Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour

Our centre aims to understand the mechanisms and functions of behaviour in humans and other animals.  

We are an active and collaborative research group: we meet weekly for group meetings and through term-time have a weekly seminar series. If you would like to know more about any of our research, please contact one of us. We are keen to help and to introduce you to the fascinating areas in which we conduct our research, teaching and professional activity.

Academic staff
Professor Lauren Brent (Group co-Lead)
Professor Darren Croft (Group co-Lead)
Dr Safi Darden
Dr Sam Ellis
Dr Tim Fawcett
Professor Natalie Hempel de Ibarra
Dr Andrew Higginson
Professor Stephen Lea
Dr Lisa Leaver
Dr Joah Madden
Dr Paul Rose
Postdoctoral Fellows Dr Delphine De Moor
Dr Christoph Netz

Dr Erin Siracusa

Dr Joe Wilde

Research students Yavanna Burnham, Libby Chapman, Katy Chapman, Dunia Gonzales, Charli Grimes, Ingerid Helgestad, Rachel Johns, Robert Kelly, Natasha Marosi, Laure Olivier, Becky Padget, Andre Pereira
Assistant Lab Manager Agnieszka Kaczmar
Technical Services Manager Dr Garrick Taylor
Research Technicians Zoe Mack, Macaela Skelton
Honorary staff Dr Malcolm Burgess
Mr Joss Langford
Dr Alessandro Macario
Dr Rajarathinavelu Nagarajan
Dr Michael Weiss
Alumni Dr Connie Allen, Dr Kathy Baker, Dr Christine Beardsworth, Mark Beeson, Dr Josefine Bohr Brask, Dr Natasha Boyland, Destiny Bradley, Dr Pamela Citrynell, Dr Lucy Capstick, Dr John Cayford, Rachel Crisp, Dr Sylvia Dimitriadou, Dr Nicole Dorey, Dr Susan Dow, Dr Mathew Edenbrow, Dr Holly Farmer, Dr Emma Foster, Dr Melissa Pavez Fox, Dr Elisa Frasnelli, Dr Natasha Ghosh, Dr David Gordon, ProfessorDr Kazuhiro Goto, Dr Andrew Hall, Dr Katie Hall, Dr Jordan Hart, Steph Hunt, Dr Rob Heathcote, Dr Raluca Herascu, Dr Lucy Hopewell, Dr Jayden van Horik, Dr Jess Isden, Dr Koichi Ito, Dr David Jacoby, Dr Kimberley Jayne, Dr P F Joyce, Dr Kristen Jule, Dr Kathy Knight, Dr Philippa Laker, Dr Ellis Langley, Dr Isabel Macdonald, Dr Christina Meier, Dr Marie Midgley, Dr Lou Millar, Dr Robin Morrison, Lucy Nevard, Dr Lesley Newson, Dr Beth Nicholls, Mia Kronborg Nielsen, Will O'Hearn, Dr Britta Osthaus, Dr Xareni Pacheco, Dr Emily Price, Dr Kirsten Pullen, Dr Sathish Raja, Dr Hayley Randle, Catriona Ryan, Professor Danny Saunders, Caitlin Searle, Dr Toni V. Shephard, Dr Richard Skinner, Dr Chloe Stevens, Dr Laurence Stone, Dr Mark Whiteside, Dr Joanne Wilshaw, Dr Owen Wright, Dr Sara Zonneveld

A few key research themes in CRAB are listed below. This list is intended to give a general flavour of some our research, but all of us have research interests beyond those in the list below. Please see individual profile pages for a fuller picture of our interests.

The how and why of social decisions

We are interested in the mechanisms that underpin the relationships between animals. This includes understanding the role of physiology, experience, aggression, and cooperation in developing and maintaining social bonds.

Staff members working on this question include Andy Higginson, Darren Croft, Lauren Brent, Safi Darden, Sam Ellis, Tim Fawcett

The consequences of sociality

We are interested in the implications of social decisions for, among other things, social network structure, welfare, fitness, health, ageing and the evolution of menopause.

Staff members working on this question include Darren Croft, Lauren Brent, Paul Rose, Sam Ellis

Sexual and mating behaviour

We are interested in how individuals attract and choose mates- and the behavioural and evolutionary implications of these decisions.

Staff members working on this question include: Joah Madden, Safi Darden, Tim Fawcett

Perception and Decision-Making

We are interested in the mechanisms underlying - and evolution of – perception, cognition and decision-making in animals.

Staff members working on this question include Andy Higginson, Joah Madden, Lisa Leaver, Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, Stephen Lea

Mechanisms of behaviour

We are interested in the hormonal, physiological and neurophysiological basis of behaviour.

Staff members working on this question include: Andy Higginson, Lauren Brent, Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, Safi Darden, Stephen Lea, Tim Fawcett

Welfare and conservation

We are also interested in applying the study of animal behaviour. Key applications of our research include: animal welfare, conservation and understanding ecological-impacts.

Staff members working on this question include: Andy Higginson, Paul Rose, Joah Madden

We offer and support a variety of Postgraduate degrees in CRAB.

MSc in Animal Behaviour

CRAB offers a taught MSc programme with a strong emphasis on research. Half of the course involves training in research methods including experimental design, a broad overview of research approaches of behavioural ecology, advanced statistics, and evaluating and communicating research. This part of the course culminates in a residential field trip to Lundy Island where students put the skills they have learnt into practise.

All members of CRAB are involved in the programme, and we pride ourselves that on our MSc students are more involved in the research culture than is typical of taught Masters programmes. Reflecting this, the second half of the course is the research apprenticeship, in which students are embedded in the research group of a member of CRAB, working alongside PhD and postdoctoral researchers. Please see our Research and Study Systems sections to find out more about some of the research you could be involved in.

Research Apprenticeships regularly result in scientific publications. Recent ones include:

  • Grimes C, Brent LJN, Ellis S, Weiss MN, Franks DW, Ellifrit DK, Croft DP. (2023) Postreproductive female killer whales reduce socially inflicted injuries in their male offspring. Curr Biol https://10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.039
  • McCully FR, Rose PE (2023) Individual personality predicts social network assemblages in a colonial bird. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29315-3
  • Hollon SH, García-Ruiz I, Veen T et al. (2023) The evolution of dynamic and flexible courtship displays that reveal individual quality. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03296-9
  • George AJ, Rose PE (2023) Wing condition does not negatively impact time budget, enclosure usage, or social bonds in a flock of both full-winged and flight-restrained greater flamingos https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21791
  • Des Pallieres CG, Rose PE (2023) Two’s company, three species is a crowd? A webcam-based study of the behavioural effects of mixed-species groupings in the wild and in the zoo. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284221
  • Knoch S, Whiteside MA., Madden JR., Rose PE, Fawcett TW (2022) Hot-headed peckers: thermographic changes during aggression among juvenile pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0442
  • Kidd P, Ford S, Rose PE (2022) Exploring the Effect of the COVID-19 Zoo Closure Period on Flamingo Behaviour and Enclosure Use at Two Institutions https://doi.org/10.3390/birds3010009
  • Langridge KV, Wilke C, Riabinina O, Vorobyev M, Hempel de Ibarra N (2021). Approach direction prior to landing explains patterns of colour learning in bees. Frontiers in Physiology https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.697886
  • Frasnelli E, Robert T, Chow PKY, Scales B, Gibson S, Manning N, Philippides AO, Collett TS, Hempel de Ibarra N (2021). Small and large bumblebees invest differently when learning about flowers. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.062
  • Leaver, L.A., Ford, S., Miller, C.W. et al. (2020) Learning is negatively associated with strength of left/right paw preference in wild grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-019-00408-2=Nicholls E, Krishna S, Wright O, Stabler D, Krefft A, Somanathan H, Hempel de Ibarra N (2019). A matter of taste: the adverse effect of pollen compounds on the pre-ingestive gustatory experience of sugar solutions for honeybees. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01347-z
  • Cenni C, Fawcett TW (2018) The coevolution of juvenile play–fighting and adult competition. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12732

Find out more information about the course on the course information page, and do not hesitate to get in touch with Dr Andy Higginson (course leader) or any other member of CRAB staff to find out more information.

MSc(Res) in Animal Behaviour

We also support Master’s by Research – MSc(Res) - students. Unlike an MSc, an MSc(Res) has no taught component, and consists solely of a research project. Achieving an MSc(Res) involves working closely with a member(s) of staff on a particular research topic. Please see our Research and Study Systems sections to see some of our research interests. Achieving an Master’s by Research typically takes 2 years. Please get in touch with staff to discuss potential projects or to find out if a taught or research Masters course is best for you.

PhD Studentships

We have a long history of attracting funding for PhD studentships. PhD students are crucial members of the CRAB research team and are typically highly productive and go onto careers in science. We have access to a small number of Research Council (BBSRC/NERC/ESRC/EPSRC) studentships each year that are allocated on a competitive basis. In addition, we have had

success in developing collaborative PhD studentships with external funding bodies including the GWCT, DEFRA, Dairy Co etc. We advertise these projects on FindaPhD.com, the CRAB twitter (‘X’) account, staff twitter accounts and the university web pages. Look out in these places for upcoming studentships and we encourage potential applicants to get in touch with the staff members concerned directly before applying.

Beyond these studentships we are always keen to hear from students who wish to pursue a PhD. Please be aware that we receive many such inquiries, so to make yours stand out, please consider putting together a 1-2 page summary covering: your conceptual research interests, the specific question that you would like to tackle, a suitable study system to pursue this question, and some outline methods you may use in pursuit of the question.

CRAB research takes place across a range of vertebrate and invertebrate study systems in the lab, on campus, and at field sites in the UK and across the world.

We have access to a variety of equipment to facilitate experiments and to collect data, including a 3-D printer, invertebrate flight cages, an infrared thermal camera, the Atlas reverse GPS system, biologgers, and including equipment housed within the Psychology Department, such as a driving simulator, bio-behavioural lab spaces, EEG, TMS, eye tracking, and fMRI.

We’re also home to experts in theoretical approaches to the study of behaviour (game theory, dynamic programming, evolutionary simulations), and in the application of social network analysis.

Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour Study systems

The Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour hosts a series of seminars. All are welcome. All seminars can be watched with members of the department or via Zoom. If the speaker presents in person the room number is first. If the speaker presents via Zoom the room number is shown in brackets. All seminars are at 13.30 on Wednesdays 

Other seminar series that may be of interest:

2024-25

 

When 

Speaker

Title 

 Where

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

     

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Ricardo Lemos de Figueiredo (Bristol Zoo)

Zoo Research in the Wild: Collecting in-situ behavioural data to inform ex-situ management of animals

WSL237 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

     

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Justyna Hinchcliffe (U. Bristol)

Squeak to me: how to measure emotions in rats?

Forum SR11 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Andrew Higginson (U. Exeter)  Managing and exploting variation and uncertainty

WSL 219 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Anindita Bhadra (ISER Kolkota, India)

Dogs and Humans - A Story of Survival

Zoom (& WSL 025)

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

David Fisher (U. Aberdeen)

How and when social interactions influence evolution: Insights across studies and from bottlenose dolphins

WSL025 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

     

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Marina Papadopoulou (U. Swansea)

Self-organized collective behaviour in vertebrates

WSL025 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Rob Heathcote (U. Oxford)

Predator-prey interactions

WSL105 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Barbara Taborsky (U. Bern)

Development and behaviour in cichlid fish

Zoom (& WSL105)

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

 

   
     

 

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Peter Korsten (Aberystwyth U.)

Quant gen / social behaviour / wild birds

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Heather Whitney (U. Bristol)

Bee-plant interactions

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

   

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Sue Healy (U. St. Andrews)

 

WSL 237 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Innes Cuthill (u. Bristol)

 

WSL 105 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

 

 

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

   

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Nathalie Stroeymeyt (U. Bristol)

Epidemology and social behaviour in ants

WSL105 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Fernando Colchero (MPI-EVA, Leipzig)

Is the variance in ageing rates across the slow-fast life history continuum governed by demographic buffering?

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

 

 

WSL 028 (& Zoom)

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

 

 

WSL 105 (& Zoom)

 

The University of Exeter hosts one of the biggest groups of animal behaviour researchers worldwide, studying a diverse range of topics including foraging behaviour, animal cognition, social organisation, life-history evolution, animal welfare and sexual selection. Based at the University's Streatham campus, the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour offers a vibrant and supportive environment for independent research fellows working on any aspect of animal behaviour. We are always keen to welcome new members. We have a strong track record of hosting fellowships funded though UK, EU and international schemes (including NERC, BBSRC, Royal Society, ERC, Leverhulme Trust, Marie Curie, NSF and others) and several previous fellows have gone on to become permanent members of academic staff in CRAB.

Fellowship applicants interested in joining us should contact our Group Leaders to discuss their proposed project. We also welcome enquiries from existing fellowship holders interested in relocating to CRAB. If possible, please include a full academic CV.

Support we can offer you

Pre-application

  • Advice on scheme suitability and proposal writing from our many successful fellows and research support staff.
  • Review of draft proposals.
  • Assistance with interview preparation.

For fellows

  • 1:1 mentoring from senior colleagues.
  • Peer support from our Early Career Researcher network.
  • Opportunities (but no obligation) to gain teaching experience and to supervise BSc, MSc, MRes and PhD project students.
  • Training and personal development.
  • Support for grant proposal development from senior colleagues and research support staff.

Career progression

  • Clear criteria for progression to permanent positions.
  • Opportunities for proleptic appointments.

Fellowship schemes

The following table lists the main UK and EU fellowship schemes. Some other countries have their own fellowship schemes that can provide support to work in CRAB (e.g. NSF in the USA); we are also very willing to provide support for these candidates.

Funder Scheme Notes Deadline
BBSRC David Phillips Fellowships 5-year fellowships for applicants 3-10 years post-PhD, applications in any area of BBSRC’s remit but proposals aligned strategic priorities particularly welcome. Annually, usually in May
Future Research Leaders 3-year awards for early career researchers (up to 5 years post-PhD) in any area of BBSRC’s remit but proposals aligned to strategic priorities particularly welcome. Annually, usually in May
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships 1-3 year partnerships for early-career researchers to work on an innovative project within industry, jointly supervised by academic partners. Apply any time
Daphne Jackson Trust Daphne Jackson Fellowships Fellowships are usually held half-time for 2 years. The scheme aims to return those with a STEM background to their careers following a career break of 2+ years (must have had 3+ years in research prior to break). Apply any time
European Molecular Biology Organization EMBO Long-term Fellowships 2-year fellowships to support post-doctoral (up to 2 years post-PhD) research visits to laboratories throughout Europe and the world. Fellowships must involve movement between countries. The receiving institute or the applicant's nationality must be from one of the EMBC Member States. Apply any time
ESRC New Investigator Grants 3-year fellowships for early career researchers (maximum 4 years post-PhD) of any nationality. Apply any time
L'Oreal - UNESCO UK and Ireland L'Oreal UK and Ireland Women in science fellowship 1-year awards of £15k for outstanding women in science with less than 10 years postdoctoral experience. Usually March annually
NERC Independent Research Fellowships 5-year fellowships for early career researchers (up to 8 years full-time (or equivalent) post-PhD) of any nationality in any area of NERC’s remit Early October annually
Knowledge Exchange Fellowships 1-3 year fellowships held at 20-80% to focus on accelerating and amplifying impact from NERC research. Applicants can be at any career stage from user or academic background. Annual call around April
The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships 3-year fellowships providing 50% match-funding for early career researchers (<5 years post-PhD) in any area except clinically-relevant. Usually March every year
Research Fellowships 3-24 month fellowships offering up to £50k for experienced researchers to conduct a programme of research in any discipline.  Usually November each year
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowships in Science or Engineering Up to 3-year fellowships for early-career researchers (up to 3 years post-PhD) of any nationality. Usually February each year
The Royal Society University Research Fellowships 5-8 year fellowships for outstanding early career scientists with 3-8 years postdoctoral experience. Usually September each year
Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships Up to 5-year fellowships for outstanding early career scientists who require a flexible working pattern. Usually November each year
Education Research Fellowships

2-year fellowships for academics researching mathematics or physics education who have held at least one short-term postdoc post.

TBC
Industry Fellowships Up to 2-year (or 4-year part-time) fellowships for academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry and for scientists in industry who want to work on a collaborative project with an academic organisation. 26th March 2015
The Royal Society/ Newton Fund Newton International Fellowships

Up to 2-year fellowships for non-UK early-career scientists (up to 7 years post-PhD) who wish to carry out research in the UK.

TBC
Newton Advanced Fellowships

Up to 3 year awards to enable established international researchers from particular countries up to 15 years post-PhD to develop the strengths and capabilities of their research group through training, collaboration and reciprocal visits with a partner in the UK.

18th March 2015
The Royal Society/ The Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellowships

5-year fellowships for outstanding post- scientists with a maximum 7 years’ postdoc experience.wishing to build their own UK-based, independent research career addressing an important biomedical question.

Three deadlines a year, next 17th April 2015
The Wellcome Trust Career Re-entry Fellowships 2-4 year fellowships that give post-doctoral scientists the opportunity to return to high-quality research after a career break. 15th May 2015 for preliminary applications
Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships 4-year fellowships for the most promising newly-qualified (up to 2 years post-PhD) postdoctoral researchers to make an early start in developing their independent research careers in the biomedical sciences. Open to individuals with a relevant connection to the European Economic Area. 15th May 2015 for preliminary applications
Senior Research Fellowships in Basic Biomedical Science 5-year awards for the most outstanding postdoctoral biomedical scientists with 7-12 years’ experience post-PhD. Applicants must be UK/ EEA nationals or non-EEA nationals who have a relevant degree from a UK university or have worked in the UK for at least 3-years continuously. 8th May 2015