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
- Published
Personality effects on spatial learning: comparisons between visual conditions in a weakly-electric fish
Kareklas, K., Elwood, R. W. & Holland, R., 2017, In: Ethology.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Place versus response learning in fish: a comparison between species
McAroe, C. L., Craig, C. M. & Holland, R., Jan 2016, In: Animal Cognition. 19, 1, p. 153-161Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Plasticity varies with boldness in a weakly-electric fish
Kareklas, K., Arnott, G., Elwood, R. W. & Holland, R., 6 Jun 2016, In: Frontiers in Zoology. 13, 22Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Polarized skylight does not calibrate the compass system of a migratory bat
Lindecke, O., Voigt, C. C., Petersons, G. & Holland, R., 16 Sept 2015, In: Biology Letters. 11, 9, p. 1-4Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Principles and patterns of bat movements: From aerodynamics to ecology
Voigt, C. C., Frick, W., Holland, R., Holdereid, M., Kerth, G., Mello, M., Plowright, R., Swartz, S. & Yovel, Y., Sept 2017, In: Quarterly Review of Biology. 92, 3, p. 267-287 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review
- Published
Relationships between personality and lateralisation of sensory inputs
Kareklas, K., Elwood, R. W., Arnott, G. & Holland, R., Jul 2018, In: Animal Behaviour. 141, p. 127-135Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Repeated training of homing pigeons reveals age dependent idiosyncrasy and visual landmark use.
Griffiths, C., Schiffner, I., Price, E., Charnell-Hughes, M., Kishkinev, D. & Holland, R., Jul 2021, In: Animal Behaviour. 177, p. 159-170Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Satellite tracking of red-listed nominate lesser black-backed gulls (Larus f. fuscus): habitat specialisation in foraging movements raises novel conservation needs
Juvaste, R., Arriero, E., Gagliardo, A., Holland, R., Huttunen, M. J., Mueller, I., Thorup, K., Wikelski, M., Penttinen, M-L., Hannila, J. & Wistbacka, R., Apr 2017, In: Global Ecology and Conservation. 10, p. 220-230Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Sense of doubt: Inaccurate and alternate locations of virtual magnetic displacements may give a distorted view of animal magnetoreception ability
Schneider, W., Holland, R., Packmor, F. & Lindecke, O., 20 Feb 2023, In: Communications Biology. 6, 1, 8 p., 187.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Sensory systems and spatial memory in the fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus
Holland, R., Winter, P. & Waters, D. A., Aug 2005, In: Ethology. 111, 8, p. 715-725 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review