Professor Michael Cant
Professor of Evolutionary Biology
M.A.Cant@exeter.ac.uk
01326 253771
Daphne du Maurier 3048
Daphne du Maurier Building, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK
Overview
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 cooperative teams: teams of replicating 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.
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
Links
Research group links
Research
Research 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
Research projects
Banded Mongoose Research Project (See www.socialisresearch.org)
Banded mongooses live in highly cooperative groups of twenty or more adults of both sexes, plus offspring. They are unusual among cooperative vertebrates because multiple females in each group reproduce together in each breeding attempt. I began working on banded mongooses in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, in 1995, and the population has been studied continuously since then. We now have a continuous database with information on behaviour and life history from birth to death for over 2000 individuals. We are currently investigating mechanisms of reproductive control; early-life influences on future social behaviour; social influences on aging and physiological senescence; and the hormonal basis of helping behaviour. Full details of the project can be found on our project website (see the link above).
Social evolution in primitively eusocial insects
I have worked extensively with Prof Jeremy Field at the University of Sussex to develop and test theory about the evolution of social behaviour in small animal societies, using paper wasps as a model system. In this species, foundresses form small groups in early spring and cooperate to build a nest and provision developing larvae. Even though all the females are mated and could potentially breed, on each nest typically one 'dominant' female lays most of the eggs while the other 'subordinate' foundresses do most of the work of finding food and expanding the nest. We have shown using simple removal experiments that individual females adjust their helping effort and aggression according to their probability of inheriting the nest in future, should the dominant die. Specifically, foundresses help less, and become more aggressive, as they approach the front of the social queue to inherit the top breeding position. These are the patterns our simple models predict, if the wasps are maximizing their inclusive fitness. An important outstanding question is how females resolve conflicts so that the group remains stable. How are conflicts settled? Why do some subordinates lay eggs in the nest, whereas others do not? Do wasps 'negotiate' over how hard they will work, or how many eggs they will lay? How do dominant females deter subordinates from challenging their position?
The evolution of menopause and human life history
An enduring puzzle of human life history is why women cease reproduction mid-way through life. This mismatch between reproductive and somatic senescence is extremely rare: among mammals only killer whales and pilot whales are known to exhibit a similar pattern. In collaboration with Dr Rufus Johnstone at the University of Cambridge I have developed a series of new models which suggest that the evolution of menopause may be linked to demography. In particular, our models predict that unusual patterns of dispersal predispose humans, and some toothed whales, to early reproductive cessation and late life helping.
Evolutionary principles of war and peace
I have recently become interested in intergroup conflict as a unifying factor in the evolution of individuality, social cohesion and biological complexity. Humans are often cited as among the most cooperative of animals, but the flipside is that they are also among the most discriminatory, hostile, and violent towards people they perceive as outsiders. The idea that warfare among ancestral human bands increased social cohesion and promoted cooperation has been around for centuries, and was discussed extensively by Darwin in his 1871 book The Descent of Man. Intergroup conflict is also widespread in other animals, and varies in frequency and intensity for reasons that are not well understood. In the last twenty years the idea that warfare shaped the evolution of human societies has been formalised in population genetic and game theoretical models which examine the spread of cooperative alleles on an evolutionary time scale, i.e., over hundreds or thousands of generations. But we have surprisingly little theory to understand the behavioural causes and consequences of intergroup conflict – how individuals and groups should respond to attacks, or to rapid changes in their ecological and social environment that occur within the lifetime of group members. Together with Rufus Johnstone I am working on new theoretical models to address this issue, with the aim of testing them across a range of social organisms, from social insects to primates, including humans.
Research networks
Rufus Johnstone, Hazel Nichols, Marta Manser, Neil Jordan, Sarah Hodge, Darren Croft, Dan Franks, Joe Hoffman, Jon Blount, Patrick Green
Research grants
- 2024 ERC Advanced Investigator Award
n/a - 2023 The Leverhulme Trust
The role of mutualisms in social evolution and behaviour - 2019 Natural Environment Research Council
Leaders of war: the evolution of collective decision-making in the face of intergroup conflict - 2019 Natural Environment Research Council
The evolution of sex differences in mammalian social life histories. - 2018 Natural Environment Research Council
The ecology and evolution of intergroup conflict in animal societies: theory and tests - 2016 Natural Environment Research Council
Transgenerational costs of reproduction and the evolution of life histories - 2012 Natural Environment Research Council
Early life influences on the development of cooperation in wild mammals - 2012 ERC Consolidators Grant
Social development and life history evolution in cooperative mammals: an integrated approach - 2009 Natural Environment Research Council
Social influences on aging in a wild cooperative mammal - 2008 Natural Environment Research Council
Adaptive suppression of subordinate reproduction in cooperative mammals - 2007 Natural Environment Research Council
Reproductive conflict in cooperative mammal societies: an experimental approach - 2007 Royal Society University Research Fellowship
The evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies - 2002 Royal Society University Research Fellowship
The evolution of cooperation and conflict in animal societies - 2000 Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
Reproductive conflict and the evolution of helping in animal societies
Publications
Books
Journal articles
Chapters
External Engagement and Impact
Committee/panel activities
NERC Peer Review College, 2009- present
Panel Member, NERC Standard Research Grant Moderating Panel D Dec 2015
Panel Member, NERC Fellowships panel, June 2011
Panel Member, NERC Standard Research Grant Moderating Panel A June 2010
Panel Member, NERC Standard Research Grant Moderating Panel D Nov 2009
Assessor, Fund for Scientific Research, (F.R.S.-FNRS), Belgium, June 2013 - present
Assessor, Australian Research Council National Competitive Grants, July 2013 - present
Assessor, ERC LS8 Panel, FP-7 Advanced Research Grants, 2011
Panel Member, Royal Society Working Group on UK/Tanzania Research, London 2008
Panel Member, Royal Society Working Group on UK/Tanzania Research, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania 2008
Invited lectures
I have given over 40 invited seminars at universities worldwide, including the Universities of Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley, UC Davis, Tokyo, Sydney, Oslo, Goettingen, Max Planck Leipzig, Groningen, Zurich, Neuchatel, Bern and Seville.
Plenaries, workshops
2023 Keynote, International Conference on Nonlinear systems in Ecology, Biology, Economics and Physics, Baku, Azerbaijan
2023 Keynote, Humboldt Award Winners Symposium, Bamberg, Germany
2021 Public Lecture, War and peace since life began, Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Germany
2017 Course lecturer, Animal Behavior Workshop, Animal Behavior Society of China, Institute of Zoology, Beijing
2015 Plenary Speaker, 5th Conference of the Animal Behavior Society of China, Beijing
2012 Plenary speaker, Prodoc workshop, Beatenberg, Switzerland
2012 Plenary speaker, Ethology Investigates online conference, Wiley Associates
2011 Plenary speaker, 'Cooperation and conflict',Conference of the Ethological Society, Zurich, Switzerland
2008 Plenary speaker, Meeting of the Japanese Evolution Society, University of Tokyo, Japan
2010 Invited speaker, Behavioural Ecology Workshop, McQuarie University, Sydney Australia
2010 Invited speaker, 'Are Humans Cooperative Breeders?' ISBE Symposium, Perth, Australia
2009 Invited speaker, ESEB Symposium, Evolution of Conflict and Cooperation , Turin, Italy
2008 Invited speaker, ESF Workshop on Evolution of Cooperation and Mutualisms, Lisbon, Portugal
2007 Invited speaker, CUSO Workshop on the Evolution of Cooperation, Bern University, Switzerland
2007 Invited speaker, Evolutionary Biology Graduate Workshop, Bristol University, UK
2000 Invited speaker, Reproductive Skew Workshop, Cornell University, USA
Media Coverage
2009-2010 Series Consultant: Banded Brothers: the mongoose mob
My long term research project on banded mongoose inspired a prime-time BBC2 documentary series which was screened in February and March 2010. The BBC spent six months at the Uganda study site filming the mongooses, resulting in four one-hour documentaries which each drew an audience of 1.5 million in the UK. The series has since been sold to over 20 territories worldwide with an estimated global audience of >20 million. This media impact of my NERC funded research project was featured as the number 1 'Knowledge Transfer Highlight' in NERC's 2010 Annual Report.
Our study of imitation and traditions in banded mongooses (Muller & Cant 2010 Current Biology) was covered by features in New Scientist and Scientific American, The LA Times, New York Times, The Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, and national newspapers worldwide. I have given radio interviews about the banded mongoose work to BBC Radio 4 The Natural History Programme, BBC Radio Cornwall; and a TV interview to BBC Spotlight.
My research on the evolution of menopause was the subject of a full length feature (plus interview) in New Scientist in December 2008, and a feature plus interview in Scientific American. In addition the study was covered by BBC News, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, plus newspapers in 20+ countries worldwide. I also gave live radio interviews about the work (RTE Ireland April 2008; Deutsche Radio Today, April 2008). Follow up research on the evolution of menopause in cetaceans was covered by all major UK national newspapers and BBC News.
Teaching
Office hours: My normal term-time office hours are 1000-1100 Thursday and 1000-1100 Friday, unless I am away in the field.Year 2
- Lecturer: Behavioural Ecology (BIO2430)
- Lecturer: The Biology of Mammals (BIO2431)
Year 4
- Module Coordinator: MSc Kenya Field Course (BIOM4019)
Modules
2024/25
Supervision / Group
Postdoctoral researchers
- Michelle Hares
- Jennifer Sanderson
- Faye Thompson
- Emma Vitikainen
Postgraduate researchers
- Feargus Cooney Cooney
- Kingsley Hunt
- Daniel Sankey
- Faye Thompson
Research Technicians
- Emma Davey
Alumni
- Sarah Hodge
- David Jansen
- Neil Jordan
- Harry Marshall
- Bonnie Metherell
- Corsin Mueller
- Andrew Robertson
- Catherine Sheppard