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Ira G. Federspiel
+44 (0)1223 742101
igf20@cam.ac.uk
I’ve always dreamed of working with animals, and from a young age I have been interested in animal behaviour, bird song and also bird watching. I studied Zoology at the University of Vienna, Austria and finished with a Master’s degree in 2006. Under the supervision of Prof Ludwig Huber and Dr Gyula K Gaydon I conducted a study on cooperation and causal understanding in keas (Nestor notabilis), New Zealand’s mountain parrots, at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology.
Inspired by the work of members of my lab in Vienna, various journal clubs and the literature, I developed a growing interest in social learning and started reading into this exciting research field. Having worked with parrots, I also wanted to work with the second bird group known for having extraordinary social and technical skills: the corvids. To prepare myself for working with corvids for my PhD, I went to the Konrad Lorenz research institute in Gruenau, Austria. For a few weeks I worked with the ravens (Corvus corax), looking at caching behaviour in the presence of a potential predator, a Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus).
Finally, my dream came true in October 2006: I started a PhD under the supervision of Nathan J Emery at the Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour.
Research
My research looks at sociality, social learning and 'personality' (differences between individuals of one species) in rooks (Corvus frugilegus), jackdaws (Corvus monedula) and Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius). I am assessing the social learning mechanism(s) employed by the birds, and personality, e.g. difference along the bold-shy axis. Finally, I will bring the three topics mentioned above together and look at how sociality and personality influence social learning skills.
My PhD is partially funded by the Cambridge European Trust, the Lundgren fund, a Balfour studenship and Gonville & Caius college.
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