Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior

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Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior
Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior
MPI Behavioral Biology in Radolfzell
Category: research Institute
Carrier: Max Planck Society
Legal form of the carrier: Registered association
Seat of the wearer: Munich
Facility location: Radolfzell
Arose from: Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
Type of research: Basic research
Subjects: Natural sciences
Areas of expertise: Biology , ecology
Basic funding: Federal government (50%), states (50%)
Management: Martin Wikelski (Managing Director)

Iain Couzin
Margaret Crofoot

Homepage: https://www.ab.mpg.de/

The Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology ( Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior ) was founded in 2019 and is a research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (MPG). The institute conducts research projects in the field of behavioral biology as well as evolutionary biology and ecology .

history

The beginnings of today's institute on Lake Constance go back to efforts to protect and monitor wild birds . In the early 20th century, some form of conservation led to the ringing of birds. Between 1946 and 2011 the Radolfzell ornithological station was located in Möggingen moated castle . The ornithological station was incorporated into the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in 1959 . In the course of a reorganization, it initially became an independent research center for ornithology within the Max Planck Society, and then from 2004 to June 2019 a branch of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology , which is headquartered in Bavaria. To this day, one of the three centers for animal marking active in Germany (previously: "Ringing Center") is located in Radolfzell.

From July 2019, the renamed Institute for Behavioral Biology became an independent organization within the MPG. It is also based in Radolfzell on Lake Constance and on the campus of the University of Konstanz .

In 2008 Martin Wikelski became director at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. In October 2014, the British biologist Iain Couzin joined as second director. Margaret Crofoot was named director in July 2019 .

As part of the university research area Collective Behavior ( Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior ), the institute works closely with the University of Konstanz. The three directors hold professorships at the university .

Goal setting and organization

The guiding principle of his work is stated on the institute's website:

"We want to develop a quantitative and predictive understanding of the decision-making and movements of animals in their natural environment."

The institute has been headed by three directors since July 2019.

Research department director
Animal migrations Martin Wikelski
Collective behavior Iain Couzin
Animal Society Ecology Margaret Crofoot

Projects

Icarus initiative

The abbreviation Icarus stands for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space (German: International cooperation for the observation of animal ecology using space technology) and is also an ironic allusion to the mythological figure Icarus . The benefits of a global observation system for wildlife and the environment was presented in a 2007 paper by Martin Wikelski and other researchers. During his time as an assistant professor at Princeton University in the USA , Wikelski initially sought a collaboration with NASA in order to achieve the use of state-of-the-art satellite technology for tracking and thus research into animal behavior and species protection. After a rejection by NASA, Wikelski succeeded in agreeing a collaboration with the German Space Agency (DLR) in 2012 and thus realizing the first goals of the ICARUS initiative , namely being able to follow global migration routes of various animal species from the satellite.

At the beginning of 2018, the transport of the necessary computer hardware to the International Space Station (ISS) created the conditions for transferring data on animal movements from the ISS to the earth. The test phase of the project was announced in March 2020.

International Max Planck Research School

Through a cooperation between the institute, the MPI Institute for Ornithology and the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz, students from all over the world are given the opportunity to do research on a topic in the field of animal behavior and to do a doctorate.

MaxCine

Display board in front of the bee pasture

With its center for communication and exchange , the institute offers the general public access to scientific information and the opportunity to participate in guided tours, events and lectures. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic , the lectures will take place online in 2020.

Movebank and Movebank Data Repository

The Movebank project, initiated in 2007, collects detailed data on animal movements that are determined through studies and projects around the world. By integrating data from various studies and other sources in a publicly accessible data collection system, the constantly growing amount of tracking data can be exchanged and made usable with the help of modern computer applications. Meanwhile, the amount of data on animal movements around the world belongs in the field of big data .

The goal of Movebank is to archive data on animal movements and making it accessible to both experts, conservation organizations and governments as well as to the public. At the beginning of 2020, over 7,600 studies on almost 1,000 taxa were stored.

The long-term archiving of this data in the Movebank Data Repository is handled by the Communication, Information, Media Center of the University of Konstanz .

Animal Tracker App

The Animal Tracker is an open source mobile app that was co-developed by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. It uses the data collected by Movebank . The app, which was launched in 2014, can be installed by interested laypeople on their own smartphone in order to follow the movements of animals in the wild in their own surroundings and around the world.

Publications

The institute publishes current reports on its activities in the yearbook of the Max Planck Society. Since 2008, the institute's staff have published over 700 scientific articles.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Konstanz scientists among the world's most influential. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior founded in Konstanz. May 7, 2019, accessed June 30, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Institute website
  5. ^ A b Andrew Curry: The Internet of Animals: ICARUS . In: Spektrum.de . December 5, 2018 ( [1] [accessed June 30, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Earth observation through animals. In: Max Planck Society . Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
  7. ↑ M. Wikelski, RW Kays, u. a .: Going wild: what a global small-animal tracking system could do for experimental biologists . In: Journal of Experimental Biolology . tape 210 , no. 2 , 2007, p. 181-186 , doi : 10.1242 / jeb.02629 .
  8. ^ Richard A. Holland, Kasper Thorup and Martin C. Wikelski: Where the wild things go . In: Biologist . tape 54 , no. 4 , November 2007, pp. 214–219 ( [2] [PDF; accessed July 1, 2020]).
  9. ↑ Lukas Ondreka: The Icarus project starts successfully: tens of thousands of animals could be observed from space . In: Südkurier . March 13, 2020 ( [3] [accessed June 30, 2020]).
  10. ↑ MaxCine lectures on Youtube
  11. ↑ a b About Movebank. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  12. ↑ B. Kranstauber, A. Cameron et al. a .: The Movebank data model for animal tracking . In: Environmental Modeling & Software . tape 26 , no. 6 , 2011, p. 834-835 , doi : 10.1016 / j.envsoft.2010.12.005 .
  13. ↑ Daniel Keim: Global animal movements as a big data phenomenon . In: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina eV (Ed.): Earth observation through animals: Opportunities and perspectives (Symposium: 30 September 2016) . February 2018 ( [4] [PDF]).
  14. ↑ Description of the Animal Tracker app
  15. ↑ Greta Lührs: Funkende Vogel . In: The time . No. July 31 , 2016 ( [5] [accessed June 30, 2020]).
  16. ^ Lennart Pyritz: A stork goes online. In: deutschlandfunk.de. August 31, 2014, accessed June 30, 2020 .