Behavioural
Ecology Group


Professor in Behavioural Ecology





Marc Naguib



Research interests

See below on website for details about Zebra finch field project , Eco2 and Communication networks projects.


My research covers a range of different topics on the behavioural mechanisms, their development, function and evolution, mainly using birds as model organisms. My main research interest has been on animal vocal communication, with a focus on bird song as model system.


Within my research lines (see below) we cover topics such as

  • animal communication
  • movement ecology (Radio-tracking)
  • spatial and territorial behaviour,
  • sexual selection,
  • animal cognition,
  • social interactions,
  • parent-offspring communication,
  • animal personality,
  • conservation behaviour.


Over the years we have been particularly interested in the social organization of animal societies, specifically in animal movements (automatized radiotracking) in relation to long distance signalling and territorial behaviour. We have applied this previously to nightingales and great tits and currently to white-browed sparrow weavers (in South Africa with Andy Young, University Exeter) and plan to expand this on zebra finches in the wild (With Simon Griffith, Macquarie University Sydney) using novel solar-powered automatized tracking technologies.


Moreover we recently started a large interdisciplinary project (Eco2) on human-wildlife interactions and conservation behaviour.


Students, feel free to contact me for thesis opportunities within the research lines (also see projects below) or if you have other ideas for a thesis project.


For specifics see links below.


Short CV

Since 2011 Chair of Behavioural Ecology Group. From 2008 to 2011 senior researcher at the Department of Animal Ecology at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). In 2010 and 2016 visiting professor at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, France. Previous positions: 2000-2008 Department of Animal Behaviour, University Bielefeld, Germany, promoted to the rank of professor in 2007. From 1995 to 1999 research associate in Animal Behaviour at the Freie Universität Berlin. Studied biology at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany (1984-1991 Diplom in Biology; group Prof. Dietmar Todt) and from 1992-1995 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (PhD in 1995, group Prof. R. Haven Wiley).


Since 2020 president of the Netherlands Society for Behavioural Biology (NVG). Previously, council member (2004-2010) of the Association of the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) and Secretary of the Ethologische Gesellschaft (2007-2010). Currently is editor of journal Behavioral Ecology and is Executive Editor of Advances in Study of Behaviour.



Contact Marc

Selection of Research projects



Communication and resilience in an unpredictable world
(Zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata)


In this ecological field research we study the communication underlying breeding decisions in wild zebra finches who breed under varying and unpredictable conditions. Zebra finches are the best-studied avian model organism in the lab for behaviour, mate choice, life history decisions, and the function of male song. Yet, there is very little information about the communication process when making breeding decisions. The project is run at Fowlers Gap Arid Zone research station in Australia. Cooperating partner: Simon Griffith (Macquarie University, Sydney, AUS); PhD student: Hugo Loning

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ECO2 Prjoect


This INREF programme, ECO2, investigates, analyses, and tests key ideas for integrating ecology and socio-economics and the possibilities for convivial conservation using distinct cases in Egypt, a country where Anthropocene pressures have become extreme in many places. Egypt, as is well known, completely depends on one major resource, the River Nile, but intensifying land-use change and other anthropogenic pressures render the possibilities for long-term sustainable forms of development and conservation increasingly problematic. By combining the expertise from different disciplines across the different natural and social sciences, ECO2 will deliver new knowledge based on primary research and use this to investigate ideas related to different convivial conservation and development trajectories in three important cases along the Nile and its wetlands


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Communication and social networks in great tits (Parus major) and Nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos)


These are mainly previous projects but with ongoing data analyses, The question on communication and spatial behaviour are now being integrated in the wild zebra finch project in the Australian Outbacks. The research line focused on animal communication and social behaviour aim to understand the function of vocal signalling (male song) in territorial, spatial and mating decisions. Our aim is to unravel principles of decision-making in these contexts and to determine social and fitness consequences of behavioural traits and strategies.These projects were funded by 3 subsequent German research Council grants 2 subsequent NWO ALW open competition grants to MN.


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