Dr. Roi Harel

Postdoc
Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies
Konstanz - Bücklestraße

Main Focus

I am a behavioral ecologist, primarily aimed at understanding the factors governing decision-making and fine-scale behavior of animals in ecologically and socially relevant contexts. I combine observational and experimental work at field conditions, deploying state-of-the-art tracking technologies to ask basic questions on the causes of variation in individual behaviors, and how such differences affect transitions in group state over different scales. I am really interested in how individuals exert influence on others and what actions make individuals more influential. Working in Kenya with olive baboons, we develop field-based experimental approaches to study how groups solve conflicts of interest concerning where to go. To study fine-scale behavior, we employ inertial sensors, such as accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes and combine these with supervised machine learning approaches. Before moving to study group decision-making in primates, I studied flight behavior and performance of soaring vultures and how these large birds manage to utilize thermals to obtain lift and cover great distances in a very energy-efficient manner.

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