Curriculum vitae

Studies of Zoology at the University of Zurich with focus an animal behavior, ecology, neurobiology and genetics. Graduation as MSc in 2002, Master's thesis at the interface between animal behavior and physiology. Internships at the Kalahari Meerkat Project (South Africa, 2002) and in Yellowstone National Park (USA, 2003). PhD on vocal and olfactory communication in banded mongooses (2003-2007, with Prof. M. Manser, University of Zurich) with two years of field work in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Exeter (2008-2009). Since 2010 postdoctoral researcher at the Clever Dog Lab, first at the Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, since 2012 at the Messerli Research Institute.

Main fields of research

• Animal communication
• Social learning
• Physical cognition

Current research projects

The effect of early experience on physical cognition in dogs (FWF project P 21418 to Ludwig Huber) [Link 1]

Publications

Müller, C.A./Riemer, S./Rosam, C.M./Schößwender, J./Range, F./Huber, L. (2012): Brief owner absence does not induce negative judgement bias in pet dogs. Animal Cognition 15: 1031-1035

Müller, C.A./Mayer, C./Dörrenberg, S./Huber, L./Range, F. (2011): Female but not male dogs respond to a size constancy violation. Biology Letters, 7: 689-691

Müller, C.A./Cant, M.A. (2010): Imitation and traditions in wild banded mongooses. Current Biology, 20: 1171–1175

Müller, C.A. (2009): Do anvil-using banded mongooses understand means-end relationships? A field experiment. Animal Cognition, 13. 325-330

Müller, C.A./Bell, M.B.V. (2009): Kidnapping and infanticide between groups of banded mongooses. Mammalian Biology, 74: 315-318.

Müller, C.A./Manser, M.B. (2008) Mutual recognition of pups and providers in the cooperatively breeding banded mongoose. Animal Behaviour, 75: 1683-1692

Müller, C.A./Manser, M.B. (2008): The information banded mongooses extract from heterospecific alarms. Animal Behaviour, 75: 897-904

Müller, C.A./Manser, M.B. (2008): Scent-marking and intrasexual competition in a cooperative carnivore with low reproductive skew. Ethology, 114: 174-185

Müller, C.A./Manser, M.B. (2007): 'Nasty neighbours' rather than 'dear enemies' in a social carnivore. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 274: 959-965

van Buskirk, J./Müller, C.A./Portmann, A./Surbeck, M. (2002): A test of the risk allocation hypothesis: tadpole responses to temporal change in predation risk. Behavioral Ecology, 13: 526-530