dhr. prof. dr. ir. W. Bouten

Leader of the research group of ‘Computational Geo-Ecology’ within the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

One of my main topics is currently the monitoring of bird behavior in the context of movement ecology.  Together with Edwin Baaij of the Technology Center of our faculty, w e have designed, tested, produced and deployed a bird tracking system for studying the behaviour of free-ranging birds without the need to recapture them. The device includes a GPS receiver, tri-axial accelerometer, microprocessor, 4MB memory for data storage, solar panel and battery. To maximize flexibility, it is equipped with a radio transceiver for bi-directional communication with a ground-based antenna network permitting not only the downloading of data but also the uploading of new measurement schemes remotely. The GPS system also comprises a spatial database and web services for post-processing, visualizing and querying the data. More information can be found on http://www.UvA-BiTS.nl. Contact: W.Bouten@uva.nl

Prof. dr. Niels Dingemanse

Leader of the research group ‘Evolutionary Ecology of variation’ at the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology (MPI), Seewiesen (Germany).

The Dingemanse research group mainly focusses on the adaptive nature of repeatable among-individual variation in behaviour (called ‘animal personality’), by applying behavioural ecology paradigms to reveal conditions (dis)favouring this form of variation.

Our collaborative work focusses on the existence of individual differences in foraging strategies, including differences in the use of predicatble and unpredicatble food-resources, and whether this behavioural variation  has ecological and evolutionary consequences.