Jolle Jolles

Behavioral Biologist, PhD, National Geographic Explorer

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Tag Archives: public engagement

JollesLab now on Instagram!

June 26th, 2019 / News Outreach

From today you can stay up to date about my research and get a glimpse into the life of a Behavioral Ecologist on my new instagram account: @jollewjolles!

Not only do I think it is great to provide the outside world a glimpse into the scientific process, I also really enjoy showing all the different components of my research, from catching fish and calibrating cameras to late night grant writing and attending conferences, that all together eventually culminate into my academic papers.

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Stand at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft

June 23rd, 2018 / News Outreach

Yesterday night we had the Konstanzer Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft, a whole evening where scientists present their work to the general public. I was excited to also participate this year and had a couple boards installed with posters and photos about my work, and a big screen that showcased collective moving stickleback shoals with the sophisticated tracking and processing we use projected on top.Read further…

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Awarded public engagement grant

November 21st, 2017 / Grant/award News

An important aspect of science is the dialogue with the general public. Most public outreach is however rather static, only focused on transferring knowledge, and quite uni-directional. I wanted to find a way to convey my research about collective animal behaviour in a format that people can engage with and appreciate.

An excellent opportunity for more interactive outreach is to bridge science with art. Not only may this lead to a better understanding of science by the general public and more appreciation about the hidden beauty of the world around us, it may also generate new ideas and perspectives about my own work.

I am excited to say that I have been awarded a Zukunftskolleg Intersectoral grant that enables me to set-up a professional collaboration with Toer, a Dutch design studio known for their curiosity-driven work and interactive art installations. This long-term program will bridge the disciplines of science, art, and technology with the aim to not only inform and educate the public about collective behaviour but to inspire and make science accessible in a playful way.

The project is called Under the surface, of which soon we will launch a brand new website at www.under-the-surface.com!

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Live with my sticklebacks on the Naked Scientists podcast

May 20th, 2015 / News Outreach

Unknown

Recently I was invited to participate in the latest episode of the fantastic Naked Scientists podcasts series to highlight why sticklebacks are the most incredible animal on the planet!

Colour-switching sticklebacks, geckos with enough adhesive power to hold up a human, bats with built-in sonar and moles with amazing noses – this week we go in search of the world’s most incredible animals. Scientists passionate about their species put their cases to our panel. But which animal will be crowned king?

To make clear to the radio audience why sticklebacks, perhaps ordinary looking fish to most, are actually an amazing animal species I brought along 10 fellow stickles and made them change colour over the time of the hour long interactive show! You can listen to the full podcast here or just listen to my part here where I also discuss a range of other cool abilities of this great little fish.

The Naked Scientists show was brilliantly hosted by Ginny Smith, had some amazing other speakers including Hannah Rowland, Corina Logan, Nick Crumpton, and Jade Cawthray, and also aired on BBC Radio 5.

naked-scientists-podcast-live

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Invited lecture at the Linnean Society

March 21st, 2015 / News Outreach Talk

sticklebacks-uncovered-talk-linnean-society

Last Wednesday I gave the Student Lecture at the Linnean Society in London. It was a great honour for me to be invited to talk at this wonderful society, which is the oldest active biological Society in the world!

linnean-society-logoMy hour-long lecture was mainly aimed at students with a general biological background. I therefore made a much broader talk about my work, which is a nice change from all the conference talks the last year.

stickleback-talk3

I talked about a range of things, from how I decided to be a scientists and what fascinates me in the natural world around me to why I study sticklebacks to study these questions and how to do behavioural experiments. I then discussed the various experiments I have done to investigate the role of animal personality in collective behaviour.

stickleback-talk2

It was great to see so many enthusiastic students with very bright questions at the end that hopefully got inspired by my talk to become zoologists themselves. My talk should become viewable online next week so check back soon!

stickleback-talk1

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Start of a new scientific youtube channel

July 4th, 2014 / News Outreach

I have recently started a youtube channel (here) to showcase my research projects and interests. As a scientist I believe it is important (and fun!) to engage with the public and make your work understandable to scientists and non-scientists alike. Not only because most science is ultimately payed by the tax payer, but also because one of the main goals of science is to learn more about our world and share this knowledge.

Next to publishing papers it is important to make these papers understandable so that this new knowledge can be appreciated and potentially be used by the general public. The aim with a new youtube channel is to show videos of different aspects of my experiments and projects but also of interesting aspects of social life of both human and non-human animals that reflect my research interests.

Today I would like to share a short video from a recent experiment that shows the successful tracking of five three-spined stickleback fish to investigate the role of animal personality on leadership and group movements.

By tracking the fish we can accurately (mm scale) determine each fish average position in the tank and calculate individual characteristics as well as social parameters for the group, such as group cohesion and leadership. In this particular situation fish 2 was the leader of the group.
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“What’s your personality” song!

June 12th, 2014 / Outreach

I am always looking for possibilities to combine my research interests with music, art or design. Luckily a couple months ago my two friends Jens Bouttery and Daan Milius, professional musician/composer and film makers, asked me to collaborate on a musical performance to explore the boundaries of music, science and art called “Triggers and Tresholds“.

We have had a couple very fruitful weekends in Cambridge during which we some great discussions about science and music and they filmed a couple shorts for the performance later this year. After their last visit here and seeing the sticklebacks and my research in my basement lab in Cambridge, Jens got very creative and within a day wrote a fantastic song about my research on animal personality! Listen to it below:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/144892230″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”250″ iframe=”true” /]

It is great to work together with good friends and see how my research is translated in such a creative way!

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Start of a scientific blog

May 31st, 2014 / Blog News

This is the first blog post on my academic website JolleJolles.com. Although I have already been running my own nature and science blog Mudfooted.com for the past four years, I felt a need for a more personal view on science and the academic world and really like to increase the engage more with the public about my own research!

New Blog!

This blog will present my personal view of interesting new findings from the behavioural ecology literature and beyond, additional information, photos and videos about my own research, and my personal opinions and experiences of academia. If you like to be amazed by our wonderful natural world and read about the most recent fascinating scientific discoveries, please go and visit my other blog Mudfooted.com!

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After a very dry summer, rains have started to fill up part of the rivers we are studying. In some cases this has led refuge pools to connect with previously dried-up sections of river, as has happened in the Riera de Escales in the photo, a very dry stream in the Garrotxa. Interestingly enough, a day or so after the rain the pools have disconnected again, and we found fish in the newly created pools, meaning they must have come from the bigger original pool. How they got there, e.g. passive by strong flow of the rain or by actively swimming, is something to be determined, but interestingly it only seems to be fish of certain size-classes. These fish may be safe for now in their new pool, but if it does not rain enough in the coming weeks, the pool may still dry up and the fish will die

#drought #freshwater #freshwaterecology #riuscatalans #sequera #aigua
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After a very dry summer, rains have started to fill up part of the rivers we are studying. In some cases this has led refuge pools to connect with previously dried-up sections of river, as has happened in the Riera de Escales in the photo, a very dry stream in the Garrotxa. Interestingly enough, a day or so after the rain the pools have disconnected again, and we found fish in the newly created pools, meaning they must have come from the bigger original pool. How they got there, e.g. passive by strong flow of the rain or by actively swimming, is something to be determined, but interestingly it only seems to be fish of certain size-classes. These fish may be safe for now in their new pool, but if it does not rain enough in the coming weeks, the pool may still dry up and the fish will die #drought #freshwater #freshwaterecology #riuscatalans #sequera #aigua
5 months ago
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1/9
In the field with my amazing field technician @galdric98, exploring our study streams after the rain and documenting how some fish may manage to escape the refuge pools that enabled them to survive the dry summer months
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In the field with my amazing field technician @galdric98, exploring our study streams after the rain and documenting how some fish may manage to escape the refuge pools that enabled them to survive the dry summer months
5 months ago
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2/9
Something different to share today! The PhD defence of Apu Ramesh at the RUG in Groningen, where I was one of the members of the PhD examination committee and it was my role to ask detailed questions about her thesis. Apu did a wonderful job and successfully defended her thesis "animal personalities on the move" about the movement strategies of migrating and resident sticklebacks. It was a shame to miss some of the official procedures and customs that we have in the Netherlands as I could not attend in person, but great to be able to still do it (dressed-up) from the lab abroad! 

#phddefense #rijksuniversiteitgroningen #gelifes #science #sciencedegree
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Something different to share today! The PhD defence of Apu Ramesh at the RUG in Groningen, where I was one of the members of the PhD examination committee and it was my role to ask detailed questions about her thesis. Apu did a wonderful job and successfully defended her thesis "animal personalities on the move" about the movement strategies of migrating and resident sticklebacks. It was a shame to miss some of the official procedures and customs that we have in the Netherlands as I could not attend in person, but great to be able to still do it (dressed-up) from the lab abroad! #phddefense #rijksuniversiteitgroningen #gelifes #science #sciencedegree
5 months ago
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3/9
There is large temperature variation in the refuge pools we are sampling, with many actually keeping a moderate temperature due to sufficient cover, but others heating up to well over 30C. This large pool ranged between 29C and 33C, which, so far, the Mediterranean barbel still seem to be able to withstand

#freshwaterecology #freshwaterstream #environmentalchange #fieldbiology #fieldresearch #riversampling #lagarrotxa #riuscatalans
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There is large temperature variation in the refuge pools we are sampling, with many actually keeping a moderate temperature due to sufficient cover, but others heating up to well over 30C. This large pool ranged between 29C and 33C, which, so far, the Mediterranean barbel still seem to be able to withstand #freshwaterecology #freshwaterstream #environmentalchange #fieldbiology #fieldresearch #riversampling #lagarrotxa #riuscatalans
6 months ago
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4/9
Just had a fantastic week in Stockholm, attending and presenting at #ISBE2022, the bi-annual conference of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology. So great to see and chat with so many colleagues from around the world and see a week full of highly diverse and inspiring talks at such a great location!

#scienceconference #ecology #behavioralecology #sciencetalk
Just had a fantastic week in Stockholm, attending and presenting at #ISBE2022, the bi-annual conference of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology. So great to see and chat with so many colleagues from around the world and see a week full of highly diverse and inspiring talks at such a great location!

#scienceconference #ecology #behavioralecology #sciencetalk
Just had a fantastic week in Stockholm, attending and presenting at #ISBE2022, the bi-annual conference of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology. So great to see and chat with so many colleagues from around the world and see a week full of highly diverse and inspiring talks at such a great location!

#scienceconference #ecology #behavioralecology #sciencetalk
Just had a fantastic week in Stockholm, attending and presenting at #ISBE2022, the bi-annual conference of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology. So great to see and chat with so many colleagues from around the world and see a week full of highly diverse and inspiring talks at such a great location!

#scienceconference #ecology #behavioralecology #sciencetalk
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Just had a fantastic week in Stockholm, attending and presenting at #ISBE2022, the bi-annual conference of the International Society for Behavioural Ecology. So great to see and chat with so many colleagues from around the world and see a week full of highly diverse and inspiring talks at such a great location! #scienceconference #ecology #behavioralecology #sciencetalk
6 months ago
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5/9
Besides fish, frogs, and snakes, we also occasionally find turtles in our refuge pools! Including this native species, the Tortuga de rierol (Mauremys leprosa)

#turtle #tortoise #tortuga #tortugarierol #herpetologia #catalunya_natura
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Besides fish, frogs, and snakes, we also occasionally find turtles in our refuge pools! Including this native species, the Tortuga de rierol (Mauremys leprosa) #turtle #tortoise #tortuga #tortugarierol #herpetologia #catalunya_natura
6 months ago
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6/9
An intermittent stream in the pyrenean foothills in the midst of the dry season with only some small pools with increasingly warm water on the blank bedrock remaining.. Photo by @galdric98, Riera d'Escales, Garrotxa

#drystream #garrotxa #riusdecatalunya #intermittentstream
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An intermittent stream in the pyrenean foothills in the midst of the dry season with only some small pools with increasingly warm water on the blank bedrock remaining.. Photo by @galdric98, Riera d'Escales, Garrotxa #drystream #garrotxa #riusdecatalunya #intermittentstream
6 months ago
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7/9
Aquatic snakes are one of the main predators of fish of the freshwater habitats in the region. In intermittent streams refuge pools may offer a safe haven from droughts but are an ideal location for snakes and other predators to come for a snack. Indeed, almost every day out in the field we saw at least one snake and often multiple individuals looking out for an easy meal. Here you can see the Iberian Grass Snake (Natrix astreptophora), curiously coming towards me while a school of Mediterranean Barbel hurries past. It is larger (up to 125cm) and less common than the Viperine water Snake (Natrix maura), and tends to be less aquatic, so I was really happy to see this individual swimming from up close!

#watersnake #natrix #natrixastreptophora #natrixnatrix #herpetologia #swimmingsnake #grasssnake #altagarrotxa #catalunya_natura #reservafluvial
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Aquatic snakes are one of the main predators of fish of the freshwater habitats in the region. In intermittent streams refuge pools may offer a safe haven from droughts but are an ideal location for snakes and other predators to come for a snack. Indeed, almost every day out in the field we saw at least one snake and often multiple individuals looking out for an easy meal. Here you can see the Iberian Grass Snake (Natrix astreptophora), curiously coming towards me while a school of Mediterranean Barbel hurries past. It is larger (up to 125cm) and less common than the Viperine water Snake (Natrix maura), and tends to be less aquatic, so I was really happy to see this individual swimming from up close! #watersnake #natrix #natrixastreptophora #natrixnatrix #herpetologia #swimmingsnake #grasssnake #altagarrotxa #catalunya_natura #reservafluvial
7 months ago
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8/9
My field technician @galdric98 exploring the Llierca river to document the distribution of fish and location of refuge pools. Here are some of the deepest parts of the river. That is, when there is water. Now it is almost completely dry already and it feels more like walking on the moon #dryriverbed #rivergorge #sadernes #fieldwork #freshwaterfish #freshwaterecology #natgeoexplore #moonwalk
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My field technician @galdric98 exploring the Llierca river to document the distribution of fish and location of refuge pools. Here are some of the deepest parts of the river. That is, when there is water. Now it is almost completely dry already and it feels more like walking on the moon #dryriverbed #rivergorge #sadernes #fieldwork #freshwaterfish #freshwaterecology #natgeoexplore #moonwalk
7 months ago
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9/9

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Behavioural biologist | PhD | @insidenatgeo explorer. I study how animals live and move together and cope with environmental change 🐟🦎🐦

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fredbartu Frederic Bartumeus @fredbartu ·
1 Dec

#Aedes #albopictus #invasion #Spain. Our last work on population genetics @FedericaLucati @johnrbpalmer reveals that human commuting patterns connect and mix distant mosquito populations, mixing genetically populations that would check our contribution. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24963-3#Sec14

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ralfkurvers Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers ·
31 Oct

Looking for two 3-yr postdocs (1 experimental, 1 modeling) to work on socio-ecological drivers of human foraging in the wild in bustling Berlin. Position 1: https://scioi.softgarden.io/job/24167209?l=en Position 2: https://www.scienceofintelligence.de/call-for-applications/open-positions/ (coming soon)

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While snorkelling in the Bodensee, I found a large number of pikes stalking juvenile fish in the reeds along the shores. The pikes here can easily get 1m and are actually quite easy to approach to within 2m when quiet. Beautiful to see these hunters up close in the wild.

See all videos about our work...

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animal personality art automation award boldness Cambridge coding collaboration collective behaviour college conference corvids experiment fellowship fieldwork fish individual heterogeneity invited Konstanz lab leadership news outreach paper parasitism PhD photo physiology pike poster project public engagement python R raspberry pi schooling speed stickleback sticklebacks student talk tracking video visit von humboldt

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