Professor Richard Holland
Professor in Animal Behaviour / Director of Research
Affiliations
Contact info
Room: 531 Brambell
Email: r.holland@bangor.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1248 382344
Web: Bangor Animal Navigation Group Google Scholar Researchgate
My research and teaching interests fall broadly in the area of animal behaviour and sensory biology. I am the course co-ordinator for the Zoology with Animal Behaviour degree (C3D3) and teach on several animal behaviour focused modules, as well as ornithology. My research questions focus the cognitive processes and sensory mechanisms by which animals navigate and migrate. While my principle focus is at the level of the whole organism I also incorporate aspects of neurobiology, molecular biology, and physics to identify the environmental cues, sensory pathways and mechanisms used by animals to decide how, when and where to move. My work also operates in a comparative framework as I compare and contrast across species, taxa, age class, spatial scale and sensory mechanisms to reveal how natural selection has acted to shape navigation behaviour in different animal groups. New avenues my lab is exploring include the impact of artificial light and electromagnetic noise on navigation and spatial cognition, and the impact of antimicrobial resistant bacteria on bird behaviour.
Biography:
2021-2024, Director of Research, School of Natural Sciences
2020-current, Professor in Animal Behaviour
2017-2020, Senior Lecturer, Bangor University
2016-2017, Lecturer, Bangor University
2011-2016, Lecturer, Queen’s University Belfast
2009-2010, Research scientist, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
2006-2008, Marie Curie Outgoing International fellow, Princeton University and University of Leeds
2002-2005, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Leeds
1999-2002, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Nebraska
1994-1998, DPhil, Oxford University
1990-1993, BSc (Hons), University of Nottingham
Research Area
- E-pub ahead of print
Migratory bats are sensitive to magnetic inclination changes during the compass calibration period
Schneider, W. T., Holland, R. A., Keišs, O. & Lindecke, O., Nov 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Biology letters. 19, 11, p. 20230181Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Migratory navigation in birds: new opportunities in an era of fast-developing tracking technology
Guilford, T., Akesson, S., Gagliardo, A., Holland, R. A., Mouritsen, H., Muheim, R., Wiltschko, R., Wiltschko, W. & Bingman, V. P., Nov 2011, In: Journal of Experimental Biology. 214, 22, p. 3705-3712 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Nature’s GPS: how animals use the natural world to perform extraordinary feats of navigation
Holland, R., 30 Dec 2021, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
- Published
Navigation by extrapolation of geomagnetic cues in a migratory songbird
Kishkinev, D., Packmor, F., Thomas, Z., Hans, W., Mouritsen, H., Chernetsov, N. & Holland, R., 12 Apr 2021, In: Current Biology. 31, 7, p. 1563-1569Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Navigation: Bat orientation using Earth's magnetic field
Holland, R., Thorup, K., Vonhof, M. J., Cochran, W. W. & Wikelski, M., 7 Dec 2006, In: Nature. 444, 7120, p. 702 1 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Orientation and Navigation in Bats
Holland, R., 2010, Encyclopedia of Animal Behaviour. Academic Press, Vol. 2. p. 177-185 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
Orientation and flight behaviour identify the Soprano pipistrelle as a migratory bat species at the Baltic Sea coast
Lindecke, O., Elksne, A., Holland, R., Petersons, G. & Voigt, C. C., 1 May 2019, In: Journal of Zoology. 308, 1, p. 56-65Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Orientation and navigation in bats: known unknowns or unknown unknowns?
Holland, R., Mar 2007, In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 61, 5, p. 653-660 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Orientation of vagrant birds on the Faroe Islands in the Atlantic Ocean
Thorup, K., Ortvad, T., Holland, R., Rabøl, J., Kristensen, M. & Wikelski, M., 1 Oct 2012, In: Journal of Ornithology. 153, 4, p. 1261-1265 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Over 50 years of behavioural evidence on the magnetic sense in animals: what has been learnt and how?
Schneider, W., Holland, R. & Lindecke, O., Mar 2023, In: The European Physical Journal Special Topics. 232, 2, p. 269-278 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review