Selected publications

The research team investigated the predator-prey behaviour of striped marlins (Kajikia audax) and sardine shoals (Sardinops sagax caerulea) in the open ocean. Their findings reveal that individual prey in groups follows simple decision-making rules, which lead to complex, collective self-organized manoeuvers – and that this response is something predators can capitalize on.

Why do animals hunt in groups? The authors have shown in a field study in the ocean off Mexico: the faster the prey school moves, the higher the capture rate of the striped marlin. This is because if the prey school is moving fast, individual prey fish are more likely to become isolated. These isolated fish are then easily caught by the non-attacking marlins, an advantage of group hunting.

Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence (SCIoI), in which the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin) and the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) are involved, have proven in an underwater field study in the ocean off Mexico: the faster a school of prey moves, the higher the capture rate of the striped marlin.

Researchers from all over Europe have created high-standard reference genomes for 98 species as part of the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) pilot project. This collaboration of scientists from 33 countries is an important milestone on the way to a reference genome database for European animals, plants and fungi.