PhD‐theses - Ethologische Gesellschaft

Activities and Meetings
load interesting videos of their work onto youtube, to enhance teaching quality in the
different institutes working on ethology. Joan already is offering an amazing collection of
them (http://www.youtube.com/user/strassm). In general, everybody agreed that working
together more closely would be fruitful in different aspects.
Apart from the plenary talks, there have been around 150 presentations and 100
posters from researchers of every level of his or her career and every possible field of
ethology. We learnt, e.g., that male topi antelopes deceive the females to keep them close
for mating; how Galapagos sea lions cope with their rivals; that mangrove snails can foresee
the future; and that the perceived attractiveness of human male body hair depends on the
fertility of a woman. With so many interesting topics in four parallel sessions, everybody had
to make their own trade‐off: Do I got to the room with the most interesting talk or to the
room with best air‐conditioning. So, Peter McGregor, chairing the session on "Audience
effect" in D6 appreciated the choice of his audience with the words: "Thanks for coming to
the physically most challenging room!"
Sure enough, from time to time it was just too hot in the lecture halls for fruitful
scientific discussions. But the cloister, where we enjoyed our lunch and coffee breaks, made
up for that: Standing in the shadow of the cool arcades or sitting barefoot on the grass,
discussions were productive and lively. This nice atmosphere of familial discussions was
continued at the buffet dinner in the impressive Sala San Francesco. At the moment of good‐
buy, it seemed clear that everybody is looking forward to the VI European Conference on
Behavioural Biology.
Just maybe not in Italy in July.
Sophie von Merten
Ökologische Neurobiologie, Max Planck Institut fürOrnithologie, Seewiesen
29