Past Events

Safety first: an extreme flood event shifts the energetic trade-offs in a savannah mammal community

Institute Seminar by Francesca Frisoni

Date: Oct 20, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Francesca Frisoni
I am a PhD student in the Animal-Environment Interactions Lab at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany. In my doctoral research, I use a multi-species perspective and biologging data to explore how a savannah mammal community balances resource intake and movement costs.
Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: jeveso@ab.mpg.de

To maximise resource gain relative to the cost of movement, animals must make movement decisions that incorporate environmental constraints, the risk of predation, and intra- and inter-specific interactions. This presents dynamic trade-offs between gains and costs, that vary with seasonal changes ... [more]

Health Day 2026

A day for workplace health and wellbeing

Date: Oct 20, 2026
Time: 09:00 AM - 04:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
Location: Obstberg and Bücklestraße
Host: MPI-AB

On October 20, staff and students of MPI-AB are invited to a Health Day to promote healthy habits at work and personal well-being. The whole day event will include lectures, workshops and outings held at Obstberg Möggingen and Bücklestrasse. [more]

3rd Animal Welfare Day

Beyond the Law: Towards a shared ethical ground for MPI-AB

Date: Oct 19, 2026
Location: Pfarrheim Allensbach
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

We are proud to be hosting our third Animal Welfare Day. This whole-day event will work towards developing a shared ethical ground for the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The event is open to staff and students of the institute only. [more]

Comparative overview of activity phenology in blackbirds and song thrushes

Rado Seminar by Stella Dömling

Date: Oct 9, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Stella Dömling
Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: mbradaric@ab.mpg.de

Every autumn and spring, billions of songbirds undertake migratory flights that only recently became possible to study in these small species, thanks to advances in biologging technology that made loggers light enough to record their activity continuously across the year in the wild. This ... [more]

Welcome Week 2026

Start: Oct 5, 2026
End: Oct 9, 2026
Location: University of Konstanz
Contact: imprs@uni-konstanz.de

[more]

Maximizing the success of media outreach

How to prepare for working with the media

Date: Sep 29, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Carla Avolio
Media and Communications Officer, MPI-AB
Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: cavolio@ab.mpg.de

Are you considering media outreach for your next paper? If you are, but are not sure what it's all about, this seminar will walk you through the basics. When do you start? How can you prepare? What happens when the emails start rolling in? Join MPI-AB media officer, Carla Avolio, for a step-by-step ... [more]

Habitat Geometry and the Development of Social Phenotypes in the Desert Locust

Doctoral defense by Madhansai Narisetty, supervised by Ahmed El Hady

Date: Sep 29, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Madhansai Narisetty (Maddy)
Location: University of Konstanz
Room: ZT 1202

[more]

Counting Bats at Kasanka: Developing and Evaluating an Automated YOLO+TRex Video-Analysis Pipeline

Rado Seminar by Cara Rosien

Date: Sep 25, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Cara Rosien
Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: ddechmann@ab.mpg.de

How reliably can we count bats from videos of their evening emergence? At Kasanka National Park, Zambia, recordings of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) provide an opportunity to evaluate automated counting under challenging conditions. This talk presents the development and evaluation of a ... [more]

Evaluation of top-down camera trapping for detecting and counting bats emerging from roost boxes.

Rado Seminar by Paul Moser

Date: Sep 25, 2026
Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Paul Moser
Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
Contact: ddechmann@ab.mpg.de

To face current biodiversity declines, we need to extensively monitor wild animal populations. Wildlife monitoring relies on many different methods, all with their benefits and disadvantages. Among these, camera traps have become the primary tool to conduct wildlife monitoring due to their ... [more]

Institute Retreat 2026

Date: Sep 22, 2026
Time: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Location: Pfarrheim Allensbach

Please save the date for the Institute Retreat (as usual, for institute members) on 22 September 2026, which will take place at Pfarrheim Allensbach, located directly on the beautiful shores of Lake Constance, right between Konstanz and Möggingen. With a primary focus on early-career researchers ... [more]