Damien Farine

I am a Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Department of Collective Behavior based in the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz, and a research associate at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (Department of Zoology, University of Oxford). I am generally fascinated by animal groups. The central aims of my research are to understand the interplay between natural selection and social behaviour by studying animal groups in the wild. In 2018, ASAB awarded me the Christopher Barnhard award for Outstanding Contributions by a New Investigator in recognition of my research.

My research is spread across three continents. I am developing guineafowls as a study system, working with a wild population in central Kenya. I am still working on wild tits, using these to understand the factors that shape social structure and social processes ranging from single species groups through to the interspecific community level using data from Wytham Woods in Oxford and from our local population in Moeggingen, Germany. Finally, I work with collaborators in Brazil to understand interactions between artisanal fishermen and dolphins that hunt together.