Events at the MPIAB

Social ageing: Toward a deeper understanding of the intersection between social relationships and senescence

Institute Seminar by Erin Siracusa
  • Date: Jan 21, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Erin Siracusa
  • Dr Erin Siracusa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. She is a behavioural ecologist with a specific focus on exploring how and why social interactions change across the lifespan and its consequences for other patterns of senescence. She specializes in using long-term mammal field studies, behavioural observations, and social network analysis to probe the evolutionary basis of sociality and its consequences for health and ageing.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: estrauss@ab.mpg.de
Ageing affects many phenotypic traits, but the declines in social behaviour that occur with age have only recently become apparent. Given the well-established fitness benefits associated with social connectedness, understanding why this ‘social ageing’ occurs will be important for integrating sociality into our understanding of the ageing process. Here, I will present a framework for disentangling ... [more]

Linking Conservation & Movement Ecology in the Study of Migratory Raptors

Rado Seminar by Ron Efrat
As scientists, we aim to make a meaningful impact on the world through our studies. But what is more important – fundamental ecological research or applied conservation research? In my recent studies, I tried to find ways to integrate both fields. I will share some of my work on two endangered raptor species, focusing on the link between movement ecology and conservation ecology. I will present ... [more]

Causes and consequences of animal movement in an extensive system

Institute Seminar by Mark Whiteside
  • Date: Jan 28, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Mark Whiteside
  • I am both a behavioural ecologist and an applied ethologist. My research uses sensor-based technologies and controlled experiments to determine how early life can influence behavioural, cognitive and physiological development. My research concentrates on two animals, the pheasant and the sheep. Both these systems have animals that are captively housed for periods of their life, to then be released into wild, extensive environments where they need to navigate, forage and survive natural stressors. This allows me the unique opportunity to experimentally control their experiences and motivations (e.g. social, dietary, learning opportunities) and to describe their individual characteristics (behavioural, cognitive, physiological). After release I can then follow how these traits can influence their movement, behaviour, fate, production, welfare and their environmental impacts.
  • Location: University of Konstanz + online
  • Room: ZT 702
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: gabriella.gall@ab.mpg.de
Movement is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. It is often shaped by individual-level responses to risk and resource distribution as well as individual characteristics (e.g. cognitive ability, physiology) which can have fitness consequences and drive evolutionary pathways. In addition, the cumulative movement of animals can drive ecological processes and influence environmental function. These ... [more]

Five decades of research & conservation on African lions

Institute Seminar by Craig Packer
  • Date: Feb 4, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Craig Packer
  • Craig Packer is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. After completing his D.Phil. on primate behavior at the University of Sussex, he headed the Serengeti Lion Project for 37 years. He has published three books: “Into Africa” and “Lions in the Balance" for University of Chicago Press, and “The Lion: Behavior, ecology and conservation of an iconic species” for Princeton Press. He has published over 200 research papers, nearly 30 of which were published in Science and Nature, as well as articles for National Geographic, Natural History, and the Los Angeles Times. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. He has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his research has been covered by the New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and numerous other outlets worldwide.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: nborrego@ab.mpg.de
After conducting extensive research on the origins of sociality and the evolution of the lion's mane, my research has become increasingly focused on the challenges of lion conservation. Lions are particularly difficult because of their enormous land requirements and the profound threat they pose to local people. Our conservation activities have inevitably involved engagement with national ... [more]

Institute Seminar by Redouan Bshary

Institute Seminar by Redouan Bshary
[more]

Institute Seminar by Martina Scacco

Institute Seminar by Martina Scacco
[more]

Institute Seminar by Carina Baskett

Institute Seminar by Redouan Bshary
[more]

Blackcap migration - adaptation in time and space

Institute Seminar by Miriam Liedvogel
  • Date: Jun 17, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Miriam Liedvogel
  • Miriam Liedvogel is Director of the Institute of Avian Research “Vogelwarte Helgoland” and Professor of Ornithology at Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg. She is fascinated by the phenomenon of bird migration and with her research asks, how this fascinating behaviour is controlled, coordinated and regulated on the molecular level? To address this question, she links careful behavioural observation and state-of-the-art tracking migration in the wild to carefully characterise migratory behaviour under controlled conditions as well as free flying birds, with whole genome sequencing and gene expression approaches to match genotype to phenotype. Her work is funded through the European Commission (Marie Curie Fellowship), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Feodor Lynen Fellowship), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Max Planck Society (MPG). Miriam has been awarded various prices and fellowships, e.g. an award for outstanding supervision by the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg (UGO), the JED Williams Medal for her committee work. Besides regularly talking at both national and international scientific conferences, Miriam enjoys to communicate science to children and the general public.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: aflack@ab.mpg.de
Understanding the genetics of bird migration is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology. Blackcaps Sylvia atricapilla are ideal for this work as different populations exhibit enormous difference in migratory behaviour and little else. We characterize (i) phenotype, population structure and demographic history the blackcap, and (ii) identify sequence variants and signaling pathways that are ... [more]
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