Publications

We turn our findings into scientific publications.

Publications are sorted by multiple criteria and you can jump directly to the following categories: most recent, selection, taxonomic groups, themes.

Hover on top of a reference to reveal its details (or click if using a touch screen).

Only publications created while being part of the Data Zoo Gang are listed here. For the full list of publications of a given team member, please refer to:

• Google Scholar: Alexandre Courtiol, Liam D. Bailey, Ian J. Rickard.

• ORCID: Alexandre Courtiol, Liam D. Bailey, Colin Vullioud, Ian J. Rickard, Camille Martinez-Almoyna.

Most recent

Our publications for the years 2023 & 2024 are:

Reply to: Maternal capacity, twinning and fertility: the last birth matters	Courtiol et al. (2024)
Guild-specific response of bats to motion-triggered LED lighting of bicycle trails	Heim et al. (2024)
Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry	Huijsmans et al. (2024)
Monitoring terrestrial wildlife by combining hybridization capture and metabarcoding data from waterhole environmental DNA	Li et al. (2023)
Pup recruitment in a eusocial mammal—Which factors influence early pup survival in naked mole-rats?	Wetzel et al. (2023)

Selection

Here is a short selection of recent DZG publications we are particularly proud of and which best reflect our involvement and mindset.

• Appleton et al. (2022) is an assessment of the current and future needs in terms of workforce involved in the protection of wild lands – published in Nature Sustainability.
• Rickard et al. (2022) is paper investigating the relationship between twinning and fertility in Humans and illustrating a new type of Simpson’s paradox – published in Nature Communications.
• Bailey et al. (2022) is a meta-analysis of 67 populations of great and blue tits investigating the link between the phenotypic plasticity on their phenology and climate change – published in Nature Communications.
• Culina et al. (2021) is a paper announcing the creation of the SPI-Birds network and its database for long-term population studies on birds – published in Journal of Animal Ecology.
• Radchuk et al. (2019) is a meta-analysis quantifying precisely the extent to which animals (mostly birds) are adapting to changing climate – published in Nature Communications.
• Vullioud et al. (2019) is an in-depth study of social hierarchy in spotted hyenas revealing how social rank emerges from simple behavioural rules – published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
• Corbett et al. (2018) is a review of the causes and consequences of demographic transitions in humans, with an emphasis on human health – published in Nature Reviews Genetics.
• Lahdenperä et al. (2018) is a detailed study of how capture influences survival in Asian elephants – published in Nature Communications.

Taxonomic groups

We mostly work on birds and mammals (including humans) but sometimes venture to study other lifeforms, as well as viruses.

Arthropods

© Alain Debelle

Debelle et al. (2017)

Bats

© Alexandre Courtiol

Heim et al. (2024)
Kruszynski et al. (2022)
Seltmann et al. (2022)
Kruszynski et al. (2021)
Kravchenko et al. (2020)
Courtiol et al. (2019)
Seltmann et al. (2017)
Santos et al. (2016)
Schneeberger et al. (2014)

Birds

© Alexandre Courtiol

Bailey et al. (2022)
Bonnet et al. (2022)
Frauendorf et al. (2022)
Vriend et al. (2022)
Culina et al. (2021)
Bailey et al. (2020)
Merling de Chapa et al. (2020)
Krone et al. (2019)
Radchuk et al. (2019)
Gillingham et al. (2017)
Gillingham et al. (2016)
Renoult et al. (2013)

Carnivores

© Alexandre Courtiol

Bonnet et al. (2022)
Dheer et al. (2022)
Azevedo et al. (2021)
Eder et al. (2020)
Azevedo et al. (2019)
Hryciuk et al. (2019)
Vullioud et al. (2019)
Heinrich et al. (2017)
Davidian et al. (2016)
Paijmans et al. (2016)
Davidian et al. (2015)
Wilting et al. (2015)

Elephants

© Alexandre Courtiol

Lahdenperä et al. (2018)
Saragusty et al. (2016)
Mumby et al. (2015)
Mumby et al. (2013b)
Mumby et al. (2013a)

Marsupials

Huijsmans et al. (2024)
Cui et al. (2016)
Alfano et al. (2015)

Plants

© Alexandre Courtiol

Tonnabel et al. (2021)

Primates (including humans)

© Alexandre Courtiol

Courtiol et al. (2024)
Bonnet et al. (2022)
Rickard et al. (2022)
Corbett et al. (2018)
Courtiol, Tropf, et al. (2016)
Cohen et al. (2015)
Levréro et al. (2015)
Pettay et al. (2014)
Courtiol et al. (2013)
Courtiol et al. (2012)
Rickard et al. (2012)

Rodents

© Alexandre Courtiol

Wetzel et al. (2023)
Bonnet et al. (2022)
Tian et al. (2015)
Sommer et al. (2013)

Ungulates

© Alexandre Courtiol

Bonnet et al. (2022)
Dayaram et al. (2021)
Kretzschmar et al. (2020)
Trinogga et al. (2019)
Speck et al. (2014)

Viruses

© Zimai Li

Dayaram et al. (2021)
Numberger et al. (2019)

All & none (theory & policy)

Appleton et al. (2022)
Franz et al. (2018)
Courtiol & Rousset (2017)
Rousset et al. (2017)
Courtiol, Etienne, et al. (2016)
Etienne et al. (2014)

Themes

We study wildlife conservation, the ecology and evolution of life history traits, animal behaviour, morphology, as well as various aspects of health in wildlife populations. We also design methods that can be applied to study these themes.

Wildlife conservation

Climate change

Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less sensitive to climatic variation	Bailey et al. (2022)
Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient	Radchuk et al. (2019)
Climatic variation and age-specific survival in Asian elephants from Myanmar	Mumby et al. (2013a)

Habitat degradation (including urbanisation)

Guild-specific response of bats to motion-triggered LED lighting of bicycle trails	Heim et al. (2024)
Genetic variance in fitness indicates rapid contemporary adaptive evolution in wild animals	Bonnet et al. (2022)
Diurnal pastoralism does not reduce juvenile recruitment nor elevate allostatic load in spotted hyenas	Dheer et al. (2022)
High vulnerability of juvenile Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) at wind turbines	Kruszynski et al. (2022)
Phantom of the forest or successful citizen? Analysing how Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) cope with the urban environment	Merling de Chapa et al. (2020)
Monitoring corticoid metabolites in urine of white-tailed sea eagles: Negative effects of road proximity on breeding pairs	Krone et al. (2019)
Fragmentation of lead-free and lead-based hunting rifle bullets under real life hunting conditions in Germany	Trinogga et al. (2019)
Habitat disturbance results in chronic stress and impaired health status in forest-dwelling paleotropical bats	Seltmann et al. (2017)

Converation management (including reproduction)

Protected area personnel and ranger numbers are insufficient to deliver global expectations	Appleton et al. (2022)
Equilibration in freezing extender alters in vitro sperm–oviduct binding in the domestic cat (Felis catus)	Eder et al. (2020)
Mate choice, reproductive success and inbreeding in white rhinoceros: New insights for conservation management	Kretzschmar et al. (2020)
Functional and morphological characterization of small and large steroidogenic luteal cells from domestic cats before and during culture	Hryciuk et al. (2019)
Sperm rescue in wild African elephants	Saragusty et al. (2016)
Planning tiger recovery: Understanding intraspecific variation for effective conservation	Wilting et al. (2015)

Effect of capture and captivity

Differences in age-specific mortality between wild-caught and captive-born Asian elephants	Lahdenperä et al. (2018)
Cheetahs have a stronger constitutive innate immunity than leopards	Heinrich et al. (2017)
Birth seasonality and calf mortality in a large population of Asian elephants	Mumby et al. (2013b)

Life history

Lifespan

Pup recruitment in a eusocial mammal—Which factors influence early pup survival in naked mole-rats?	Wetzel et al. (2023)
Love thy neighbour?—Spatial variation in density dependence of nest survival in relation to predator community	Frauendorf et al. (2022)
The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection	Corbett et al. (2018)
Differences in age-specific mortality between wild-caught and captive-born Asian elephants	Lahdenperä et al. (2018)
Immune profile predicts survival and reflects senescence in a small, long-lived mammal, the Greater Sac-Winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)	Schneeberger et al. (2014)
Climatic variation and age-specific survival in Asian elephants from Myanmar	Mumby et al. (2013a)

Mating, reproductive success and fitness

Reply to: Maternal capacity, twinning and fertility: the last birth matters	Courtiol et al. (2024)
Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry	Huijsmans et al. (2024)
Genetic variance in fitness indicates rapid contemporary adaptive evolution in wild animals	Bonnet et al. (2022)
Diurnal pastoralism does not reduce juvenile recruitment nor elevate allostatic load in spotted hyenas	Dheer et al. (2022)
Mothers with higher twinning propensity had lower fertility in pre-industrial Europe	Rickard et al. (2022)
Sex-specific spatial variation in fitness in the highly dimorphic Leucadendron rubrum	Tonnabel et al. (2021)
Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient	Radchuk et al. (2019)
The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection	Corbett et al. (2018)
When genes and environment disagree: Making sense of trends in recent human evolution	Courtiol, Tropf, et al. (2016)
Effects of remarriage after widowhood on long-term fitness in a monogamous historical human population	Pettay et al. (2014)
The demographic transition influences variance in fitness and selection on height and BMI in rural Gambia	Courtiol et al. (2013)
Natural and sexual selection in a monogamous historical human population	Courtiol et al. (2012)

Effect of climate and seasonality

Bird populations most exposed to climate change are less sensitive to climatic variation	Bailey et al. (2022)
Temperature synchronizes temporal variation in laying dates across European hole-nesting passerines	Vriend et al. (2022)
Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient	Radchuk et al. (2019)
Stress and body condition are associated with climate and demography in Asian elephants	Mumby et al. (2015)
Birth seasonality and calf mortality in a large population of Asian elephants	Mumby et al. (2013b)
Climatic variation and age-specific survival in Asian elephants from Myanmar	Mumby et al. (2013a)
Intergenerational effects of maternal birth season on offspring size in rural Gambia	Rickard et al. (2012)

Effect of demography

Love thy neighbour?—Spatial variation in density dependence of nest survival in relation to predator community	Frauendorf et al. (2022)
The transition to modernity and chronic disease: mismatch and natural selection	Corbett et al. (2018)
The demographic transition influences variance in fitness and selection on height and BMI in rural Gambia	Courtiol et al. (2013)

Behaviour

Perception

The relevance of the side-view in body image scales for public health: an example from two African populations	Cohen et al. (2015)
Social shaping of voices does not impair phenotype matching of kinship in mandrills	Levréro et al. (2015)
A novel framework to study colour signalling to multiple species	Renoult et al. (2013)

Mate choice

Mate choice, reproductive success and inbreeding in white rhinoceros: New insights for conservation management	Kretzschmar et al. (2020)
Mate choice intensifies motor signalling in Drosophila	Debelle et al. (2017)
The evolution of mutual mate choice under direct benefits	Courtiol, Etienne, et al. (2016)
Why do some males choose to breed at home when most other males disperse?	Davidian et al. (2016)
MHC-dependent mate choice is linked to a trace-amine-associated receptor gene in a mammal	Santos et al. (2016)
How choosy should I be? The relative searching time predicts evolution of choosiness under direct sexual selection	Etienne et al. (2014)

Migration and dispersion

High vulnerability of juvenile Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus nathusii) at wind turbines	Kruszynski et al. (2022)
Identifying migratory pathways of Nathusius’ pipistrelles ( Pipistrellus nathusii) using stable hydrogen and strontium isotopes	Kruszynski et al. (2021)
Generational shift in the migratory common noctule bat: first-year males lead the way to hibernacula at higher latitudes	Kravchenko et al. (2020)
Isoscape computation and inference of spatial origins with mixed models using the R package IsoriX	Courtiol et al. (2019)
Outlook for using stable isotopes in animal migration studies	Hobson et al. (2019)
Modelling isoscapes using mixed models	Courtiol & Rousset (2017)
Why do some males choose to breed at home when most other males disperse?	Davidian et al. (2016)

Social hierarchy

Social support drives female dominance in the spotted hyaena	Vullioud et al. (2019)

Health

Diseases

Seasonal host and ecological drivers may promote restricted water as a viral vector	Dayaram et al. (2021)
Phantom of the forest or successful citizen? Analysing how Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) cope with the urban environment	Merling de Chapa et al. (2020)
Recovery of influenza A viruses from lake water and sediments by experimental inoculation	Numberger et al. (2019)
Sickness-induced lethargy can increase host contact rates and pathogen spread in water-limited landscapes	Franz et al. (2018)
Comprehensive profiling of retroviral integration sites using target enrichment methods from historical koala samples without an assembled reference genome	Cui et al. (2016)

Immunity, stress and microbiome

Diurnal pastoralism does not reduce juvenile recruitment nor elevate allostatic load in spotted hyenas	Dheer et al. (2022)
Differences in acute phase response to bacterial, fungal and viral antigens in greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis)	Seltmann et al. (2022)
Decreasing glucocorticoid levels towards the expansion front suggest ongoing expansion in a terrestrial mammal	Azevedo et al. (2021)
Age, sex and storage time influence hair cortisol levels in a wild mammal population	Azevedo et al. (2019)
Monitoring corticoid metabolites in urine of white-tailed sea eagles: Negative effects of road proximity on breeding pairs	Krone et al. (2019)
Variation in koala microbiomes within and between individuals: effect of body region and captivity status	Alfano et al. (2015)
Determining hormone metabolite concentrations when enzyme immunoassay accuracy varies over time	Davidian et al. (2015)
Stress and body condition are associated with climate and demography in Asian elephants	Mumby et al. (2015)
Circulating white blood cell counts in captive and wild rodents are influenced by body mass rather than testes mass, a correlate of mating promiscuity	Tian et al. (2015)
Immune profile predicts survival and reflects senescence in a small, long-lived mammal, the Greater Sac-Winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)	Schneeberger et al. (2014)

MHC

Very high MHC Class IIB diversity without spatial differentiation in the mediterranean population of greater Flamingos	Gillingham et al. (2017)
Evidence of gene orthology and trans-species polymorphism, but not of parallel evolution, despite high levels of concerted evolution in the major histocompatibility complex of flamingo species	Gillingham et al. (2016)
MHC-dependent mate choice is linked to a trace-amine-associated receptor gene in a mammal	Santos et al. (2016)
MHC genotyping of non-model organisms using next-generation sequencing: a new methodology to deal with artefacts and allelic dropout	Sommer et al. (2013)

Morphology

Effect of climate

Using different body size measures can lead to different conclusions about the effects of climate change	Bailey et al. (2020)
Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient	Radchuk et al. (2019)

Effect of diet and lifestyle

The relevance of the side-view in body image scales for public health: an example from two African populations	Cohen et al. (2015)

Methodological contributions

Databases

Connecting the data landscape of long-term ecological studies: The SPI-Birds data hub	Culina et al. (2021)

R packages

Assigning metabolic rate measurements to torpor and euthermy in heterothermic endotherms: ‘torpor’, a new package for R	Fasel et al. (2022)
Isoscape computation and inference of spatial origins with mixed models using the R package IsoriX	Courtiol et al. (2019)
The summary-likelihood method and its implementation in the Infusion package	Rousset et al. (2017)
camtrapR: an R package for efficient camera trap data management	Niedballa et al. (2016)

Quantitative methods

Quantifying maternal investment in mammals using allometry	Huijsmans et al. (2024)
Genetic variance in fitness indicates rapid contemporary adaptive evolution in wild animals	Bonnet et al. (2022)
Modelling isoscapes using mixed models	Courtiol & Rousset (2017)
The summary-likelihood method and its implementation in the Infusion package	Rousset et al. (2017)
Determining hormone metabolite concentrations when enzyme immunoassay accuracy varies over time	Davidian et al. (2015)
A novel framework to study colour signalling to multiple species	Renoult et al. (2013)
MHC genotyping of non-model organisms using next-generation sequencing: a new methodology to deal with artefacts and allelic dropout	Sommer et al. (2013)

Non-invasive methods

Monitoring terrestrial wildlife by combining hybridization capture and metabarcoding data from waterhole environmental DNA	Li et al. (2023)
Age, sex and storage time influence hair cortisol levels in a wild mammal population	Azevedo et al. (2019)
Assessing analytical methods for detecting spatiotemporal interactions between species from camera trapping data	Niedballa et al. (2019)
camtrapR: an R package for efficient camera trap data management	Niedballa et al. (2016)
Determining hormone metabolite concentrations when enzyme immunoassay accuracy varies over time	Davidian et al. (2015)

Wet lab and genomics

Monitoring terrestrial wildlife by combining hybridization capture and metabarcoding data from waterhole environmental DNA	Li et al. (2023)
Equilibration in freezing extender alters in vitro sperm–oviduct binding in the domestic cat (Felis catus)	Eder et al. (2020)
Functional and morphological characterization of small and large steroidogenic luteal cells from domestic cats before and during culture	Hryciuk et al. (2019)
Impact of enrichment conditions on cross-species capture of fresh and degraded DNA	Paijmans et al. (2016)
Sperm rescue in wild African elephants	Saragusty et al. (2016)
MHC genotyping of non-model organisms using next-generation sequencing: a new methodology to deal with artefacts and allelic dropout	Sommer et al. (2013)