News & Events

21.11.2025
 

What enables human language? A biocultural framework

 

Inbal Arnon, Liran Carmel, Nicolas Claidière, W. Tecumseh Fitch, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Simon...

22.09.2025
 

Brain activation for language and its relationship to cognitive and linguistic measures

Irene Balboni, Alessandra Rampinini, Olga Kepinska, Raphael...

26.08.2025
 

"Startling ravens Corvus corax at foraging: differences in anti-predator behaviour can be explained by age rather than personality"

by: Janina Anna...

21.07.2025
 

A nice press release on gestures in elephants. Well done!

 

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/science/elephants-gesturing-trunk.html

 

09.07.2025
 

Congratulations to Prof. Leonida Fusani for receiving a further FWF grant for the project "Mating and bonding decisions in a challenging environment"

05.05.2025
 

Publications


Marasco V, Sebastiano M, Costantini D, Pola G, Fusani L. Controlled expression of the migratory phenotype affects oxidative status in birds. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2021 Mar;224(6):jeb233486. doi: 10.1242/jeb.233486

Mitoyen C, Quigley C, Boehly T, Fusani L. Female behaviour is differentially associated with specific components of multimodal courtship in ring doves. Animal Behaviour. 2021 Mar;173:21-39. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.014

Spezie G, Fusani L. Learning to be attractive: investigating the role of learning in the expression of complex sexual signals. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2021 Mar;61(S1):E1263-E1263. doi: 10.1093/icb/icab001

Martin JS, Koski SE, Bugnyar T, Jaeggi AV, Massen JJM. Prosociality, social tolerance and partner choice facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation in common marmosets, Callithrix jacchus. Animal Behaviour. 2021 Mar;173:115-136. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.016

Kortekaas K, Jean-Joseph HG, Kotrschal K. Social context influences resting physiology in wolves and dogs. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2021 Mar;61(S1):E479-E479. doi: 10.1093/icb/icab001

Fusani L, Janisch J, Perinot E, Quigley C. The making of an elaborate courtship display: acrobatics, choreographies, and the role of females. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2021 Mar;61(S1):E284-E284. doi: 10.1093/icb/icab001

Gallego-Abenza M, Blum C, Bugnyar T. Who is crying wolf? Seasonal effect on antipredator response to age-specific alarm calls in common ravens, Corvus corax. Learning and Behavior. 2021 Mar;49(1):159–167. doi: 10.3758/s13420-020-00455-0

Šlipogor V, Massen JJM, Schiel N, Souto A, Bugnyar T. Temporal consistency and ecological validity of personality structure in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus): A unifying field and laboratory approach. American Journal of Primatology. 2021 Feb;83(2):e23229. doi: 10.1002/ajp.23229

Mann DC, Fitch WT, Tu HW, Hoeschele M. Universal principles underlying segmental structures in parrot song and human speech. Scientific Reports. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):776. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80340-y

Katsis AC, Buchanan KL, Kleindorfer S, Mariette MM. Long-term effects of prenatal sound experience on songbird behavior and their relation to song learning. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 2021 Jan 6;75(1):18. doi: 10.1007/s00265-020-02939-5

Belkhir JR, Fitch WT, Garcea FE, Chernoff BL, Sims MH, Navarrete E et al. Direct electrical stimulation evidence for a dorsal motor area with control of the larynx. Brain Stimulation. 2021 Jan 1;14(1):110-112. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2020.11.013

McCarren S, Sumasgutner P, Tate G, Koeslag A, Amar A. Clinal variation in the polymorphic Black Sparrowhawk Accipiter melanoleucus is unrelated to infection by the blood parasite Haemoproteus nisi. Journal of Ornithology. 2021 Jan;162(1):231-241. Epub 2020 Oct 4. doi: 10.1007/s10336-020-01823-3

Maggini I, Cardinale M, Favaretto A, Vorisek P, Spina F, Maoret F et al. Comparing population trend estimates of migratory birds from breeding censuses and capture data at a spring migration bottleneck. Ecology and Evolution. 2021 Jan;11(2):967-977. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7110

Schausberger P, Çekin D, Litin A. Learned predators enhance biological control via organizational upward and trophic top-down cascades. Journal of Applied Ecology. 2021 Jan;58(1):158-166. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13791

Pühringer-Sturmayr V, Stiefel T, Kotrschal K, Kleindorfer S, Frigerio D. Social interactions change with season and age in Northern Bald Ibis. Journal of Ornithology. 2021 Jan;162(1):277-288. doi: 10.1007/s10336-020-01824-2

Maghsadhagh S, Dalboni da Rocha JL, Benner J, Schneider P, Golestani N, Behjat H. A Discriminative Characterization of Heschl's Gyrus Morphology using Spectral Graph Features. 2021. doi: 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630788

Matzinger T, Specker E, Ritt N, Fitch WTS. Aesthetic perception of prosodic patterns as a factor in speech segmentation. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. 2021;43:2992-2998.

van Buuren M, Alfredsson J, Mioduszewska B, Tebbich S, von Bayern AMP. Bending and unbending of tools by New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) in a problem-solving context. Animal Behavior and Cognition. 2021;8(2):190-215. doi: 10.26451/abc.08.02.07.2021

Perinot E, Fritz J, Fusani L, Voelkl B, Nobile MS. Characterizing the flying behaviour of bird flocks with fuzzy reasoning. In Proceedings of WILF 2021, the 13th International Workshop on Fuzzy Logic and Applications. Vol. 3074. 2021. 21. (CEUR Workshop Proceedings).

Frigerio D, Richter A, Per E, Prūse B, Vohland K. Citizen Science in the Natural Sciences. In Vohland K, editor, The Science of Citizen Science. 1. ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing. 2021. p. 79-96

Kotrschal K. Die Natur des Menschen und die anderen Tiere: Tierschutz in evolutionärer Perspektive. In Horstmann S, editor, Interspezies Lernen: Grundlinien interdisziplinärer Tierschutz- und Tierrechtsbildung. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. 2021. p. 61-88. (Human-animal studies, Vol. 27).

Kotrschal K. Eine veränderte Sichtweise auf Tiere durch naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse? In Mensch - Tier - Gott : interdisziplinäre Annäherungen an eine christliche Tierethik. 1. ed. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag. 2021. p. 87-112. (Interdisziplinäre Tierethik, Vol. 1).

Stoeger A. Elephant sonic and infrasonic sound production, perception and processing. In Neuroendocrine Regulation of Animal Vocalization: Mechanisms and Anthropogenic Factors in Animal Communication. 1. ed. Elsevier. 2021. p. 189-199 doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-815160-0.00023-2

Joseph L, Burbidge AH, Delhey K, Hansen BD, Kleindorfer S, Maurer G. Emu’s first 120 years: landmark papers of change in austral ornithology. Emu. 2021;121(4):284-291. doi: 10.1080/01584197.2021.1993529