Current research
Below is a summary of the main projects I am currently working on.
Effect of early experience on social and exploratory behaviour
I aim to understand how differences in early experiences can affect an individual’s ability to coordinate effectively with group members later in life and whether and if so, how these differences ultimately affect individual fitness. I am currently studying these questions in the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) and combine direct observations, experiments and data collected remotely with state-of-the-art techniques in computer vision and machine learning for data pre-processing and analysis.
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Egg communication
As part of this project I further study the use of acoustic cues to coordinate hatching and how vocal signals facilitate communications with parents and siblings when still within the egg. For this study I use both lab experiments with domestic chicken as well as field studies with PÅ«keko – Australasian swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus).
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Past research
Group coordination, communication and decision-making
Averly B, Sridhar VH, Demartsev V, Gall G, Manser M* & Strandburg-Peshkin A (2022). Disentangling influence over group speed and direction reveals multiple patterns of influence in moving meerkat groups. Scientific Reports 12(1), 1-11.
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Toni P*, Gall GEC*, Clutton-Brook TH & Manser MB (2020). Signalling adjustments to direct and indirect environmental effects on signal perception in meerkats. Plos One 15(8), e0238313. * joint first author​
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Papageorgiou D, Christensen C, , Klarevas-Irby JA, Nyaguthii B, Couzin ID, Farine, DR (2019). The multilevel society of a small brained bird. Current Biology 20. 1105-1121.
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Gall GEC, Strandburg-Peshkin, A, Clutton-Brock TH & Manser MB (2017). As dusk falls: collective decisions about the return to sleeping sites in meerkats. Animal Behaviour 132, 92-99.
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Gall GEC & Manser MB (2017). Group cohesion in foraging meerkats: follow the moving ‘vocal hot spot’. Royal Society Open Science 4.4, 170004.
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Movement and space use
Kranstauber B, Gall GEC, Vink T, Clutton-Brock T & Manser MB (2020).
Long-term movements and home-range changes: Rapid territory
shifts in meerkats. Journal of Animal Ecology.
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Bateman AW, Lewis MA, Gall GEC, Manser MB & Clutton-Brock TH
(2015). Territoriality and home-range dynamics in meerkats,
Suricata suricatta: a mechanistic modelling approach. Journal of Animal Ecology, 81(1), 260-71
Effect of anthropogenic disturbance on social behaviour
Gall GEC, Evans JE, Silk MJ, Ortiz-Jimenez CA & Smith JE (2022). Short-term social dynamics following anthropogenic and natural disturbances in a free-living mammal. Behavioral Ecology. arac032
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Plant Behaviour
Gall GEC, Pereira T, Jordan A & Meroz Y (2022). Fast estimation of plant growth dynamics using deep neural networks. Plant Methods 18(1), 1-11.
Study of historic epidemics
Gall GEC, Lautenschlager S & Bagheri HC (2016). Quarantine as a public health measure against an emerging infectious disease: syphilis in Zurich at the dawn of the modern era (1496-1585). GMS Hygiene and Infection Control. eCollection 2016.
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Dobay A, Gall GEC, Rankin DJ & Bagheri HC (2012). Renaissance model of an epidemic with quarantine. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 317, 348–358
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