Wherever humans intervene in nature, the living conditions of animals change. FWF START awardee Petra Sumasgutner, postdoctoral researcher at the BugnyarLab at KLF Grünau is using global datasets and machine learning to investigate how human behavior affects the foraging activities of birds of prey.

Petra Sumasgutner will use accelerometers in her START project “Acceleration for Food” to investigate how foraging strategies of animals change due to human-induced environmental impacts. She will use machine learning to analyze data sets collected by raptor researchers during the Corona pandemic lockdowns. The resulting algorithms will be applied to datasets previously obtained from experimental trials.

The young behavioral scientist will use most of the prize money to build up her own team and, in particular, to give young researchers the opportunity to establish themselves scientifically.