New paper on relatedness and social networks across different bats

Last year, I attended a symposium hosted by Peter Kappeler at the German Primate Center on the topic of "social complexity". A bunch of evolutionary and behavioral ecologists from different backgrounds got together to argue about stuff like 'How should we define social complexity?', 'Is the brain size of a species a good of measure … Continue reading New paper on relatedness and social networks across different bats

Nov 2018 updates

Events: Nov 7-9 at Ohio State University: Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Social Networks (I'm giving the first talk at 1pm) Nov 8 Seminar: "Wireless tracking sensor network give novel insights into the (social) life of bats" by Simon Ripperger. (1:00–2:00pm, Room 110, Orton Hall, The Ohio State University). Simon is visiting my lab this … Continue reading Nov 2018 updates

New grad student: Imran Razik

I’ve always been incredibly curious about the natural world and how it works, especially the animal kingdom. As a kid I would spend hours peeking under rocks, watching documentaries, and reading through wildlife encyclopedias. My entire childhood was focused around biological exploration, be it outside or in a book, so when I finally found out … Continue reading New grad student: Imran Razik

New grad student: Bridget Brown

My entire childhood up until I graduated high school, I was confident that I would be working with animals as a veterinarian. However, after volunteering at small animal clinics for two years, I realized that I no longer desired to become a veterinarian. My interests changed to wanting to invest time in conserving wildlife. I … Continue reading New grad student: Bridget Brown

Updates: June 2018

A few updates: I'm delighted to announce my first three graduate students at Ohio State University: Bridget Brown, Theresa Chen, and Imran Razik. Read more about them here. Theresa and Imran have both won competitive fellowships from the university. We published a study showing that younger vampire bats are more exploratory than adults. They are far … Continue reading Updates: June 2018

Fieldwork: Lamanai, Belize

This week I’ve been working with a team of bat researchers in Lamanai, Belize (an archaeological site of the ruins of a Mayan city). We are collecting data for a study on the effects of sickness behavior on social associations in wild vampire bats. Last year, PhD student Sebastian "Basti" Stockmaier and I conducted two … Continue reading Fieldwork: Lamanai, Belize

Some pics from Panama and Germany

I'm finally seeing bats flying around here at dusk in Germany, and for the first time I'm missing Panama a bit. But it's not that I don't like Panama, I just love where I am now! I've been trying to make the most of my time here, and that's my excuse for not writing a blogpost … Continue reading Some pics from Panama and Germany