hierarchy of replicating teams: teams of molecules, genes, chromosomes, cells, and individuals. Understanding how these teams form, cooperate and resolve conflicts is an exciting frontier of research for biologists working at all levels of biological organisation, from genes to societies. I study these questions in cooperative animal societies which are particularly tractable systems to test theories about how cooperation and conflict evolve, and why individuals vary so much in their behaviour. The goal is to uncover general principles that explain patterns of social behaviour across taxa, from insects to humans, and to understand how different types of animal society evolved.

One of my main research organisms is the banded mongoose, a cooperative mammal that lives in mixed-sex groups of around 20 individuals throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This species is very unusual because all adult females in each group mate and give birth together on the same day, but the communal litter is raised by the entire group. I run a long-term study of a population of around 250 animals in Queen Elizabeth National Park, western Uganda. We use this population to study social and transgenerational influences on aging and life history, the causes and consequences of within- and intergroup conflict, and the evolution of helping behaviour.

In addition to banded mongooses I work on a population of paper wasps in southern Spain with Prof Jeremy Field (Exeter, Biosciences), and on a population of resident killer whales off the northwest coast of the USA with Prof Darren Croft (Exeter, Psychology). My main collaborator for theoretical work is Prof Rufus Johnstone (Cambridge, Zoology). Together we have developed theoretical models to understand competition within groups, and life history evolution in humans and other long-lived social animals. For further information and publications on all my research see my group website socialisresearch.org.

I am a member of the Behaviour research group, and the Human Biological and Cultural Evolution Group. For publications, videos and further information on my research see my group website here.

News: October 2023. Michael gave an invited lecture at a conference on "Nonlinear systems in Ecology, Biology, Economics and Physics" in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of mathematician Professor Messoud Efendiev.

April 2023: Michael was invited to give a plenary lecture for the Humbolt Research Award Winners Symposium in Bamberg, Germany.

New book published (2021): The Evolution of Social Behaviour by Michael Taborsky, Michael Cant, and Jan Komdeur. Cambridge University Press

Media: 2021. Michael Cant and Patrick Green gave a joint Long Term Animal Research Seminar on warfare, mongooses, and group adaptation. 2019. Watch Michael talk about 'Kinship Dynamics and the Evolution of Social Life Histories' at the Zoo and Wildlife Research Symposium, Berln Oct 2019 (starts 1h:16). Listen to Michael on Radio 4's The Human Hive; or to his audio diary from Uganda on NERC's Planet Earth website (starts 2:45). Read about his recent research on why only humans and two species of whale have evolved menopause; how banded mongoose 'escorts' pass on foraging traditions to the offspring in their care; and the conflicts that lie beneath the surface of apparently cooperative animal societies.

Interests:

I work on the evolution of conflict and cooperation in animal societies using a combination of field-based research and game-theoretical modelling. Field studies focus on two model systems: cooperatively breeding banded mongooses in Uganda, and paper wasps in southern Spain. I have also recently started a project on intergroup conflict in termites. My current interests include:

• Intergroup conflict and the evolution of social cohesion
• Conflict over reproduction in cooperative societies
• Development and aging in social organisms
• Demography and kin selection
• The evolution of menopause and human life history

Qualifications:

1999 PhD, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

1994 Postgraduate Certificate in Biotechnology Training, University of Leicester

1993 BSc(Hons) Zoology 1st Class, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Career:

2024 ERC Advanced Grant
2022 Humboldt Research Award, Germany
2021 Leverhulme International Fellowship, University of Goettingen, Germany
2020 Wiko Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, Germany
2015 Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
2013 ERC Consolidator Grant
2013 Professor of Evolutionary Biology
2011 Associate Professor
2007 Royal Society University Research Fellow, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus
2003 Royal Society University Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
2001 Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellow. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, New York, USA
1999 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Biology, University College London