Activity: Talk or presentation › Keynote talk › Academic
Description
My core research focusses on the Trinidadian guppy system, in which I study the link between social behavior and foraging success in the wild. By studying animal behavior in the wild, I maximize the ecological-relevance of my findings. Often such field experiments come at the cost of experimental rigor, especially when studying vertebrates. Due to their small size and their naturally plastic spatial and social life, Trinidadian guppies offer the best of both worlds. We can thus causally test social factors (such as group size and group composition) by conducting group-level manipulations and we can disentangle effects of the immediate environment by doing translocations, all without trading off ecological relevance.