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  • Animal Behaviour

    © Universität Bielefeld

Team

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Opportunities

-> Overview of all offered jobs and opportunities in our research group

© Universität Bielefeld

Our work group includes various projects and sub-groups. We have therefore built up our team page according to our subject areas; also to provide an overview of which people are involved in which projects.


Raptors & Owls

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


Research Interests


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Kai Philipp Gladow

PhD student

E-Mail
kai-philipp.gladow@uni-bielefeld.de
Phone
+49 521 106-2733
Office
VHF-393

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

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Tim Maximilian Rapp

Tim Maximilian Rapp

PhD student

Email
tim.rapp@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2620
Raum
VHF-373

Research Interests


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Hugo de Eira Pereira

Hugo de Eira Pereira

PhD student

Email
hugo.eira@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2723
Raum
VHF-389

Research Interests


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Josefine Eisermann

Josefine Eisermann

PhD student

Telefon
+49 521 106-2836
Raum
VHF-380

Research Interests



Molecular Behavioural Ecology

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Prof. Dr. Joseph Hoffman

Prof. Dr. Joseph Hoffman

Telefon Sekr.
+49 521 106-2837
Raum
VHF-203

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


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Dr. Kosmas Hench

Dr. Kosmas Hench

PostDoc

E-Mail
k.hench[at]posteo.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2833
Raum
VHF-204
Webseite
k-hench.github.io/kh

Research Interests

Evolutionary genomics of Antarctic fur seals


Research Interests

My multidisciplinary areas of research focus on the behavioural ecology, and molecular ecology of wild populations of birds. My research topics include (1) responses of individuals to changing environmental conditions, (2) foraging strategies, (3) reproductive strategies, (4) individual reproductive performance, and (5) the evolutionary consequences of behaviour. My research is conducted on wild populations of parrots, penguins, gulls and petrels since these offer excellent opportunities for testing a number of theoretical predictions. I initiated and lead several projects among them the ‘Breeding biology of Burrowing Parrots’ (since 1998), and ‘How animals distribute themselves in space: energy landscapes of an Antarctic predator’ funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Programme 1158 Antarctic Research.

Some highlights of my research include:

1) using Pachyptila prions (Aves, Procellariiformes), I have demonstrated how additive traits lead to feeding advantage and reproductive isolation, which promoted homoploid hybrid speciation (HHS); HHS has been found only a few times in animals, and I have shown for the first time that additivity of divergent parental traits alone can lead directly to increased hybrid fitness and reproductive isolation (Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msz090); my current research expands on these results, now using whole genome sequencing, through a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) research grant (MA 2574/10-1);

2) using penguin species from Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, GPS and tri-axial-acceleration data, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) of prey remains, I have expanded the energy landscape approach to foraging research, which provides a detailed mechanistic basis of spatial ecology and decision making in animals; energy landscapes allowed me to link the quantification of the variation in the energy costs of movements through a given environment, as well as how these costs vary in time and between contrasting sites, with breeding success and the species’ population trend; I also showed that such link was mediated by the physiological condition of the individuals (Movement Ecology, doi:10.1186/s40462-021-00255-9);

3) using GPS and tri-axial-acceleration data, and machine learning methods, I have been able to follow wild common woodpigeons for over two years, and being able to investigate year-round behavioural time budgets, and to identifying and classify crucial behaviours (foraging, flying, resting), an accomplishment achieved only a few times until now that opens several lines of future research in foraging ecology (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, doi:10.1007/s00265-023-03306-w);

4) investigating the presence of avian hemoparasites, with molecular methods, in 19 Psittaciformes from all over the planet, I showed that the consumption of food items known for their secondary metabolites with antimalarial, trypanocidal or general antiparasitic properties, explains the low prevalence of hemoparasites reported in many vertebrates (Parasites & Vectors, doi:10.1186/s13071-018-2940-3).

 

These and other results from my research provide fundamental links among the individuals foraging behaviour, their response to changing environmental conditions, their reproductive performance, which allow a better understanding of the persistence of populations and the evolution of species in a changing world.


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Prof. Dr. Toni Goßmann

Prof. Dr. Toni Goßmann

Teilprojektleiter A01

Research Interests


Research Interests

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


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Teddy Hoffman

Teddy Hoffman

Research associate

"Research" Interests

  • Predator-prey interactions

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Dr. Bernice Sepers

PostDoc

Telefon
+49 521 106-2819
Raum
VHF-205

Bielefeld Young Researchers’ Fund

Research interest: fur seal epigenetics


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Jonas Tebbe

PhD student

E-Mail
jonas.tebbe@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2833
Raum
VHF-204a

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.


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Rebecca Chen

PhD student

E-Mail
rebecca.chen@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2819
Raum
VHF-205

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).


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Ane Liv Berthelsen

PhD student

E-Mail
ane_liv.berthelsen@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2833
Raum
VHF-204a

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


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Ramona Mattmüller

Ramona Mattmüller

PhD student

Email
ramona.mattmueller@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2192
Raum
VHF-203a

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


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Etienne Brejon Lamartiniere

Etienne Brejon Lamartiniere

PhD student

Email
etienne.brejon@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2833
Raum
VHF-204

Research Interests

Genomic analysis of dispersal and adaptation in porcini mushrooms


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Petroula Botsidou

Petroula Botsidou

PhD student

Telefon
+49 521 106-2819
Raum
VHF-205

Research Interests


  • Rebecca Nagel

  • Hazel Nichols

  • Abhijeet Shah

  • Amy Knight

    Masters project student, heterozygosity and fitness in elephant seals

  • Anastasia Klimova

  • Athina Giannakara

    Masters module student, mother-offspring recognition in Antarctic fur seals

  • Emily Humble

  • Gabi Kowalski

  • Luke Eberhart-Phillips

  • Martin Stoffel

  • Philip Kohlmeier

    Undergraduate project student, olfactory kin recognition in birds

  • Shaw


Sea Lion Project Galápagos

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.


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Jonas Schwarz

PostDoc

Institute
Institute of Marine Sciences University of California, Santa Cruz
E-Mail
jonas.fl.schwarz@gmail.com

Research Interests

Postdoctoral Research Fellow collaborating with the University of California, Santa Cruz, to explore the determinants of individual foraging behavior in Galápagos, California, Southern, New Zealand, and Australian sea lions. 


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Svenja Stöhr

PhD student

E-Mail
svenja.stoehr@uni-bielefeld.de
Phone
+49 521 106-2725
Office
VHF-204a

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.


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Alexandra Kate Childs

PhD student

E-Mail
alexandra.childs@uni-bielefeld.de
Phone
+49 521 106-2702
Office
VHF-345

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Prof. emeritus Fritz Trillmich

Consultant function

E-Mail
fritz.trillmich@uni-bielefeld.de
Phone
+49 521 106-2706
Office
VHF-221

Research Interests

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

Publications


We investigate life history- and reproductive strategies.

Sex, age at maturity, litter size, offspring size at birth and length of reproductive cycles count among important life history features. Reproduction represents one of the most important aspects in the life history of an individual and parental care represents one important component of fitness. One focus of our investigations concerns allocation decisions and trade-offs in parental care. As parental care is a valuable and limited resource, conflict about parental care is expected. Our investigations are carried out using guinea pigs, cavies and sea lions.

We focus on:

  • Plasticity of behaviour and physiology
  • Allocation decisions
  • costs of reproduction and brood care
  • parent-offspring conflicts
  • reproductive strategies of males and females
  • effects of an unpredictable environment (global warming) on population dynamics

Host-Parasite Interactions

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


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Prof. Dr. Oliver Krüger

Prof. Dr. Oliver Krüger

Telefon Sekr.
+49 521 106-2837
Raum
VHF-371

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.

 

 


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Tim Maximilian Rapp

PhD student

E-Mail
tim.rapp@uni-bielefeld.de
Phone
+49 521 106-2620
Office
VHF-373

Research Interests


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Anja Wiegmann

PhD student

Phone
+49 521 106-2725
Office
VHF-204a

Research Interests



Causes for Individual Variation

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.


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Dr. Sabine Kraus

PI

Department
Animal Behaviour & Behavioural Ecology
E-Mail
sabine.kraus@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2713
Raum
VHF-359

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.

zebra finch pair
© Sabine Kraus

Teaching

Publications

ResearchGate

Orcid


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

Ethological Society

 


Research Interests


Research Interests


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Nadine Schubert

PhD student

E-Mail
nadine.schubert@uni-bielefeld.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2840
Raum
VHF-283

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.


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Navina Liebermann-Lilie

Navina Liebermann-Lilie

Raum
VHF-353a

Research Interests


Research Interests


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Sophia Quante

PhD student from Münster University

E-Mail
sophia.quante@uni-muenster.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2703
Raum
VHF-394

Research Interests


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Louisa Bierbaum

PhD student from Münster University

E-Mail
louisa.bierbaum@uni-muenster.de
Telefon
+49 521 106-2703
Raum
VHF-394

Research Interests


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Josefine Eisermann

Josefine Eisermann

PhD student

Telefon
+49 521 106-2836
Raum
VHF-380

Research Interests



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