Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour

Congratulations, Michael, for this exciting publication.
It's open access, so everyone can have a read! 👏💪🦜

🎉Congratulations to @maxcapelle.bsky.social who successfully defended his thesis "Beyond black and white: brightness navigation strategies across zebrafish development" ⚪⚫🐟, supervised by @zwitscherarmin.bsky.social 🍾

Konstanz school of Collective Behavior will take place again from 20th July to 7th August , 2026. We have an amazing line up of speakers covering state of the art research on collective behavior across systems. Application deadline : March 15th
Details here: www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/kscb/applica...

Congratulations to @alexhhchan.bsky.social 🎊🎊 who defended his thesis "Computer vision in animal behaviour: Markerless approaches to fine-scaled behaviour quantification in birds"🐦‍⬛🐦 supervised by Fumihiro Kano!!

Hester and myself with her PhD hat.

Happy and proud of the next fledgling of the Flack flock. Dr Hester Brønnvik @hbronnv.bsky.social defended her PhD thesis today. She has done a wonderful job. I could not be happier! @imprs-qbee.bsky.social @animaltracking.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

🎉 Congratulations to Mathilde Delacoux 🎓 who defended her thesis "Many Eyes Together: Investigating the Perceptual, Cognitive, and Social Foundations of Collective Detection in Bird Flocks" 🕊️ supervised by Fumihiro Kano 🎊

What we can learn from watching 100,000 animals in unbelievable detail—from space By monitoring the movement, health, and environmental conditions of thousands of animals at once, Project ICARUS hopes to solve scientific mysteries.

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

🚀 Guess who’s back? 🛰️🥳💫
ICARUS, our global wildlife-tracking system, returns to orbit aboard the GENA-OT satellite, which launched from Vandenberg SFB today 🎉
This is step one for ICARUS 2.0: full global coverage, smaller sensors, near-real-time.
Congrats @animaltracking.bsky.social + team ICARUS

Great fun to participate in the #UniKonstanz Open Science Slam 2025 🎤✨🤓
Presented insights of our "market research" on insect preferences for flowers - with support from citizen science. Lineup of fantastic speakers and an amazing audience !
Big thanks to the #TeamOpenScience for organising.

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Max Capelle | Systems neuroscience

Do fish change the way they navigate as they grow? @maxcapelle.bsky.social, working in @bahllab.bsky.social, shows us his work with zebrafish VR!
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

youtube.com/shorts/f0e1w...

Today we're happy to welcome @mehaj.bsky.social and Margherita Zaupa @bahllab.bsky.social for a double talk on collective behaviour in zebrafish! 🐟 How do fish sense, decide, & move together under challenging conditions — from uncertainty to escape responses? 📍12:00, ZT702 & online
@uni-konstanz.de

1/ Social groups of a bird species use the same roosting trees for ≥15 years & ≥4 generations! To the best of our knowledge, this is the longest documented roosting site fidelity among cooperatively breeding birds & mammals.
Check out our new paper royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Lochlan Walsh | Insect sensory biology

How do insects use vision to interact with flowers? IMPRS-QBEE student @lochlanw.bsky.social, working with @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social tells us more about his work on hummingbird hawkmoths and how they interact with flower patterns

@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

youtube.com/shorts/juEhw...

Photo of Iain Couzin by Ines Janas

This year, @ClarivateAG named Iain Couzin on the Highly Cited Researchers list for significant and broad influence in his fields. This is Iain’s 7th year as an HCR clarivate.com/highly-cited...
#HighlyCited2025
@uni-konstanz.de @cbehav.bsky.social @icouzin.bsky.social @clarivateag.bsky.social

Collective behaviour researcher @icouzin.bsky.social from #UniKonstanz and @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social was recognized - once again - as “Global Highly Cited Researcher” 2025. The pioneer in collective behaviour research is named among the world’s most influential scientists. t1p.de/7g6kl

Huge congratulations to our @icouzin.bsky.social for being recognised once again by @clarivateag.bsky.social as a Highly Cited Researcher 2025 — marking Iain’s 7th consecutive year on the list!

#HighlyCited2025 #CollectiveBehaviour #UniKonstanz
@mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de

Was lovely having you with us, Jamie! Thanks for sharing your inspiring work in the Seminar today!

Best audience ever - 100+ children at a live show of the BR Lachlabor radio show, where I was invited for expertise on animal questions. 🤓🐆🐦🦗
What I learned: we should also have dance breaks for adult events!

This week we are excited to welcome Jamie Dunning from @universityofleeds.bsky.social, speaking on “Avian social networks in the wild — communication, social dynamics and disease.”
Join us! Today at 12:00 | ZT702 & online

On 24 October, Barbara Fruth was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her socio-environmental work in the Congo 🇩🇪 🇨🇩 🐵 💚 🏅. Around 350 people came to the Konzil in Konstanz to watch the Mayor pin the Cross of Merit to Barbara's jacket and present the certificate. 🧵 1/3

What audible components of animal communication serve an alerting function? #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social scientist with international team analyzed wails in rock hyraxes’ songs: t1p.de/i2sjy

We’re back with our Winter Seminar Series and excited to welcome David Labonte from imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social, introducing scAnt and replicAnt — open tools using digital twins and synthetic data to revolutionize research in animal biomechanics and behaviour!
🕛 Today, 12:00 | ZT702 & online

Wir freuen uns sehr, dass unser Forschungsprojekt über die Ratten in New York City in der Zeitschrift Der Spiegel @spiegel.de vorgestellt wurde.

Den Artikel können Sie hier lesen:

tinyurl.com/bdt4fj3e

@cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social

A special type of fishing takes place in southern Brazil: dolphins drive the prey into the net. The fishermen work so closely together that even their heart rates synchronise. Discovered by a research team led by #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social biologist @hanjabrrr.bsky.social: t1p.de/d56g3

Only one week left to apply for the graduate school IMPRS-QBEE ⏰https://imprs-qbee.mpg.de/32524/apply 🏃‍♂️

Applications close on October 31.

Not sure what a PhD with us looks like? Check out the video series to see.

Videos by @alexhhchan.bsky.social 🎥
@uni-konstanz.de @cbehav.bsky.social

YouTube video by Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Chi Yu Lee | Neurobiology of desert locust

How do animals perceive the behavior of others? IMPRS-QBEE student Chi Yu Lee working with @einatcouzin.bsky.social tells us more about his work with locusts VR

youtu.be/Uc91vXNX71k?...

Check out this new video series featuring some of our PhDs in the CASCB Doctoral network!

Exciting news!!

Ecodylic Science, a startup project led by Jacob Davidson and myself at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior, has been awarded €219,000 in Phase 2 funding from the MAX!mize incubator program @maximize-incubator.bsky.social
More details here: tinyurl.com/4v3najcw.

Also, our first workshop on cultural evolution at #alife2025: thanks to invited speakers James Borg and @uchiyama.bsky.social for their talks in session 1! In session 2, we had an interactive generative game with some creative creatures and cultures emerging. Thanks to all who came along 👾🫟🦠

New study from #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social and @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social shows: animal swarms don’t need to follow fixed rules; their coordination emerges from brain dynamics. Flexible “ring attractor” networks create complexity from simplicity: https://t1p.de/4c6cd @icouzin.bsky.social