Projects

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Foraging behaviour and ecology of Antarctic fulmarine petrels in relation to wind and habitat characteristics. University of Antwerp

Marcel Eens
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
The aim of the proposed project is to study the space use strategies, foraging behaviour and diet of an assembly of four petrels during the breeding season in two regions within Eastern Antarctica. A major focus will be on the identification of habitat requirements within the two distinct regions and the effects of wind speed and wind direction on the space use decisions and flight costs of the different species.

Fly with the wind. Foraging behaviour and ecology of Antarctic fulmarine petrels in relation to wind and habitat characteristics University of Antwerp

Nina Dehnhard
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
Global climate change will lead to dramatic reductions in polar sea-ice and will additionally change wind conditions. I will study the foraging behaviour of four species of sea-ice associated Antarctic fulmarine petrels in response to environmental characteristics and specifically determine the effect of wind on flight decisions and flight costs in response to the species' morphology, taking advantage of a natural experiment.

The life and thought of northern prehistoric hunter-gatherers: ethnographical and ethnoarchaeological theory and analysis of the behavioral and material expression of the relationship between ideology and ecology Ghent University

Philippe Crombé
Department of Archaeology

The research proposal consists of the application of the new anthropological paradigm to the study of northern European prehistoric hunter-gatherers with specific focus on the relationship between ecology - the reality of the world in which human beings must survive - and ideology - the human cognition and perception of that world. The new anthropological paradigm sees ecology and ideology as dynamic and dialectic entities, whose relationship ...

The female perspective of aggression in a free-living songbird: studying female competitive trait expression within a behavioural syndrome and life history framework. University of Antwerp

Marcel Eens
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
Aggressive competition and the signals used during aggressive competition have historically been considered characteristics of male animals produced by sexual selection. Nevertheless, female competitive traits are common across a wide variety of taxa. In most cases, these female traits are understudied. A deeper understanding of how these competitive traits function in female lives is necessary to understand how these traits evolve. Therefore, ...

Behavioural and cognitive effects of an adverse early social environment: towards a better understanding of the adaptive significance and transgenerational transmission. University of Antwerp

Wendt Müller
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
Early-life is one of the most critical periods for behavioural and cognitive development. An unfavourable early life environment with inadequate nourishment, deprived of social interactions and parental neglect/abuse may hence result in profound cognitive and behavioural deficiencies. How these effects can be interpreted in a framework of adaptive responses and how natural selection structures developmental effects arising from early life ...

Study of intraspecific variation in the movement behaviour of a small benthic fish species: integrating behavioural, ecological, endocrinological and molecular data. University of Antwerp

Marcel Eens
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
The aim of this project is to address gaps in our understanding of intraspecific variation in animal behaviour, especially the movement behaviour of small bentic freshwater fish species. To achieve this, the proposed study integrates two closely-linked research components.

The eco-evolutionary consequences of reward-based learning for behavioural variation. Ghent University

Luc Lens
Department of Biology

In recent years it has become clear that most animals have the ability to learn and that this often plays an important role in how individuals adjust their behaviours throughout their lives. Yet, how learning ultimately contributes to behavioural variation within populations is still poorly known. This project investigates the functioning and consequences of reward-based learning U+2013 a simple and universal mechanism by which individuals ...

Behavioural plasticity - determining the adaptive significance of parental care. University of Antwerp

Wendt Müller
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
Parental care is a widespread phenomenon among the animal kingdom. It increases offspring survival, but entails fitness costs for the parents too. The resulting trade-off between investing in current offspring or in self-maintenance is a central tenet of life-history theory. But the costs and benefits of any parental decision will not be constant, but vary with multiple environmental factors. When adjusting their level of investment, parents ...

The evolution of behavioural and chemical regulation of reproduction in bee societies KU Leuven

Tom Wenseleers
Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation

Eusocial hymenopterans demonstrate remarkable altruism, showing an advanced reproductive division of labour in which a fertile queen lays the eggs and the largely sterile workers rear the queen’s offspring. Workers, however, usually retain the ability to activate their ovaries and lay unfertilised, male-destined eggs, thereby inciting possible conflict over male parentage. In response, multiple mechanisms to resolve reproductive conflicts ...

Causes and consequences of variation in complex secondary sexual song characteristics: a longitudinal and multidisciplinary approach by integrating behavioural, physiological and molecular data. University of Antwerp

Marcel Eens
Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology
During this project we aim to study, in an integrated manner, the causes and consequences of variation in a wide range of song characteristics in the great tit. By utilising automatic song recording systems, we will register and quantify all possible aspects of the song of at least 200 free-living great tits in full detail. We aim to monitor as many males as possible during their life time. The unique dataset obtained in this way will be used ...