Susana Monsó

I feel you. All the accounts of dogs eating their dead caretakers' faces that I had to research for my book were in forensic journals and included close-ups of said faces. Not a nice experience.

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📚 La profesora de la UNED Susana Monsó ha sido reconocida internacionalmente por su investigación sobre la muerte en los animales

Muchas gracias, Edgar 🤗

Several people sitting on a stage in a beautiful hall. I’m pictured talking with my hands. A screen behind us shows the title and cover of the German edition of my book.

A picture of me on a stage holding my prize with the Austrian minister for science next to me holding a copy of my book.

The prize winners on a stage holding their prize and their books. A screen behind them shows the covers of the four winners of the Science Book of the Year awards.

A picture of me looking exhilarated in front of a window shop displaying my book.

Yesterday was a truly special day as I returned to my beloved Vienna to receive a prize for a book that I conceived and wrote in that same city. Moved by the presence of friends in the audience and so thankful to everyone who voted for me.

Animal cultures matter for conservation, but also to animals - Learning & Behavior A growing acceptance that many nonhuman animal communities have distinct cultures – group-variable patterns of behavior and information sustained over time by social learning – is beginning to reshape...

"Animal cultures matter first and foremost because they matter to the animals themselves."

If you enjoyed our recent episode on the value of animal cultures, you may be interested in this new paper by @simonfitzpatrick.bsky.social & @kristinandrews.bsky.social!
link.springer.com/article/10.3...

Matching sounds to shapes: Evidence of the bouba-kiki effect in naïve baby chicks Maria Loconsole1*, Silvia Benavides-Varela2,3, Lucia Regolin1 Humans across multiple languages spontaneously associate the nonwords “kiki” and “bouba” with spiky and round shapes, respectively, a phenomenon named the bouba-kiki effect. To explore the origin of this association, and whether it is unique to humans, we tested the bouba-kiki effect in baby domestic chickens (Gallus gallus). as a precocial species, chicks can be tested shortly after hatching, allowing us to control their pretest experiences. Similar to humans, both 3-day-old [experiment 1 (exp. 1)] and 1-day-old (exp. 2) chicks spontaneously choose a spiky shape when hearing the “kiki” sound and a round shape when hearing the “bouba” sound. results from naïve young animals suggest a predisposed mechanism for matching the dimensions of shape and sound, which may be widespread across species.

main fig from the paper showing the association between bouba/round and kiki/spiky in newborn chicks

the new paper on bouba/kiki in chicks is utterly compelling

canonical, elegant method from comparative cogsci & its partner in developmental science, ultra-simple design, ultra-clear effects, no need for fancy analyses, machine learning, or AI

it appeared in an appropriately badass venue (Science)

Congratulations!!

Publishing a book on animal cognition in Spanish is getting it reviewed in a magazine on paranormal phenomena.

And an author not

Unfortunately that does not surprise me in the least 😞

I don’t know who needs to hear this but philosophy of animal minds is an actual field, and if you have an “idea” about animal minds that you want to publish you need to engage with the literature. Same with animal ethics. Signed: a frustrated reviewer.

A picture of an arm with a colourful sweater and pink fingernails holding a pastel blue book with light brown skulls and Chinese lettering on the cover.

The jacket of the book is lifted to reveal a print of a cute opossum and the words “La zarigüeya de Schrödinger”.

I got a copy of the Chinese edition of my book and it is so cute!

Thank you so much!

My paper on 🌱🦧 ANIMAL MEDICINE 🐜🍄, written with Cristian Saborido (office mate and tip-top philosopher of biology and medicine), is finally out in Philosophy of Science.

We offer a cool new framework for understanding medicine in different species, including our own. And it's ✨ OPEN ACCESS ✨

Thank you ♥️

🎉 Great news!

⭐ Susana Monsó’s book Das Schweigen der Schimpansen (German edition of Playing Possum) has won the Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres 2026 award.

Congratulations to @susanamonso.com on this well-deserved recognition! 👏📚

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Thank you!!

Thank you so much Michela!

Beautiful. Congratulations!

Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University

Imagination in bonobos!

I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org

We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative

youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

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