Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology
Savoyenstraße 1, 1160 Vienne
Email

Research

I have a broad interest in animal movement and lead both the Movement Ecology Group and the Bio-Logging Technology Lab at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine. My primary areas of interest include:

• Effects of human activities on animal movement
• Recolonization of large carnivores and its effects across trophic levels
• Influence of anthropogenic food sources on wildlife behaviour
• Ecology and behavioural adaptations of scavenger species
• Use of acceleration data for behaviour classification and energy expenditure estimation
• Development of bio-logging devices and refinement of tag design and attachment methods

Teaching

Starting in the winter semester of 2024, I will contribute to lectures on the Basics of Wildlife Biology and Introduction to Essentials of Disease in Wildlife, and I will co-organize an excursion in Wildlife Biology. Beginning in the summer semester of 2025, I will join the Conservation Medicine module, where I will teach a course in Movement Ecology, co-organize an excursion on Human-managed Wildlife Populations, and contribute to a course on the Capture, Immobilization, and Transportation of Wildlife.

Curriculum Vitae

2024-   Assistant Professor and head of the Movement Ecology Group and Bio-logging technology Lab at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine

2021-2023 Research Scientist at the Technical University of Munich, Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Research Group & Berchtesgaden National Park

2019-2021  Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Department of Migration, in the project “How to steal food from predators – behavioural strategies of a scavenger”

2018  Postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna working on habitat selection of farmland birds.

2016-2019  Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Cognitive Biology and the Konrad Lorenz Research Station, both University of Vienna, in the research project: Fission-fusion dynamics and social cognition in wild ravens.

2011-2016, PhD in the FWF funded Doctoral Program Cognition and Communication, Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Austria, Dissertation title: Movement ecology of wild non-breeding ravens, Advisor: Thomas Bugnyar

2007-2010, MSc in Wildlife Ecology and Wildlife Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Austria, Master thesis title: Ontogeny of social relations and coalition formation in common ravens, Corvus corax, Advisor: Thomas Bugnyar

2002-2006, BSc in Animal Behaviour, University of Graz, Austria