M (Miriam) Kuspiel
Externe medewerker, PromovendusI am currently studying vocalisations in predatory and conspecific intruder contexts in Eurasian magpies. In the past, did my bachelor in biology with specialisation in behavioural and neural mechanisms at Bielefeld University. I chose the molecular ecology group under Joe Hoffman in the behavioural biology department to deepen my knowledge in genetics for my bachelor thesis. Afterwards, I stayed in Bielefeld to do the master From Neural Mechanisms to Evolution. For my thesis, I investigated the relation between territory quality and aggressiveness in male blue tits in Vosbergen near Groningen, NL with Peter Korsten and Stephen Salazaar. In another research project involving fieldwork in the northeast of Brazil, I investigated complexity of call combinations in common marmosets under supervision of Meike Zemihn from Leiden University. Since this project further ignited my curiosity in cooperative breeders, I set out to investigate benefits of helping in cooperatively breeding white helmetshrikes in Eswatini, under supervision of Sjouke Kingma, Marc Naguib and Kat Bebbington. Due to covid and the limitations in doing fieldwork abroad, however, Iswitched the topic to communication and anti-predator behaviour in Eurasian magpies.