Veronika Beeck

PhD candidate

Veronika is broadly interested in how mammals make use of acoustic signals to build and coordinate social bonds - and how flexible their calls are. What information is encoded in acoustic variation and in how far do cognitive (vocal learning) and physiological sound production mechanisms allow to adapt to varying social and behavioral contexts and ecological constraints?

​She is currently investigating the functional information coding and vocal ontogeny of cheetah calls (Acinonyx jubatus), the species-specific high-frequency vocalizations of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and call convergence in African and Asian elephants' low-frequency rumbles. Her PhD project is part of the doctoral program DK Cognition and Communication based at the Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Austria.