An ethologist studies animal behaviour, connecting its immediate causes, development, function and evolutionary history. Comparing observation with controlled intervention helps separate what an animal does from why the behavior occurs.
Barbara König is an ethologist whose work investigates cooperation and reproductive conflict in house mice. Her University of Zurich profile identifies her specialization in animal behaviour, while the university-hosted publication list links the full name to the1993 paper originally published under the byline B.König.[ref]
Barbara König profile in the University of Zurich Women in Science series. Official2017 profile: full name and specialization
[ref]Publications by Barbara König at the University of Zurich. Header and1993 Maternal investment entry: author identity
Barbara König, from the portrait linked in her official University of Zurich profile
. Her1993 communal breeding study compared solitary breeding females with familiar sister pairs and initially unfamiliar unrelated pairs. It measured offspring at weaning, distinguishing the number of litters and their size from the number and combined mass of young successfully reared. The familiar-sister comparison showed that shared care could improve a reproductive outcome without simply increasing the number of litters.[ref]
Maternal investment of communally nursing female house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) by B. König. Primary Abstract: comparison groups and measured reproductive outcomes
An original measurement example illustrates the distinction. Two females might each produce a litter of six, yet rear different numbers of young to weaning. Equal litter counts and equal initial litter sizes would then coexist with different rearing success. A study of social cooperation needs to specify which of those outcomes it measures.
The comparison also motivates careful controls: relatedness, familiarity and social circumstances need not vary independently. König's work turns a broad question about why animals share care into testable comparisons of behavior and individual reproductive consequences. The historical university profile is used for identity and specialization, rather than for a claim about a current appointment.
A researcher who coauthored experiments on food donations among vampire bats. Controlled fasting and records of directed donations helped compare reciprocal assistance with relatedness and harassment.[ref]
Food sharing in vampire bats: reciprocal help predicts donations more than relatedness or harassment by Gerald G. Carter and Gerald S. Wilkinson. 2013, experimental design and donation results
A researcher who coauthored experiments on food donations among vampire bats. Controlled fasting and records of directed donations helped compare reciprocal assistance with relatedness and harassment.[ref]
Food sharing in vampire bats: reciprocal help predicts donations more than relatedness or harassment by Gerald G. Carter and Gerald S. Wilkinson. 2013, experimental design and donation results
A researcher who coauthored experiments on cooperation in cleaner wrasse. Responses to simulated clients helped test how removal of feeding opportunities and chasing alter the cleaner’s choices.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments relating social opportunity to rapid changes in cichlid behavior and neural gene expression. Removal of a dominant individual created a controlled change in the social environment.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on parental care in great tits. Manipulating a partner’s provisioning independently of chick begging helped isolate the parent’s response to its partner.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored comparative and experimental work on mating traits in water striders. The study related interacting male and female structures to sexual conflict.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored comparative and experimental work on mating traits in water striders. The study related interacting male and female structures to sexual conflict.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments testing the contribution of a transferred reproductive peptide to female mating costs in Drosophila melanogaster. Comparing males differing in peptide production connected a particular component to lifetime performance.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments testing the contribution of a transferred reproductive peptide to female mating costs in Drosophila melanogaster. Comparing males differing in peptide production connected a particular component to lifetime performance.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored a comparison of birdsong with urban background noise. Measured song frequencies connected an acoustic environment with variation in animal communication.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored a comparison of birdsong with urban background noise. Measured song frequencies connected an acoustic environment with variation in animal communication.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on color patterns in guppies. Manipulating predation and visual backgrounds helped test explanations for differences among populations.[ref]
Natural selection on color patterns in Poecilia reticulata by John A. Endler. 1980, predation and background experiments
A researcher who coauthored experiments comparing dogs’ responses to their own odor, modified self-odor and control odors. The design separated novelty from some explanations based on self-associated scent.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored mark-test experiments in cleaner wrasse. Comparing visible and transparent marks, with and without a mirror, tested explanations of scraping behavior without making the behavior itself a direct measure of consciousness.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored mirror and mark-test experiments in Asian elephants. A large accessible mirror and sham marks helped distinguish mirror-directed exploration from responses to a visible mark.[ref]
Self-recognition in an Asian elephant by Joshua M. Plotnik and others. 2006, experimental controls and individual results
A researcher who coauthored experiments on mirror-oriented inspection in bottlenose dolphins. Mark and sham-mark conditions helped test whether inspection was directed toward otherwise unseen body regions.[ref]
Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence by Diana Reiss and Lori Marino. 2001, experimental conditions
A researcher who coauthored experiments on mirror-oriented inspection in bottlenose dolphins. Mark and sham-mark conditions helped test whether inspection was directed toward otherwise unseen body regions.[ref]
Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence by Diana Reiss and Lori Marino. 2001, experimental conditions
A researcher who coauthored experiments combining mirror exposure and hidden dye marks in chimpanzees. Self-directed touching after mirror exposure became an influential operational test in comparative cognition.[ref]
Chimpanzees: Self-Recognition by Gordon G. Gallup Jr.. 1970, mark-test procedure
A researcher who coauthored experiments separating effects of an immune challenge on pup retrieval and nest building in lactating MICE. Variation in ambient temperature helped distinguish generalized inactivity from context-sensitive maternal responses.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on hygienic behavior in honeybees. Comparing selected colonies under pathogen challenge connected a measured colony behavior to resistance.[ref]
Resistance to American foulbrood disease by honey bee colonies Apis mellifera bred for hygienic behavior by Marla Spivak and Gary S. Reuter. 2001, colony selection and brood assays
A researcher who coauthored field experiments introducing foraging innovations into wild bird populations. Persistent spread and preference for local variants supplied evidence about social transmission.[ref]
Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds by Lucy M. Aplin and others. 2015, experimental introduction and diffusion
A researcher who coauthored a framework for studying material transferred between animals. Distinguishing transfer from collection of external food clarified what must be measured to test functions of the exchange.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on maternally transmitted microbiota in dung beetles. Removing maternal material and varying environmental conditions helped test developmental consequences of the association.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments and sequence comparisons tracing microbial transfer through dung-beetle brood material. Parent–offspring comparisons connected a rearing structure with transmission of associated bacteria.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored a quantitative-genetic analysis of maternal provisioning in dung beetles. A breeding design separated contributions associated with offspring inheritance from contributions mediated through the mother’s care.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on food caching in scrub jays. Prior experience of pilfering and the presence of an observer altered later cache protection, connecting experience to prospective behavior.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments testing how great apes use experience with opaque or translucent barriers when anticipating another agent’s actions. Matched test videos helped isolate prior experience.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments measuring anticipatory looking in great apes during false-belief scenarios. Looking behavior supplied an operational response whose interpretation required comparison with alternative mechanisms.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored comparisons of chimpanzee performance in knowledge–ignorance and false-belief tasks. Matched competitive situations helped distinguish success on one task from evidence for the other capacity.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on cache protection when ravens could hear but not see competitors. Prior peephole experience helped test the role of inferred visual access.[ref]
Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitors by Thomas Bugnyar and others. 2016, peephole and playback conditions
A researcher who coauthored experiments on food competition in chimpanzees. Occlusion and access controls tested whether choices tracked what another individual could see.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments comparing chimpanzee responses to different human actions that produced the same withheld-food outcome. The matched outcomes helped distinguish responses to actions from responses to food availability alone.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored experiments on reward-induced changes in bumblebee responses to ambiguous cues. Behavioral tests and dopamine manipulation connected a change in state with several measured outcomes.[ref]
Unexpected rewards induce dopamine-dependent positive emotion-like state changes in bumblebees by Clint J. Perry and others. 2016, reward, ambiguous-cue and manipulation experiments
A researcher who coauthored experiments on obstacle avoidance in flying bats. Sensory manipulations connected acoustic information with successful flight around obstacles.[ref]
The sensory basis of obstacle avoidance by flying bats by Donald R. Griffin and others. 1941, sensory and acoustic experiments
A researcher who coauthored a framework distinguishing questions about causation, development, survival value and evolutionary history in ethology. These are complementary questions about a behavior rather than competing names for one explanation.[ref]
On aims and methods of Ethology by Nikolaas Tinbergen. 1963, four classes of explanation
A researcher who coauthored research relating visual pigments, light environments and mating preferences in cichlids. The comparison connected ecological conditions with a proposed mechanism of reproductive isolation.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored genetic mapping of mating preferences in Heliconius butterflies. Comparison of preference-associated regions with wing-pattern loci helped investigate how traits and preferences remain associated.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored genetic mapping of host adaptation and habitat preference in pea aphids. The study connected ecological specialization with potential barriers to gene exchange.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored mark-and-recapture studies of host-associated apple maggot flies. Measuring movements among host plants helped estimate a barrier to mating before fertilization.[ref]
A researcher who coauthored an analysis of sexual dimorphism and extinction patterns in fossil ostracods. The interpretation used body-form differences as a proxy for reproductive investment, making the proxy assumption part of the argument.[ref]
High male sexual investment as a driver of extinction in fossil ostracods by Maria João Fernandes Martins and others. 2018, dimorphism and extinction estimates
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