Veterinary Public Health Institute, Animal Welfare Division

About us

Research

Current Research

Developing models for quantifying the effect of phenotypic and environmental variation on the credibility of effect size estimates. More Info. 

 

CV

I studied Biology and Zoology at the University of Vienna receiving my PhD in 2005, investigating social learning in marmosets. Thereafter I switched from primates to birds and from lab to field work, investigating social learning in keas at Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. After receiving my PhD I worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the CNRS-Strasbourg with Ronald Noë and the Humboldt University at Berlin with Peter Hammerstein, where I developed theoretical models to predict how the social structure of a group influences patterns of information propagation and cooperation. In 2012 I joined the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford, studying great and blue tits, with the goal to understand how the social role of an individual affects it’s reproductive success and how variation in social behaviour is maintained. I am member and scientific coordinator of Waldrappteam and elected fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. I joined the Division of Animal Welfare at the University of Bern in 2015. As member of the REFINE team I am developing experimental designs that will improve repeatability of pre-clinical animal research by optimally utilizing phenotypic and environmental variation.

Publications

For the full publication list, please check here.

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2022

Gómez, Yamenah; Berezowski, John; Jorge, Yandy Abreu; Gebhardt, Sabine; Vögeli, Sabine; Stratmann, Ariane; Toscano, Michael Jeffrey; Völkl, Bernhard (2022). Similarity in Temporal Movement Patterns in Laying Hens Increases with Time and Social Association. Animals, 12(5) MDPI 10.3390/ani12050555

Montalcini, Camille Marie; Völkl, Bernhard; Gómez, Yamenah; Gantner, Michael; Toscano, Michael J. (2022). Evaluation of an Active LF Tracking System and Data Processing Methods for Livestock Precision Farming in the Poultry Sector. Sensors, 22(2), p. 659. Molecular Diversity Preservation International MDPI 10.3390/S22020659

Grogger, Herwig A; Gossar, Martin; Makovec, Michael; Fritz, Johannes; Neugebauer, Katharina; Amann, Frederik; Voelkl, Bernhard (2022). A low-cost wind tunnel for bird flight experiments. Journal of ornithology, 163(2), pp. 599-610. Springer 10.1007/s10336-021-01945-2

2021

Sirovnik, Janja; Voelkl, Bernhard; Keeling, Linda Jane; Würbel, Hanno; Toscano, Michael Jeffrey (2021). Breakdown of the ideal free distribution under conditions of severe and low competition. Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 75(2) Springer-Verlag 10.1007/s00265-020-02949-3

Völkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno; Krzywinski, Martin; Altman, Naomi (2021). The standardization fallacy. Nature methods, 18(1), pp. 5-7. Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41592-020-01036-9

Varholick, Justin A.; Bailoo, Jeremy D.; Jenkins, Ashley; Völkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno (2021). A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Social Dominance Status and Common Behavioral Phenotypes in Male Laboratory Mice. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 14, p. 624036. Frontiers Research Foundation 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.624036

Voelkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno (2021). A reaction norm perspective on reproducibility. Theory in biosciences, 140(2), pp. 169-176. Springer 10.1007/s12064-021-00340-y

2020

Voelkl, Bernhard; Altman, Naomi S.; Forsman, Anders; Forstmeier, Wolfgang; Gurevitch, Jessica; Jaric, Ivana; Karp, Natasha A.; Kas, Martien J.; Schielzeth, Holger; Van de Casteele, Tom; Würbel, Hanno (2020). Reproducibility of animal research in light of biological variation. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 21(7), pp. 384-393. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41583-020-0313-3

Guerrero-Bosagna, Carlos; Pértille, Fábio; Gómez, Yamenah; Rezaei, Shiva; Gebhardt, Sabine; Vögeli, Sabine; Stratmann, Ariane; Völkl, Bernhard; Toscano, Michael J. (2020). DNA methylation variation in the brain of laying hens in relation to differential behavioral patterns. Comparative biochemistry and physiology Part D: Genomics and proteomics, 35, p. 100700. Elsevier 10.1016/j.cbd.2020.100700

Bailoo, Jeremy D.; Voelkl, Bernhard; Varholick, Justin; Novak, Janja; Murphy, Eimear; Rosso, Marianna; Palme, Rupert; Würbel, Hanno (2020). Effects of weaning age and housing conditions on phenotypic differences in mice. Scientific reports, 10(1), p. 11684. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41598-020-68549-3

Voelkl, Bernhard (2020). Quantitative characterization of animal social organization: Applications for epidemiological modelling. Mathematical biosciences and engineering, 17(5), pp. 5005-5026. AIMS Press 10.3934/mbe.2020271

Armstrong, Elena A.; Voelkl, Bernhard; Voegeli, Sabine Lea; Gebhardt-Henrich, Sabine G.; Guy, Jonathan H.; Sandilands, Victoria; Boswell, Tim; Toscano, Michael J.; Smulders, Tom V. (2020). Cell Proliferation in the Adult Chicken Hippocampus Correlates With Individual Differences in Time Spent in Outdoor Areas and Tonic Immobility. Frontiers in veterinary science, 7(587) Frontiers Media 10.3389/fvets.2020.00587

Würbel, Hanno; Voelkl, Bernhard; Altman, Naomi S.; Forsman, Anders; Forstmeier, Wolfgang; Gurevitch, Jessica; Jaric, Ivana; Karp, Natasha A.; Kas, Martien J.; Schielzeth, Holger; Van de Casteele, Tom (2020). Reply to ‘It is time for an empirically informed paradigm shift in animal research’. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 21(11), pp. 661-662. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41583-020-0370-7

Fritz, Johannes; Eberhard, Barbara; Esterer, Corinna; Goenner, Bernhard; Trobe, Daniela; Unsoeld, Markus; Voelkl, Bernhard; Wehner, Helena; Scope, Alexandra (2020). Biologging is suspect to cause corneal opacity in two populations of wild living Northern Bald Ibises (Geronticus eremita). Avian Research, 11(1) BioMed Central 10.1186/s40657-020-00223-8

2019

Voelkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno (January 2019). A Reaction Norm Perspective on Reproducibility (bioRxiv 510941). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 10.1101/510941

Voelkl, Bernhard (2019). Multiple testing: correcting for alpha error inflation with false discovery rate (FDR) or family-wise error rate? Animal behaviour, 155, pp. 173-177. Elsevier Ltd. 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.07.001

Fritz, Johannes; Unsöld, Markus; Voelkl, Bernhard (2019). Back into European wildlife: the reintroduction of the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita). In: Kaufman, Allison B.; Bashaw, Meredith J.; Maple, Terry L. (eds.) Scientific Foundations of Zoos and Aquariums: their Role in Conservation and Research (pp. 339-366). Cambridge University Press 10.1017/9781108183147.014

Varholick, Justin A.; Pontiggia, Alice; Murphy, Eimear; Daniele, Vanessa; Palme, Rupert; Voelkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno; Bailoo, Jeremy D. (2019). Social dominance hierarchy type and rank contribute to phenotypic variation within cages of laboratory mice. Scientific reports, 9(1), p. 13650. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41598-019-49612-0

2018

Bailoo, Jeremy Davidson; Murphy, Eimear Mary; Boada Saña, Maria; Varholick, Justin Adam; Hintze, Sara Anna Elisabet; Baussière, Caroline; Hahn, Kerstin Caroline; Göpfert, Christine; Palme, Rupert; Voelkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno (2018). Effects of Cage Enrichment on Behavior, Welfare and Outcome Variability in Female Mice. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 12(232), p. 232. Frontiers Research Foundation 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00232

Voelkl, Bernhard; Vogt, Lucile; Sena, Emily S; Würbel, Hanno (2018). Reproducibility of preclinical animal research improves with heterogeneity of study samples. PLoS biology, 16(2), e2003693. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003693

Vidondo, Beatriz; Voelkl, Bernhard (2018). Dynamic network measures reveal the impact of cattle markets and alpine summering on the risk of epidemic outbreaks in the Swiss cattle population. BMC veterinary research, 14(1), p. 88. BioMed Central 10.1186/s12917-018-1406-3

2017

Firth, JA; Voelkl, Bernhard; Crates, RA; Aplin, LM; Biro, D; Croft, DP; Sheldon, BC (2017). Wild birds respond to flockmate loss by increasing their social network associations to others. Proceedings of the Royal Society. Series B - biological sciences, 284(1854) Royal Society of London 10.1098/rspb.2017.0299

Voelkl, Bernhard; Frtiz, Johannes (2017). Relation between travel strategy and social organization of migrating birds with special consideration of formation flight in the northern bald ibis. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society. Series B - biological sciences, 372(1727) Royal Society of London 10.1098/rstb.2016.0235

Sperger, C; Heller, A; Voelkl, Bernhard; Fritz, J (2017). Flight strategies of migrating northern bald ibises—analysis of GPS data during human-led migration flights. In: Strobl, Josef; Zagel, Bernhard; Griesebner, Gerald; Blaschke, Thomas (eds.) AGIT 3-2017. AGIT : Journal für Angewandte Geoinformatik: Vol. 3 (pp. 62-72). Berlin: Wichmann 10.14627/537633007

2016

Voelkl, Bernhard; Würbel, Hanno (2016). Reproducibility Crisis: Are We Ignoring Reaction Norms? Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 37(7), pp. 509-510. Elsevier 10.1016/j.tips.2016.05.003

Voelkl, Bernhard; Firth, J A; Sheldon, B (2016). The socio-ecology of fear: Nonlethal predator effects on the social composition of wild bird flocks. Scientific Reports, 6(33476), pp. 1-10. Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/srep33476

2015

Voelkl, Bernhard (2015). The evolution of generalized reciprocity in social interaction networks. Theoretical population biology, 104, pp. 17-25. Elsevier 10.1016/j.tpb.2015.06.005

Voelkl, Bernhard; Portugal, Steven J.; Unsöld, Markus; Usherwood, James R.; Wilson, Alan M.; Fritz, Johannes (2015). Matching times of leading and following suggest cooperation through direct reciprocity during V-formation flight in ibis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - PNAS, 112(7), pp. 2115-2120. National Academy of Sciences NAS 10.1073/pnas.1413589112