dr. L (Lysanne) Snijders
Assistant Professor Behavioural EcologyFollow me:
One animal is not the other. I am interested in understanding how individuals differ from each other in behaviour and what consequences this has for the social dynamics in groups and populations. I am also keen to reveal how understanding animal behaviour can contribute to wildlife conservation.
My core focus in recent years was on the Trinidadian guppy system, in which I study the link between social behaviour and foraging success in the wild (see video). By studying animal behaviour in the wild, I maximize the ecological relevance of my findings. Often, such field experiments come at the cost of experimental rigor, especially when studying vertebrates. Due to their small size and their naturally plastic spatial and social life, Trinidadian guppies offer the best of both worlds. We causally tested social factors (such as group size and group composition) by conducting group-level manipulations and disentangled effects of the immediate environment by doing translocations, all without trading off ecological relevance. Next to social foraging in guppies, I am involved in projects studying the social dynamics of wild great tits and zebra finches.
I am passionate about exploring the various ways that behavioral ecology can contribute to wildlife conservation. At the moment, I am mapping the evidence for the effectiveness of animal conditioning interventions in reducing Human-Wildlife Conflict, in collaboration with WWF-Netherlands (see our peer-reviewed protocol). I also plan to conduct systematic reviews on subsets of the evidence in the map. Systematic evidence synthesis does not only have the potential to contribute to policy and management decisions, but it also facilitates a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of animal behavior principles.
Besides studying animal behaviour, I wish to inspire people with facts and stories about the amazing ways animals behave.
You can contact me by email at lysanne.snijders AT wur.nl or visit my personal website.