Main Focus
I am a behavioural ecologist and ornithologist. My main interest is the evolution of avian mating behaviour. I want to understand how males and females choose a mate. How do they sample potential partners? Which criteria do they use to decide to mate with a particular individual? How do they benefit from their choice? Why do they divorce? I want to understand why some individuals, and in particular females, are unfaithful to their partner. How common are extra-pair copulations? Which females seek them? Which criteria do females use to choose an extra-pair partner? How do these females benefit? How does promiscuity influence sexual selection? I want to understand the causes of variation in individual mating behaviour. Can variation in mating behaviour be linked to variation in personality traits? Is mating behaviour condition-dependent or is the variation maintained through frequency-dependent selection?
I am a field biologist. I am coordinating two long-term field studies: one on a common European songbird, the blue tit Parus caeruleus, and one on arctic-breeding shorebirds, the semipalmated sandpiper Calidris pusilla and the pectoral sandpiper Calidris melanotos.
Information on Prof. Dr. Bart Kempenaers' research can be found on the website of his Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics
Curriculum Vitae
Behavioural Ecology
Lecture series at the LMU, Biozentrum, Martinsried: Wintersemester 05/06
In collaboration with Prof. Dr. Susanne Foitzik