Yan Ropert Coudert

Etudiants

Publications

Penguiness book II

En direct des laboratoires

Yan Ropert Coudert

How does individual quality explain performances. I am interested in the role of experience (breeding and foraging) and age to help predators face environmental changes ?

 To address these questions I determine the breeding effort and success of several species using either long-term monitoring programs or automatic identification systems, which also gives us access to the age, sex and whereabouts of each individual. This approach is part of an International Polar Year project that I co-ordinate and which federate the research groups using a similar approach worldwide (US, UK, Italy, Australia, etc.).

 In parallel, I study the performances, especitally foraging efficiency, of individuals using a bio-logging approach where the activity of free ranging animals is monitored via animal-attached data recorders (Ropert-Coudert & Wilson 2005 Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment). Bio-logging is an approach that I am particularly keen to promote since giving its name in 2003.

One particular aspect of my studies deals with the way animals organize their foraging time to optimize energy gains, how they allocate resources between survival and reproduction and thus optimize their breeding success.

 Apart from this main topic, one important aspect of my work deals with the use of top predators as indicators of the status of an ecosysteme. I apply this concept to various species of seabirds like penguins, cormorants, and shearwaters (collaboration with the Donana Research team in Spain, in development) and sea snakes (collaboration with the CEBC of Chize).

Finally I also have several short-term, conservation-oriented projects. One of them proposes to investigate the effects of tourists approaching koalas on the animals heart rate and on vultures in a breeding center in South-West France.

For this latter we collaborate with Olivier Duriez (CNRS-MNHN-CERSP), soon at the University of Montpellier-CEFE) and the Rocher des Aigles at Rocamadour to investigate flight dynamics and heart rates of vultures during flight and in the presence/absence of tourists.

Keywords : Eco-physiology / Ecology / Behaviour / Foraging efficiency / Feeding activity / Predator-prey interactions / Hunting strategies / Time-budget / Seabirds / Marine mammals.

Contact : IPHC, +33 3 88 10 69 36, ou

Etudiants

Publications

Academic editor for PLoS one

More on my personal web page

The Penguiness Book : the first comprehensive database compiling detailed information about the diving depth and duration (average and maximum) of worldwide air-breathing animals (seabirds, marine mammals, reptiles and others).