Ariane Mutzel
Curriculum Vitae
Sep 2007 Diplom in biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany, in cooperation with Max Planck Insitute for Ornithology
2005-2006 Studies in biology, Lund University, Sweden
2001-2002 European voluntary service, Association Avril, Coutances, France
Research Interests & Goals
Animals constantly have to respond to changes in physical and social components of the environment. Whereas behavioural plasticity has long been assumed to represent an adaptive response to such environmental changes, accumulating evidence suggests that individuals do not show the full range of behavioural trait values present in their population: individuals often differ consistently in their behaviour over a range of environmental contexts. Such consistent individual differences in behaviour are referred to as “animal personalities” and personality traits that are correlated are commonly referred to as “behavioural syndromes”.
Despite rapidly accumulating evidence that an animal’s personality affects its fitness, little is known on how personality variation might be translated into fitness. Parental care is likely to play an important role in the mechanistic pathway linking personality and fitness. My project therefore aims to 1) quantify between individual differences in personality traits and investigate the structure of potential behavioural syndromes; 2) quantify different aspects of parental care, e.g. provisioning effort, responsiveness to chick demand and cooperation; 3) test how personality differences relate to different components of parental care and 4) investigate whether differences in provisioning behaviour that are related to personality can explain variation in reproductive success and adult survival. My study will be carried out on nestbox populations of two closely related hole-nesting passerines, the Blue tit, Cyanistes caerulaeus, and the Great tit, Parus major.
Publications
Mutzel A, Kempenaers B, Laucht S, Dingemanse NJ, Dale J. 2011. Circulating testosterone levels do not affect exploration in house sparrows: observational and experimental tests. Animal Behavior 81: 731-739. abstract
Laucht S, Dale J, Mutzel A, Kempenaers B. 2011. Individual variation in plasma testosterone levels and its relation to badge size in House Sparrows Passer domesticus: It's a night-and-day-difference. General and Comparative Endocrinology 170: 501-508. abstract
Awards & Scholarships
2008 EES Young Researcher Prize of the LMU Munich
2001 Karl-von-Frisch-Prize of the German Biological Society
Hometown
Address
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics
Fon: +49 8157 932-324
E-mail: mutzel(at)orn.mpg.de
