Events at the MPIAB

Sex roles in coucals - a unique model system to answer Tinbergen's 4 questions

Rado Seminar by Wolfgang Goymann
  • Date: Jun 12, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Wolfgang Goymann
  • Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: ksafi@ab.mpg.de
Female-biased investment into zygote formation (anisogamy) often leads to ‘Darwinian sex roles’ with stronger male competition and larger female choice. Often, this also comes with larger female investment into parental care. In some species, however, these sex roles are ‘reversed’ with females competing more strongly, and males providing more care. In birds, this occurs in about 1% of all ... [more]

Data Visualization Workshop

  • Date: Jun 12, 2026
  • Time: 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Max Q Capelle
  • Location: U KN, M701
[more]

Keeping the Wild Working: Predators, Processes, and the Ethics of Intervention

Institute Seminar by Sam Ferreira
  • Date: Jun 16, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Sam Ferreira
  • Dr Sam M. Ferreira, PhD is a senior conservation ecologist and internationally recognised authority on large mammal population dynamics, restoration ecology and evidence-based conservation management, with more than three decades of experience integrating theoretical ecology with applied conservation across Africa and the Southern Hemisphere. For the past 18 years and currently he serves as Large Mammal Ecologist in Scientific Services at South African National Parks (SANParks), where his work focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics of large mammals, including elephants, rhinoceroses and large carnivores, directly informing adaptive management in complex protected area systems. In parallel, he is the Scientific Officer of the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group, leading scientific reporting on rhino population trends and management and providing technical input to international policy processes, including CITES. He also holds academic appointments as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Nature Conservation and Marine Science of Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Extraordinary Professor at the Faculty of Law of North-West University, reflecting sustained engagement in postgraduate supervision, academic mentorship and research capacity development. His research has made a sustained and measurable contribution to wildlife conservation and management across southern and eastern Africa, evidenced by the authorship or co-authorship of more than 160 peer-reviewed publications that have attracted over 5 500 citations (h-index > 40). This work has advanced understanding of population dynamics, spatial ecology, and demographic drivers, improved monitoring methodologies widely applied by conservation agencies, and informed adaptive, landscape-scale management approaches in major protected areas. The consistent uptake of this research in operational planning, regional and continental assessments, advisory processes and international conservation policy debates underscores its enduring scientific, management and policy impact.
  • 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
Large predators have a talent for stirring strong feelings. We admire them, fear them, argue about them, and then write long papers about how everything is going wrong. This talk takes a different path. It asks a simple question: what do large predators do for ecosystems—and why does that matter for people who depend on biodiversity, whether they like predators or not? Across many systems, the ... [more]

Socially monogamous bonds in birds: Causes, consequences, and function

Rado Seminar by Frigg Speelman
  • Date: Jun 19, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Frigg Speelman
  • Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: partecke@ab.mpg.de
Social monogamy is widespread in birds, with many species forming long-term partnerships that provide fitness benefits by reducing sexual conflict and increasing behavioural and physiological alignment. Understanding mate retention and divorce illuminates the benefits of monogamy and how mating systems are shaped. Divorce is often considered adaptive, yet non-adaptive explanations remain ... [more]

Turning tracks into risk: probabilistic estimation of bird collisions at wind turbines

Institute Seminar by Moritz Mercker
  • Date: Jun 23, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Moritz Mercker
  • Moritz Mercker is a trained biologist and mathematician with a PhD in applied mathematics. Early in his career, he worked as an ornithologist on different offshore and island field stations, including the North Sea island of Trischen, where long-term bird monitoring and close exposure to protected ecosystems shaped his strong ecological perspective. He currently works at the interface of ecology, statistics, and applied mathematics. Alongside his involvement in academic research on biomathematical methods, he runs a biostatistical consultancy supporting ecological assessments and environmental decision-making. His work is driven by the conviction that biodiversity conservation and the expansion of renewable energy can and must be reconciled through rigorous, data-driven approaches.
  • Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: fiedler@ab.mpg.de
Expanding wind energy requires reliable ways to assess collision risks for birds, especially for protected species. We present a probabilistic framework that translates animal movement data into spatially explicit estimates of collision risk at wind turbines. Using GPS tracking of different breeding birds (such as the red kite), the approach combines information on space use, flight height, and ... [more]

Institute Seminar by Simon Garnier

Institute Seminar by Simon Garnier
  • Date: Jun 30, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Simon Garnier
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: ZT 702 + online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: dcarlesso@ab.mpg.de
[more]

Grant Proposal Writing (workshop)

Grant Proposal Writing (workshop)
  • new dates!
  • Start: Jul 2, 2026
  • End: Jul 3, 2026
  • Speaker: Brian Cusack and Babette Regierer
  • Dr. Brian Cusack comes from Cork, Ireland and received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Trinity College, Dublin in 2007. During his Ph.D. Brian received the kind of mentoring that he continues to consider as the gold-standard for graduate students. After completing his first postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Brian conducted post-doctoral research in evolutionary genomics at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. In February 2012, together with Rick Scavetta, Brian co-founded Science Craft in Berlin. Since then Brian has provided high-level training workshops for more than a thousand researchers throughout Germany as well as in Norway and China.
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: Mon K503, Tue ZT1201
  • Host: IMPRS
  • Contact: imprs@uni-konstanz.de
[more]

Scientific Writing (workshop)

2-tägiger Kurs
  • new dates!
  • Start: Jul 6, 2026
  • End: Jul 7, 2026
  • Speaker: Brian Cusack, Science Craft
  • Dr. Brian Cusack comes from Cork, Ireland and received his Ph.D. in Genetics from Trinity College, Dublin in 2007. During his Ph.D. Brian received the kind of mentoring that he continues to consider as the gold-standard for graduate students. After completing his first postdoc at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Brian conducted post-doctoral research in evolutionary genomics at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. In February 2012, together with Rick Scavetta, Brian co-founded Science Craft in Berlin. Since then Brian has provided high-level training workshops for more than a thousand researchers throughout Germany as well as in Norway and China.
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: ZT1201
  • Host: IMPRS
  • Contact: imprs@uni-konstanz.de
[more]

Complexity and simplicity in multispecies octopus-fish groups

Institute Seminar by Eduardo Sampaio
  • Date: Jul 7, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Eduardo Sampaio
  • I am a field biologist and ethologist that investigates how animals think, adapt and interact in a dynamic world. My research spans behavior, ecology, cognition, and evolution, with a special fascination for cephalopods. I use highly-quantitative and interdisciplinary methods in the field, to reveal how these non-vertebrate animals perceive and respond to the world around them, hoping to illuminate bigger biological questions about convergent evolution and the emergence of intelligence across the tree of life.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: npareek@ab.mpg.de
Complex communication systems can emerge even among evolutionarily distant species, raising questions about how cues and signals evolve and support coordination. One striking case is the collaborative hunting between octopuses and reef-associated fish, where each partner exploits distinct foraging strengths. Field observations and experiments show that these interactions rely on a mix of passive ... [more]

Behavioral Cascades: Predator Loss, Fear, and Species Interactions in Tropical Ecosystems

Institute Seminar by Dumas Galvez
  • Date: Jul 14, 2026
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dumas Galvez
  • Dumas Gálvez is a behavioral ecologist based in Panama whose research focuses on how animal behavior influences ecological interactions and ecosystem processes in tropical systems. He is affiliated with the Coiba Scientific Station, the University of Panama and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where he studies behavioral responses to predators, competition, and environmental change across a range of taxa including rodents, ants, termites, and other arthropods.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: mcrofoot@ab.mpg.de
Animal behavior plays a central role in mediating species interactions and can generate cascading effects that influence ecosystem processes. In tropical ecosystems, behavioral responses to predators, competitors, and environmental disturbances can alter key ecological functions such as seed dispersal, decomposition, and species coexistence. In this talk, I present a series of studies conducted ... [more]

PULSE

Dance Performance by Mounir Saeed
  • Date: Jul 17, 2026
  • Time: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Mounir Saeed
  • Location: Kula Kulturladen Konstanz
  • Room: Joseph-Belli-Weg 5, 78467 Konstanz
  • Host: Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies
  • Topic: Cultural cooperation
  • Contact: events@ab.mpg.de
»PULSE« is a dance performance that was developed by Mounir Saeed as a result of his artistic research on animal movements at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz. [more]
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