Animal Behaviour

Pricipal Investigator of Animal Behaviour

The unifying feature of my different research projects is life history strategy evolution, the way natural selection optimises the entire life of an organism. Differences between individuals and their life histories are evaluated by natural selection on the basis of fitness. Hence it is of paramount importance to measure fitness if we want to attach biological meaningfulness to animal behaviour. However, animal behaviour and life history strategies do not evolve in isolation. Individual behaviour is bound to have consequences at the population level and, conversely, populations set the stage for the evolution of life history strategies and animal behaviour. As a consequence, by studying life history strategies, my research is encompassed by a triangle of evolution, ecology and ethology. Only detailed knowledge of individual fitness allows one to decompose individual behavioural variation into components of genotypic and phenotypic quality, as well as environmental effects.

Research Interests

• Evolution of life histories in birds of prey
• Host-parasite coevolution in cuckoos
• Evolution at the large scale: modern comparative approaches

Research Interests

• Population genetics of parasites
• Maintenance of polymorphisms

Research Interests

I am interested in all kinds of interspecific interactions like symbiosis, predation and competition. My PhD topic is about how intraguild predation is shaping behavioural traits and ecological niches of different species in our raptor community.

Research Interests

Research Interests

• Defining local populations in birds of prey

Research Interests

Research Interests

Research Interests

Our research uses state of the art genomic approaches including high-throughput sequencing, transcriptomics, high density SNP arrays and whole genome resequencing to understand the genetic basis of fitness variation in and among natural populations. Our programme currently has two main thrusts: (i) using long-term, highly detailed, individual-based studies of wild vertebrate populations to understand the relationship between heterozygosity and fitness and how this feeds into mating systems; and (ii) combining genomics and transcriptomics with geographical, time series and experimental approaches to explore the genetic basis of adaptation to climate change in marine invertebrate populations. These two themes coincided in a recent Nature paper in which we could show that climate change has been increasingly selecting for heterozygosity in an Antarctic fur seal population.
 

For our new website, which includes details of our research projects, group member's pages and downloadable PDFs of all publications, please go to: The Hoffman group website

Research Interests

• Population, evolutionary and conservation genetics
• Behavioural ecology of pinnipeds
• Relationship between heterozygosity and fitness
• Population structure of Antarctic invertebrates

Opportunities

As I am currently building up a research group in Bielefeld, I would very much welcome applications from students or postdocs who would like to work with me. If you are interested in any of the research topics described above, or have your own ideas for related projects, please contact me (see sidebar-contact).

Research Interests

Population genomics of shellfish

Research Interests

Evolutionary genomics of Antarctic fur seals

Research Interests

Research Interests

Research Interests

Genomic dissection of climate change impacts on a declining Antarctic top predator population

"Research" Interests

• Predator-prey interactions

Bielefeld Young Researchers’ Fund

Research interest: fur seal epigenetics

I am a molecular ecologist working towards my PhD that focuses on the combination of genetic and chemical data to investigate chemical phenotypes in Antarctic fur seals.

For my PhD project, I aim to unravel the genetic architecture of inbreeding depression in sexually selected traits and the role of DNA methylation in sexual trait expression in black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix).

My PhD project will explore the effects environment and genetics have on individual trait variation in Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella).

Keywords: individualization, genetics, trait variation

Research Interests

COMPOSES – COMparing Polar Ocean SoundscapES, investigating the influence of anthropogenic noise and changing sea ice conditions on the noise budgets and marine mammal communities of two polar regions

Research Interests

Genomic analysis of dispersal and adaptation in porcini mushrooms

Research Interests

Pricipal Investigator of Animal Behaviour

The unifying feature of my different research projects is life history strategy evolution, the way natural selection optimises the entire life of an organism. Differences between individuals and their life histories are evaluated by natural selection on the basis of fitness. Hence it is of paramount importance to measure fitness if we want to attach biological meaningfulness to animal behaviour. However, animal behaviour and life history strategies do not evolve in isolation. Individual behaviour is bound to have consequences at the population level and, conversely, populations set the stage for the evolution of life history strategies and animal behaviour. As a consequence, by studying life history strategies, my research is encompassed by a triangle of evolution, ecology and ethology. Only detailed knowledge of individual fitness allows one to decompose individual behavioural variation into components of genotypic and phenotypic quality, as well as environmental effects.

Research Interests

• Evolution of life histories in birds of prey
• Host-parasite coevolution in cuckoos
• Evolution at the large scale: modern comparative approaches

Research Interests

PhD student in the Galapagos Sea Lion Project, investigating the development and consequences of individual foraging strategies in sea lion females and immatures, using dive computers, personality tests and behavior observations.

Research Interests

• Demography and reproductive strategy of sea lions
• Parent-offspring conflict

Publications

• Curriculum Vitae
• Publications
• Courses

I am an old-school bird-guy with a strongly developed taste for parasites. So far I've been  concentrating on avian malaria-like parasites, but expansion is likely. I also have a quite strong interest in long-lived birds and have achieved some intimacy with birds of prey. They also like getting under my skin.

My research focuses on the ecology and evolution of infection, host-parasite coexistence, resistance and tolerance. I combine diverse methods, ranging from behavioural observation to using individual-based data, long-term population and genomic analyses, richly garnished with loads of fieldwork. Ultimately, my research aims at understanding why some parasites are less deadly and damaging than their reputation suggests.

I am also quite fascinated by discrete phenotypic polymorphisms, e.g. plumage polymorphisms. These are still quite enigmatic in their genetic and selection underpinnings, but appear to be one of the major life-history determinants in some species (or maybe attractants to the researchers of those species). Discrete polymorphisms seem to much too often correlate with a bunch of other probably selected traits. I believe with a good amount of work there is a lot about life to be understood there. Not insignificantly, discrete polymorphisms seem to often correlate with infection-related traits, which bring together my field of interest.

Research Interests

• Host-parasite coevolution
• Mechanisms of resistance and tolerance and transmission
• Discrete phenotypic polymorphisms

Research Interests

• Host-parasite coevolution in cuckoos

Research Interests

Research Interests

Interested by bird ecology for many years, I studied community and population dynamics, as well as interspecific competition as parts of my early research career.

During my current PhD project, I focus on host-parasite interactions in a long-term monitored population of common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and their co-evolutionary partners, a species of blood parasites (Leucocytozoon).

My research are questionning ecological and evolutionary processes such as parasite-induced fitness consequences in juvenile hosts, their physiological and molecular responses to these parasites or understanding the timing and intensity of host defenses involved in these responses.

Various methods were used to answer this problematics: physiology and morphometric measures, blood chemistry and transcriptomic analyses.

Utlimately, my project will enlight on how young long-lived raptors cope with highly transmitted parasites and the intrinsic mechanisms of their defense components.

Research Interests

Research Interests

Pricipal Investigator of Animal Behaviour

The unifying feature of my different research projects is life history strategy evolution, the way natural selection optimises the entire life of an organism. Differences between individuals and their life histories are evaluated by natural selection on the basis of fitness. Hence it is of paramount importance to measure fitness if we want to attach biological meaningfulness to animal behaviour. However, animal behaviour and life history strategies do not evolve in isolation. Individual behaviour is bound to have consequences at the population level and, conversely, populations set the stage for the evolution of life history strategies and animal behaviour. As a consequence, by studying life history strategies, my research is encompassed by a triangle of evolution, ecology and ethology. Only detailed knowledge of individual fitness allows one to decompose individual behavioural variation into components of genotypic and phenotypic quality, as well as environmental effects.

Research Interests

• Evolution of life histories in birds of prey
• Host-parasite coevolution in cuckoos
• Evolution at the large scale: modern comparative approaches

My research focuses on causes & consequences of consistent individual differences in behaviour. I mainly work on selection lines in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In collaborative projects, I work on effects on the development of individual differences in wild guinea pigs (Cavia aperea), the influence of the microbiome on behaviour, as well as on the inheritance of certain behavioural traits.

Teaching

Publications

ResearchGate

Orcid

Membership
German Zoological Society (Speaker of the Behavioural Biology section)

Ethological Society

Research Interests

Research Interests

It always fascinated me how genetics and immunology might act together to drive behaviour. I am thus investigating potential relationships between the MHC, microbiota and body odour in banded mongooses. Furthermore I am interested in the anatomy of scent glands, population genetics of mongoose populations in zoos, movement ecology and conservation.

Research Interests

Research Interests

Research Interests

Research Interests