Courses, Defenses & Events

Social mitigation of infection risk in animal societies

Institute Seminar by Matthew Silk
  • Date: Apr 9, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Matthew Silk
  • I did my PhD and 2 post-doc contracts at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Ecology and Conservation and Environment and Sustainability Institute in Cornwall, UK. My PhD used social network methods to understand the social structure of a migratory geese. My post-docs then applied these skills at the interface of social behaviour, infectious disease and population ecology. I continued these research themes through a short post-doc with Nina Fefferman and at the University of Tennessee and a MSCA fellowship at CEFE in Montpellier. I have now just started as a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, with my research focused on the role of social networks in longer-term infectious disease dynamics.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: gabriella.gall@ab.mpg.de
Infectious disease risk can represent a key cost of social interactions. Therefore, quantifying how individuals mitigate this risk, while maximising social benefits can help us understand how individual social behaviour evolves and scales up to group and population-level social structure and ... [more]

Doctoral defense by Conor Heins

Supervised by Iain Couzin
  • Date: Apr 10, 2024
  • Time: 04:00 PM - 06:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Conor Heins
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: ZT1204
This doctoral thesis delves into the convergence of complex systems science, cognitive science, and statistical inference, to probe the phenomena of collective behavior—where autonomous entities such as cells, birds, or humans exhibit coordination that eclipses their individual capacities. Central ... [more]

Hierarchical statistical models in wildlife ecology

Institute Seminar by Rahel Sollmann
  • Date: Apr 16, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Rahel Sollmann
  • I studied biology at the University of Cologne and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn, where I obtained my Diploma in 2006. I obtained my PhD from the Free University Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in 2011, with a dissertation on the ecology and conservation of jaguars in the central Brazilian Cerrado savannah. I spent the next 10 years in the USA, first as a post-doc in Dr. Beth Gardner’s lab at North Carolina State University (2011-2015), developing and applying hierarchical statistical models to questions of wildlife ecology and management. This was followed by a 1-year postdoc with the US Forest Service in Davis, CA, using HSMs to study the impact of fire and fire management on wildlife. In 2016, I was hired as an Assistant Professor for Quantitative Ecology at the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at UC Davis. I stayed at UC Davis for five years, teaching introductory statistics and principles of sampling wildlife to undergraduates, and working with graduate students on applying HSM to different questions of wildlife ecology and conservation. In 2021 I moved to Berlin for my current position as Senior Scientist in the Department of Ecological Dynamics at the IZW, where I have been continuing my work on HSM in wildlife research.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: cmonteza@ab.mpg.de
Knowing how many species or individuals occur at a given place and time is fundamental to many questions in wildlife ecology, conservation and management. Enumerating wildlife, however, is complicated by our imperfect and varying (with method, species, habitat, etc) ability to detect animals. In ... [more]

AI workshop with Prof. Dr. Daniel Mertens

by ScientistsNeedMore Schiller & Mertens
  • Start: Apr 18, 2024 09:00 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • End: Apr 19, 2024 05:00 PM
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: K7

Which types of social relationships matter? Affiliative bonds and mortality risk in wild primates.

Institute Seminar by Fernando Campos
  • Date: Apr 23, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Fernando Campos
  • My research aims to understand how social and ecological experiences that accumulate across the life course are linked to individual differences in behavior, health, survival, and fertility. I use noninvasive field, lab, and computational methods to investigate these topics through the long-term study of wild nonhuman primates. I have worked with a variety of different wild primate populations, and I codirect the Santa Rosa Capuchin Project, a long-term research program focusing on white-faced capuchin monkeys in northwestern Costa Rica. I have a B.S in Biology from Caltech, M.A. and PhD degrees in Anthropology from the University of Calgary, and I did a postdoc at Duke University. I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of San Antonio, Texas.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: ukalbitzer@ab.mpg.de
In humans, having stronger, more numerous, or more supportive social relationships predicts mortality risk from almost every cause of death—a pattern that cuts across cultural, geographic, gender, and socioeconomic lines. Recent studies from a wide range of wild mammals show startling converge with ... [more]

Institute Seminar by Vishwesha Guttal

Institute Seminar by Vishwesha Guttal
  • Date: Apr 30, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Vishwesha Guttal
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: ZT702 + online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: pkaushik@ab.mpg.de

Institute Seminar by Jerry Moxley

Institute Seminar by Jerry Moxley
  • Date: May 7, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Jerry Moxley
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: ZT702 + online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: aalbi@ab.mpg.de

Conflict, collars, and fences: Managing landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife in the Serengeti, Tanzania

Institute Seminar by Kristen Snyder
  • Date: May 21, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Kristen Snyder
  • I completed my PhD at the University of California – Davis, where my work focused on human-wildlife conflict and conservation planning. I joined the Grumeti Fund in 2015 while completing my degree and have subsequently worked with the organization in varying capacities as a postdoctoral fellow, Head Scientist, and Scientific Advisor (current). In 2019 I led the development and launch of our applied research program and facility, Research and Innovation for the Serengeti Ecosystem (RISE, see 'further information'). I am an affiliated scientist with the Wittemyer Lab at Colorado State University and Chief Scientist at Natural Capital. Human-wildlife conflict, coexistence, and linking science with conservation management are common themes in my work, which I approach from an interdisciplinary perspective and using a variety of tools, including household surveys, camera traps, wildlife GPS collars, and remote sensing.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: ktiedeman@ab.mpg.de
In rural communities, Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) can pose a serious threat to household food security, safety, and livelihoods, and in turn, undermine conservation efforts. Managing HWC has become an increasingly important component of managing wildlife populations and protected areas. The ... [more]

Using the Internet of Animals to Monitor Local and Global Biodiversity

Institute Seminar by Roland Kays
  • Date: May 28, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Roland Kays
  • Roland Kays is a scientist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University. He is host of the Wild Animals Podcast and the Wild Animals YouTube Channel.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: cmonteza@ab.mpg.de
My vision for conservation focuses on animal population size and connectivity. First, we need annual estimates of animal abundance and their trends to know which species most need our help, where. Second, we need species-specific measures of habitat connectivity between these populations to ensure ... [more]

EAT, PREY, LOVE: The Role of Food & Mates in Shaping Lion Societies

Institute Seminar by Stotra Chakrabarti
  • Date: Jun 4, 2024
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Stotra Chakrabarti
  • Dr. Stotra Chakrabarti is an Assistant Professor of Animal Behaviour at Macalester College, Minnesota, USA. He has a MS in Wildlife Sciences and a PhD in Animal Behaviour from the Wildlife Institute of India, and he did his Postdoctoral Research from the University of Minnesota. He is a behavioural ecologist & conservation biologist, who’s expertise is in studying the links between fundamental animal ecology and applied conservation, with large mammals (especially carnivores) as study species. Stotra’s curiosity in the natural world began with a childhood spent watching leopards and elephants in the vicinity of where he grew up: the foothills of Himalayas in India. Subsequently, a very immersive and rigorous graduate program at the Wildlife Institute of India cemented his interest in animal behaviour and conservation biology.
  • 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
Lions are iconic top predators that feature intensely in research and conservation projects. However, majority of such research has focused on lions in prey-rich savanna habitats. The typical model lion thus belongs to only a few charismatic populations, thereby confining our understanding of the ... [more]
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