Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Research Overview Collective Behavior News Collective Behavior Team Research Publications Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour In the Media Videos News News All Iain Couzin elected Fellow of the Royal Society May 20, 2025 Royal Society elects behavioural biologist Iain Couzin in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research on animal collectives more In VR school, fish teach robots April 30, 2025 Scientists use virtual reality for fish to teach robots how to swarm more Scientists solve “cocktail party” mystery of bat echolocation March 26, 2025 When emerging at night by the thousands, bats avoid colliding by changing how they move and echolocate more Rewriting the rules of locust swarms February 27, 2025 collective behavior Classical models of collective behavior fail to explain the mechanisms driving desert locust swarms more Eye of the school February 10, 2025 New method tracks eye movements of free-swimming fish more Iain Couzin receives the 2024 Fyssen International Prize December 07, 2024 Prize recognizes contributions to the understanding of “Collective Behaviour Across Species” more Truth, beauty, and a perfect view December 04, 2024 collective behavior Angela Albi wins top prize in Royal Society photo competition more Iain Couzin is a Highly Cited Researcher in 2024 November 19, 2024 collective behavior For the sixth time, Konstanz pioneer in collective behaviour research honored as one of the most influential researchers of our time more Echolocating bats use an acoustic cognitive map for navigation October 28, 2024 cognitive map navigation Small bats fly home using environmental features with distinctive acoustic cues as landmarks more Unlocking the secrets of multispecies hunting September 23, 2024 leadership Study reveals how leadership and composition drives success in octopus-fish hunting groups more Finding the beat of collective animal motion May 22, 2024 collective behavior collective movement Virtual Reality experiments have illuminated the rhythmic glue that could keep animals moving in synchrony more Solving the imperfect comb December 08, 2023 Honey bees and social wasps developed a similar solution for nest building although evolution separated them 179 million years ago more The invisible work of honeybee drones October 19, 2023 Drones were thought to contribute little to the hive. A study draws them out of the shadows to illuminate their surprising in-hive behavioral repertoire. more Unlocking the secrets of animal groups September 01, 2023 Inside an 18th-century barn, a research lab captures the interactions within animal groups in unprecedented detail more Show more