News – Behavioural Evolution Research Group

Grant successes with some friends

We’ll soon start working (again) with Satoshi Awata, Masanori Kohda, Takashi Hotta, Masaya Morita, Kazuya Fukuda and Deo Mushagalusa on the neural mechanisms of differences in mating and parental care in Taganyikan Cichlids.

…And, we will also start up a project with Rui Oliveira, Jingtao Lilue, Walter Salzburger, Giovanni Petri, Gil Levkowitz, Ricardo Leite, and Ana Rita Nunes on the molecular evolution of social behavior, again with our beloved Tanganyikan cichlids.

Why bad bosses are lonely at the top

Among fish, dominance reduces influence; study suggests it’s the passive that really lead

If fish are any guide, subordinate males may actually have more influence on groups than their domineering and aggressive counterparts, according to a new study in the journal Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, led by Alex Jordan from Germany’s Max Planck Institute, were interested in the interplay between power, dominance and influence – a theme permeating animal and human populations.

“In many societies, whether animal or human, individuals in positions of power all possess a similar suite of traits,” says Jordan. “They are often loud, aggressive, pushy, and at least in our current political climate, overconfident in their knowledge of specialist matters.”

Gaining positions of power tends to be a competitive process, thus favouring individuals that use aggression and intimidation to get their way.

“But are these powerful individuals most influential?” Jordan asks.

“And if our goal is to create groups and social structures that are responsive to change, and through which new information spreads quickly and effectively, do we really want the most aggressive individuals in powerful positions?” READ MORE

High-resolution, non-invasive animal tracking and reconstruction of local environment in aquatic ecosystems

Wanna build a 3D underwater animal tracking rig for a few hundred bucks? Wanna run it using open source, deep-learning based code that can be run on free computing clusters? Check out our new technique just published: https://movementecologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40462-020-00214-w