Research

Federica Dal Pesco is a scientist in the Department of Cognitive Ethology at the German Primate Center. Her research focuses on social bonds and genetic relatedness, the function of ritualized greeting behavior, and the reproductive success of male Guinea baboons at the DPZ field station in Senegal.

She is particularly interested in understanding the social dynamics, cooperative behaviors, and reproductive strategies of male mammals, with a special emphasis on male–male relationships and their impact on group cohesion and reproductive success. Another key aspect of her research concerns the evolutionary significance of ritualized behaviors in group-living mammals and their potential parallels to human rituals.

Short Profile

Federica studied Biology at the University of Bologna, where she completed her Bachelor’s degree with a focus on Biodiversity and Evolution. She then moved to Berlin and earned a Master’s degree in Neurobiology and Behavior at the Free University of Berlin. She subsequently joined the Department of Cognitive Ethology at the German Primate Center in Göttingen to pursue her Ph.D. During her doctoral research, she spent two years at the CRP Simenti DPZ field station in Senegal, collecting behavioral, genetic, and hormonal data from wild Guinea baboons. She completed her Ph.D. in 2019 and now works as a scientist in the same department.

Federica currently co-directs the CRP Simenti field station and oversees long-term data collection and the management of the project’s long-term data resources.

Publications

Avilés De Diego A, Dal Pesco F, Mundry R & Fischer J (2026) Maternal style does not predict infant growth and survival in wild Guinea baboons, bioRxiv: 10.64898/2026.01.09.698613. (Accepted - in press in Animal Behaviour).

Dal Pesco F, Neumann C, Trede F, Zinner D & Fischer J (2026) Nested Male Reproductive Strategies in a Tolerant Multilevel Primate Society, bioRxiv: 10.1101/2025.10.27.684814. (under revision).

Avilés de Diego A, Dal Pesco F & Fischer J (2026) Post-mortem infant-directed behaviours in wild Guinea baboons. Primates: doi.org/10.1007/s10329-026-01279-8.

Dal Pesco, F (2026). Ritualized Greetings in Non-Human Animals, In: Nesi, H., Milin, P. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3e. Vol 6., pp. 120–124. UK: Elsevier.

Feder JA, Alberts SC, Archie EA, Arlet ME, Baniel A, Beehner JC, Bergman TJ, Carter AJ, Charpentier MJE, Chiou KL, Crockford C, Cowlishaw G, Dal Pesco F, Fernández D, Fischer J, Higham JP, Huchard E, Le Floch A, Lehmann J, Lu A, McCabe GM, Mielke A, Moscovice LR, Mubemba B, Petersdorf M, Ross C, Schneider-Crease IA, Seyfarth RM, Snyder-Mackler N, Swedell L, Trede F, Tung J, Weyher AH, Wittig RM, Kamilar JM, Silk JB (2026) Disparate social structures are underpinned by distinct social rules across a primate radiation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123(20): e2520774123

O’Hearn WJ, Neumann C, Mundry R, Dal Pesco F, Fischer J (2025) Meat transfer patterns reflect the multi-level social system of Guinea baboons, iScience, 28(11)

O’Hearn WJ, Beckmann J, Von Fersen L, Dal Pesco F, Mundry R, Keupp S, Diakhate N, Niederbremer C, Fischer J (2025) Increased female competition for males with enhanced foraging skills in Guinea baboons, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 292

Goffe A, Niederbremer C, Heistermann M, Fischer J, Dal Pesco F (2025) No evidence for a link between dominance rank, unit size, and faecal glucocorticoid levels in a small sample of wild female guinea baboons (Papio papio), International Journal of Primatology, 46(1): 158–181

Mundry R, Dal Pesco F, Avilès de Diego A, Fischer J (2024) Overcoming pitfalls when estimating variation in parental investment: a simulation study, bioRxiv: 10.1101/2023.10.16.562548


Dal Pesco F, Trede F, Zinner D, Fischer J (2022) Male-male social bonding, coalitionary support and reproductive success in wild guinea baboons, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1975): 20220347


Dal Pesco F, Trede F, Zinner D, Fischer J (2021) Kin bias and male pair-bond status shape male-male relationships in a multilevel primate society, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 75(1): 24


Fischer J, Wegdell F, Trede F, Dal Pesco F, Hammerschmidt K (2020) Vocal convergence in a multi-level primate society: insights into the evolution of vocal learning, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 287


Dal Pesco F, Fischer J (2020) On the evolution of baboon greeting rituals, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375


Dal Pesco F, Trede F, Zinner D & Fischer J (2020) Analysis of genetic relatedness and paternity assignment in wild guinea baboons (Papio papio) based on microsatellites


Faraut L, Siviter H, Dal Pesco F, Fischer J (2019) How life in a tolerant society affects the usage of grunts: evidence from female and male guinea baboons, Animal Behaviour, 153: 83–93


Dal Pesco F & Fischer J (2018) Greetings in male guinea baboons and the function of rituals in complex social groups, Journal of Human Evolution, 125: 87–98


Joganic J, Dal Pesco F (2018) Frontiers in baboon research: an integrative symposium, Evolutionary Anthropology, 27(2): 71–73


Fischer J, Kopp GH, Dal Pesco F, Goffe A, Hammerschmidt K, Kalbitzer U, Klapproth M, Maciej P, Ndao I, Patzelt A, Zinner D (2017) Charting the neglected west: the social system of Guinea baboons, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 162(S63): 15–31