Past Events

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]

VtK students in the water at STARESO field station

Poster Session Department of Biology

Showcasing work by doctoral students and "Going Wild" VtK

LOCATION CHANGED
Date: Jul 15, 2026
Time: 03:30 PM - 05:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
Location: M6 University of Konstanz
Host: University of Konstanz, department of Biology
Contact: ajordan@ab.mpg.de

The Department of Biology presents a poster session showcasing projects from doctoral students across all graduate programs, including this year's "Going Wild" VtK course from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. [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: bbarrett@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 ... [more]

Experience, site fidelity and energetic consequences of wintering decisions in European white storks

Rado Seminar by Anumit Saralkar

Date: Jul 10, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Anumit Saralkar
Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: aflack@ab.mpg.de

The wintering period is a significant component of a migratory bird’s annual cycle, yet the factors influencing decision-making during wintering are understudied compared to migration and breeding. For long-lived, long-distance migrants, decision-making can also be influenced by the experience they ... [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 ... [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]

Effect of Landfill Foraging on Migratory Decisions of White storks

Rado Seminar by Atharva Andhare

Date: Jul 3, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Atharva Andhare
Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: aflack@ab.mpg.de

Several opportunistic species have become increasingly reliant on anthropogenic food subsidies, such as landfills, which provide a stable and low-cost food source. This behavioural shift can have important consequences for other key life-history strategies, including migration. In this talk, I will ... [more]

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]

Tinbergen’s Missing Question: What is Animal Behavior Good For?

Institute Seminar by Simon Garnier

Date: Jun 30, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Simon Garnier
Simon Garnier is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he directs the Swarm Lab. After a Ph.D. in Ethology from the Université de Toulouse and a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton, he has spent the last decade studying collective and brainless intelligence: how organisms ranging from elephants to slime molds solve complex problems without a leader, a plan, or, in some cases, a brain. His research has led him, somewhat against his better judgment, into the startup world: he is a co-founder of Kastor, a construction technology company inspired by ant self-assembly, and a lead developer of a slime-mold-inspired algorithm for public transit routing. In summary, Simon Garnier is an ethologist who got carried away.
Location: University of Konstanz
Room: ZT 702 + online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: dcarlesso@ab.mpg.de

Nikolaas Tinbergen proposed four questions to guide the study of animal behavior: mechanism, development, function, and evolution. A fifth question, however, never made the list: what is it good for? The question is not hypothetical. It arrives at dinner parties, public events, and family reunions ... [more]

Early-life decisions in released juvenile Blackbirds

Rado Seminar by Tamara Volkmer

Date: Jun 26, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Tamara Volkmer
Location: online (zoom)
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: partecke@ab.mpg.de

The first year of life is a critical period for most bird species, during which survival depends on a series of behavioural and physiological challenges. My PhD investigates the early-life ecology of juvenile blackbirds, focusing on how young birds survive, move, and select habitats during their ... [more]