Professor Richard Holland

Professor in Animal Behaviour / Director of Research

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

Zoology

  1. Article › Research › Peer-reviewed
  2. Published

    Flexibility of habitat use innovel environments: Insights from a translocation experiment with Lesser Black-backed Gulls

    van Toor, M., Arriero, E., Holland, R., J. Huttunen, M., Juvaste, R., Müller, I., Thorup, K., Wikelski, M. & Safi, K., 18 Jan 2017, In: Royal Society Open Science. 4, 160164.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  3. Further evidence for visual landmark involvement in the pigeon's familiar area map

    Burt, T., Holland, R. & Guilford, T., Jun 1997, In: Animal Behaviour. 53, p. 1203-1209 7 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  4. Published

    Grouping promotes risk-taking in unfamiliar settings

    Kareklas, K., Elwood, R. W. & Holland, R. A., 1 Mar 2018, In: Behavioural Processes. 148, p. 41-45

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  5. Published

    Homing pigeons use olfactory cues for navigation in England

    Guilford, T., Gagliardo, A., Chappell, J., Bonadonna, F., De Perera, T. B. & Holland, R., 1998, In: Journal of Experimental Biology. 201, 6, p. 895-900 6 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  6. How and why do insects migrate?

    Holland, R., Wikelski, M. & Wilcove, D. S., 11 Aug 2006, In: Science. 313, 5788, p. 794-796 3 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  7. Published

    Is There Visual Lateralisation of the Sun Compass in Homing Pigeons?

    Griffiths, C., Holland, R. & Gagliardo, A., 5 May 2020, In: Symmetry. 12, 5, 740.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  8. Published

    Juvenile Songbirds Compensate for Displacement to Oceanic Islands during Autumn Migration

    Thorup, K., Ortvad, T. E., Rabol, J., Holland, R., Tottrup, A. P. & Wikelski, M., 2011, In: PLoS ONE. 6, 3, e17903.

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  9. Large-Range Movements of Neotropical Orchid Bees Observed via Radio Telemetry

    Wikelski, M., Moxley, J., Eaton-Mordas, A., Lopez-Uribe, M. M., Holland, R., Moskowitz, D., Roubik, D. W. & Kays, R., 2010, In: PLoS ONE. 5

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  10. Published

    Migratory Eurasian reed warblers can use magnetic declination to solve the longitude problem

    Chernetsov, N., Pakhomov, A., Kobylkov, D., Kishkinev, D., Holland, R. & Mouritsen, H., 11 Sept 2017, In: Current Biology. 27, 17, p. 2647-2651

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

  11. 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. 20230181

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review