Pigeons navigate using magnetic sensors in their livers Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2026-09-23 | Pigeons navigate using magnetic sensors in their livers
Behold, a living tower of worms Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-06-05 | Living worm towers are recorded in the wild for the first time, a rare example of collective hitchhiking in nature.Daniela M. Perez, Ryan Greenway, Thomas Stier, Narcís Font-Massot, Assaf Pertzelan, Siyu Serena Ding (2025) Towering behavior and collective dispersal in Caenorhabditis nematodes. Current Biology. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.05.026Nematodes are the most abundant animal on earth, but when times get tough, these tiny worms have a hard time moving up and out. So, they play to the strength of their clade. If food runs out and competition turns fierce, they slither towards their numerous kin. They climb onto each other and over one another until their bodies forge a living tower that twists skyward where they might hitch a ride on a passing animal to greener and roomier pastures. At least that’s what scientists assumed
What monkey would kidnap babies? Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-05-21 | When capuchins do their monkey business, it’s at another level. Hear Brendan Barrett talk about these mischievous monkeys that have been caught kidnapping baby howler monkeys on an island off the coast of Panama. Goldsborough et al., (2025) Rise and spread of a social tradition of interspecies abduction. Current Biology 35, R1-R3. cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00372-0
Capuchin monkeys are abducting baby howlers. But why? Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-05-19 | On a remote island in Panama, cameras have captured capuchin monkeys developing a bizarre “fad” of abducting baby howlers.Goldsborough et al., (2025) Rise and spread of a social tradition of interspecies abduction. Current Biology 35, R1-R3. cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)00372-0On an island off the coast of Panama lives a population of wild primates with a remarkable culture. White-faced capuchins on Jicarón Island in Coiba National Park use stone tools; and scientists have been monitoring this unique tradition with an array of motion-triggered cameras on the island since 2017. In 2022, doctoral researcher Zoë Goldsborough was looking through the camera trap footage when she found an unusual sighting, something they had never seen in the previous five years of data: a capuchin monkey carrying an infant howler monkey on his back.Video by Imran Razik
How bats solve the cocktail party nightmare Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-04-01 | Every night, bats emerge out of roosts in massive numbers, creating what scientists have called a “cocktail party nightmare” of clashing echolocations. Nobody knew how bats managed this severe sensorial challenge. Now, scientists from Tel Aviv University and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) have tracked bats within a group of thousands to find out: when bats first emerge from the roost, they increase their distance from the center of the group and adjust their echolocation to maneuver safely in the areas of highest bat density. A. Goldshtein et al. (2025) Onboard recordings reveal how bats maneuver under severe acoustic interference, PNAS doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2407810122 (2025).
How does it feel to be recognized by wild fish? Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-02-19 | Imagine: you dive every day in the same spot in the ocean. Pretty soon, fish turn up to swim with you. But they don't just follow anyone. It's you they recognize. MPI-AB scientists conducted a first-ever study of human recognition in wild fish. Co-first author, Katinka Soller, describes the moment she realized that the fish knew who she was.Maëlan Tomasek*, Katinka Soller* & Alex Jordan (2025) Wild fish use visual cues to recognize individual divers. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0558
Wild fish can recognize human divers Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-02-19 | Fish in the Mediterranean Sea used visual differences between divers to recognize the person who rewarded them.Maëlan Tomasek*, Katinka Soller* & Alex Jordan (2025) Wild fish use visual cues to recognise individual divers. Biology Letters. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0558For years, scientific divers at a research station in the Mediterranean Sea had a problem: at some point in every field season, local fish would follow them and steal food intended as experimental rewards. Intriguingly these wild fish appeared to recognize the specific diver who had previously carried food, choosing to follow only them while ignoring other divers. To find out if that was true, a team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Germany conducted a series of experiments while wearing a range of diving gear, finding that fish in the wild can discriminate among humans based on external visual cues.
Bats surf storm fronts during spring migration Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2025-01-02 | In a paper published in Science, researchers use ultra-light sensors connected “like cell phones” across Europe to study how bats migrate over the continent.Edward Hurme et al. (2025) Bats surf storm fronts during spring migration. Science. science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade7441Birds are the undisputed champions of epic travel—but they are not the only long-haul fliers. A handful of bats are known to travel thousands of kilometers in continental migrations across North America, Europe, and Africa. The behavior is rare and difficult to observe, which is why long-distance bat migration has remained an enigma. Now, scientists from MPI-AB have studied 71 common noctule bats on their spring migration across the European continent, providing a leap in understanding this mysterious behavior. Ultra-lightweight, intelligent sensors attached to bats uncovered a strategy used by the tiny mammals for travel: they surf the warm fronts of storms to fly further with less energy.
Meet the people and places of MPI-AB Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior 2024-12-18 | Three locations, three departments, lots of animals.That can be a lot to take in. Our students and staff guide you on a tour to meet the many faces and facilities at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. We're based in Konstanz, Germany, but our animals take us beyond.
