november, 2017
more
Event Details
Abstract
What makes individuals unique? There is a growing appreciation that individuals across the animal kingdom exhibit characteristic and predictable ways of behaving. However, we still know little about the ecological and evolutionary processes that generate and maintain this individual behavioral variation. Here I present research investigating how this type of variation emerges during development and what processes can influence the strength of this variation in adult animals. In particular I focus on the role of social interactions. The cooperative and competitive influences presented by a social group can increase the benefits of behaving in a predictable way. This work suggests that individual behavioral variation may be a fundamental characteristic of most, or even all, animals and that social forces may be especially important in shaping the patterns of behavioral variation that we see.
Kate Laskowski is a scientist at Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology & Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin, Germany. Her primary fields of interest are the evolution and development of individual behavior. In 
particular, she focuses on how social dynamics drive behavioral specialization. Her main study organisms are fish, but she has investigated behavioral variation in a number of critters from spiders to birds.
If you would like to speak to Kate please contact Mike Webster.