Behavioral Biology

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How did behavioural strategies evolve and why are some strategies flexible while others are fixed? On which factors and rules do animals base their decisions on? How do animals perceive the world? We are interested in these and related questions concerning the evolution of behaviour in different contexts such as mating, brood care or foraging.

We are particularly interested in sexual selection and the evolution of mating systems and ask questions on how competition for mates has sparked an incredible diversity of adaptations. We investigate traits that underlie advantages in the competition for mates before and after copulation. A particular focus lies on the visual sense of birds and jumping spiders.