Project properties

Title Social Behaviour: Do more social fish always get more food? (video-analysis)
Group Behavioural Ecology
Project type thesis
Credits 12 or 24-36
Supervisor(s) Lysanne Snijders
Examiner(s) Marc Naguib
Contact info lysanne.snijders@wur.nl
Begin date 2022/05/01
End date 2023/06/30
Description BSc/MSc: How do populations that live under various selective forces differ in social information use? We have collected social data and videos on foraging behaviour of six different guppy (Poecilia reticulata) populations to answer this question. This project would thus involve scoring behaviour from videos using the program BORIS.

MSc: Alternatively, we have individual-based data on social foraging in wild guppies spanning several years that have been entered in a database and allow for the study of questions on the costs (competition) and benefits (facilitation) of foraging socially. The project would thus be primarily based on database analysis (including further development/expansion of the database).

Recommended reading:
Snijders et al 2018. https://doi.org/10.1101/260604.
Snijders et al 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13086.
Chouinard-Thuly & Reader 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/786772.
Hasenjager & Dugatkin 2017. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.2020
Used skills video analysis (BORIS), statistical analysis (R), question formulation, and hypothesis testing.
Requirements Motivation (and ideally experience) to work on a primarily database-based project. Alternative: motivation to score and analyze a large number of videos.