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