On November 27, 2019, science was celebrated at the Vetmeduni Vienna.  This included a keynote speech by Nuno Maulide, awards for outstanding scientific work, the kick-off of the entrepreneurial Vetmeduni initiative and networking. 45 posters were submitted this year by researchers from the Vetmeduni Vienna and judged by various expert juries. The Scientific Advisory Board of the University, consisting of international scientists and experts from various veterinary disciplines, formed the jury for the poster award category "university environment".

Third place in this category went to Maria Adelaide Marconi of the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology for her poster on the vocal personality of male house mice.

More info (in German)

(Web editor, 2 December 2019)

The development and function of multimodal courtship displays are behaviours designed to facilitate attraction of potential partners and mating. They are widespread throughout the animal kingdom. Most courtship signals are multimodal, that is they consist of different signals and different sensory modalities. Although courtship often has a strong influence on reproductive success, the question of why and how males use multimodal courtship to improve their reproductive performance has not received much attention. Little is known about the role of the various components of male advertising and their relative importance to females.

The aim of a study at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, led by Leonida Fusani, was to examine what is currently known about the functional significance of advertising displays, in particular the role of multimodality in this context. The focus is on those cases where a complete picture of the communication system can only be assessed by taking into account the complexity and interaction of different modalities. Empirical studies are needed to specifically test how the variation of the various modalities and the interaction between them influence the response and selection of females. Moreover, we know very little about the neural mechanisms involved in the multisensory processing of courtship.

The article Evolution and function of multimodal courtship displays by Clémentine Mitoyen, Cliodhna Quigley, and Leonida Fusani was published in the journal Ethology.

(Web editor, 6 August 2019)

Due to broad‐scale habitat loss, European Rollers (Coracias garrulus) have been decreasing in numbers rapidly during the 20th century in parts of their European distribution range. In Austria, as of 2017, only a completely isolated relict population of two breeding pairs and a few non‐breeders remained in Styria, compared to about 270 pairs in the 1950s. In 2018, no breeders at all were recorded. Since 2002, all nestlings and adult birds in Austria have been ringed. Given the small census size, combined with lack of immigration from other populations, genetic depletion seems likely. In the present study, genetic data based on blood samples of nestlings from recent years were collected and compared with museum samples from historical times and with birds across the distribution range to arrive at a first preliminary phylogeographic dataset for the species. The mitochondrial DNA showed a decrease in genetic variation over time in Austria. These results indicate drift effects in this relict European Roller population caused by the fast population breakdown and small population size. We also found that the Austrian Rollers are part of a formerly continuous European population.  This opens the way to restocking the present relict population with birds from Eastern Europe (“genetic rescue”).

The article Witnessing extinction: Population genetics of the last European Rollers (Coracias garrulus) in Austria and a first phylogeographic analysis of the species across its distribution range by Carina Nebel, Kerstin Kadletz, Anita Gamauf, Elisabeth Haring, Peter Sackl, Michael Tiefenbach,  Hans Winkler and Frank E. Zachos was published in the Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research.

(Web editor, 8 July 2019)

It has been a decade since the first 22 young Ural owls were released in 2009.  Currently there are about 30 stable Ural owl pairs living in the wild in Lower Austria.  The species had become extinct in the wild in Austria in the 1950s.  The long-term engagement of forestry, conservation groups, and hunting organizations has been successful.  On 17 June the Austrian Ornithological Centre´s branch in Seebarn celebrated a decade of successful reintroduction of this charismatic owl species. 

Project leader Richard Zink is optimistic that Ural owls have a good chance to establish themselves permanently in the Austrian woods.  Forestry and agriculture measures can support this process.  The Ural owl is well adapted to texture-rich mixed broadleaf forests with native tree species.  

An international breeding network provides the foundation for the reintroduction programme.  In Austria there is a long-term cooperation with the Schönbrunn Zoo and 12 more zoos and breeding stations.  They support the project and provide owl chicks for release into the wild. 

More info (in German)

(Web editor, 18 June 2019)

The occurrence of sexually transmitted infections has been confirmed in a number of domestic animal species, and in some wild species in captivity. However, experimental proof has been lacking in wild animals in nature. Researchers from the Veterinary Medicine University Vienna and France have now succeeded in demonstrating this for the first time in a wild species, the black-legged kittiwake, a seabird, by blocking insemination experimentally using a simple ring fitted around the cloaca. Females infected with the newly discovered sexually transmitted pathogen suffered lower hatching success and invested more effort in reproduction to compensate for the loss.

The article "Experimental evidence of a sexually transmitted infection in a wild vertebrate, the black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)” by Wouter F. D. Van Dongen, Joël White, Hanja B. Brandl, Sarah Leclaire, Scott A. Hatch, Étienne Danchin and Richard H. Wagner was published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.  

(Web editor, 28 March 2019)

Male house mice are territorial and scent-mark their territories with urine – and dominant, territorial males have much greater reproductive success than other males. A study conducted by researchers around Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology of the Vetmeduni Vienna was recently published in Scientific Reports.  It shows that female mice display preferential olfactory attraction to the scent of dominant males, and that dominant males have higher pheromone production than subordinates.

The present study is the first to demonstrate that dominant, territorial males upregulate their pheromone production.

The article "Regulation of volatile and nonvolatile pheromone attractants depends on social status" by M. Thoss, K.C. Luzynski, V.M. Enk, E. Razzazi-Fazeli, J.Kwak, I. Ortner, and D.J. Penn has appeared in Scientific Reports.

More info

(Web editor, 11 March 2019)

At the end of January 2019, the Austrian bird ringing center at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology (KLIVV) caught a very special bird in the net during its annual bird monitoring: a  ringed great spotted woodpecker female of the considerable age of at least 12 years!

The data from the long-term monitoring program show that this bird was ringed at KLIVV in 2008. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that the average life expectancy of this species is 7 to 8 years and that the current known age record for wild spotted woodpeckers is 12 years and 8 months!

As luck would have it, on this very day a professional photographer was on site, who was also able to portray the beautiful woodpecker female.  The female bird was still very fit, so there is hope that it will grace Vienna´s Wilhelminenberg for a while longer and maybe even break the current age record.

(Web editor, 6 February 2019)