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Pablo MICHELENA
Chercheur Libre/ postdoctoral researcher
     

 

 

 

 

Service d'Ecologie Sociale (Unit of Social Ecology, USE)
ULB CP 231
  Campus de la Plaine
  Bd du Triomphe
  B-1050 Bruxelles

E-mail: pablo.michelena ...@ulb.ac.be
Tel: 02.650.51.19 (from abroad +32.2.650.51.19)
Fax: 02.650.59.87 (from abroad +32.2.650.59.87)

 



Thèmes de recherche/Recherches en cours


 

 

 

 

 

La vie en groupe est un phénomène très répandu dans le règne animal, mais les mécanismes comportementaux et cognitifs qui sont à l’oeuvre dans la coordination des activités collectives sont encore largement incompris. Mes travaux reposent sur un ensemble d’expériences sur le mouton, mené afin d’approfondir notre compréhension des processus de cohésion et de structuration des groupes sociaux chez les vertébrés. Ils mettent notamment en lumière une série de mécanismes comportementaux (nature et portée de l’influence des congénères, attraction interindividuelle, coordination des déplacements, synchronisation des activités) impliqués dans les phénomènes de cohésion et d’agrégation/ségrégation sociale chez les grands herbivores. La combinaison d’une approche théorique (modélisation informatique et mathématique) et d’une démarche expérimentale (méthodes d’analyses quantitatives issues de l’éthologie expérimentale) est un moyen de renforcer notre compréhension du lien existant entre les processus physiologiques individuels, les règles d’interaction sociale et la dynamique de l’organisation spatiale et temporelle à l’échelle des troupeaux. Mes principaux axes de recherches sont : (1) la caractérisation de profils comportementaux et l’étude de l’influence des différences interindividuelles sur l’organisation spatio-temporelle de groupes exploitant des ressources hétérogènes, (2) l’étude de l’influence des congénères sur l’état psychophysiologique des individus et sur l’expression des comportements sociaux impliqués dans la coordination des activités collectives.

The main goal of my research is to study the relationship between individual behaviour and the emergent properties of groups. In particular, the question of the nature of social organization arises with individuals belonging to distinct populations or species, whatever the scale of ecosystems considered (cells of sponge, social microbe, insects, fish...). In spite of the diversity of these biological models, one can observe a consistency in the logic of mechanisms underlying the processes of aggregation and segregation. My work consists of carrying out experiments on sheep in order to improve our understanding of the processes of group cohesion and the structure of social groups in vertebrates. The originality of this research, compared to the majority of work carried out with large mammals, is the quantification of behaviours involved in the cohesion of groups, and a new theoretical and experimental approach to group cohesion and segregation, which emphasizes the dynamics of the phenomenon and tests some assumptions made to account for social segregation under controlled conditions. The identification of generic laws underlying collective behaviour places this work in the category of fundamental research, but also offers prospects for applications in the field of wild and domesticated species management. My works made it possible to clarify several behavioural mechanisms involved in group decision-making processes such as social attraction, coordination of movements, activity synchronisation. My research interests are currently: (1) the characterisation of behavioural types in sheep and the analysis of the effect of behavioural differences on the spatio-temporal organisation of herds foraging in patchy environments (2) the study of physiological basis of social behaviours and to what extent social contexts modulate the expression of the key interactions involved in the coordination of collective activities.


Publications

 

 


2011

Michelena, P. & Deneubourg JL. How group size affects vigilance dynamics and time allocation patterns : The key role of imitation and tempo. PloS ONE 6(4): e18631. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018631

2010
Michelena, P., Jeanson R, Deneubourg JL & Sibbald AM. Personality and collective decision-making in foraging herbivores. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277, 1093-1099.

Pillot M. H., Gautrais J. Gouello P. Michelena, A. sibbald & Bon R. Moving together: Incidental leaders and naive followers. Behavioural Processes 83, 235-241.

2009

Michelena P., Sibbald A. M., Erhard, H. W. & McLeod J.E. “Effect of group size and personality on social foraging in heterogeneous environments : the distribution of sheep across patches”. Behavioral Ecology, 20, 145-152.

2008
Michelena P.
, Gautrais J., Gerard J.-F., Bon R. & Deneubourg J.-L. “Social cohesion in groups of sheep: effect of activity, sex composition and group size”. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 112, 81-93.

2007
Gautrais J., Michelena P., Sibbald A., Bon R. & Deneubourg J.-L. “Allelomimetic synchronization in merino sheep”. Animal Behaviour, 74, 1443-1454.

2006
Michelena P., Noël S., Gautrais J., Gerard J.-F., Deneubourg J.-L. & Bon R. “Sexual dimorphism, activity budget and synchrony in groups of sheep”. Oecologia, 148, 170-180.

Bon R., Deneubourg J.-L., Gerard J.-F. & Michelena P.“Sexual segregation in ungulates: from individual mechanisms to collective patterns”. In: Sexual segregation in Vertebrates (Eds. K. Ruckstuhl & P. Neuhaus). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 180-199.

2005
Michelena P., Henric K., Angibaud J.-M., Gautrais J., Lapeyronie P., Porter R. H., Deneubourg J.-L. & Bon R. “An experimental study of social attraction and spacing between the sexes in sheep”. Journal of Experimental Biology, 208, 4419-4426.

2004
Michelena P., Bouquet P. M., Dissac A., Fourcassié V., Lauga J., Gerard J.-F. & Bon R. “An experimental test of hypotheses explaining social segregation in dimorphic ungulates”. Animal Behaviour, 66,1371-1380.



Colloques / Congress proceedings
 


2009
Michelena P & Deneubourg J.L. “To what extent conspecifics affect activity budgeting in social animals? Experimental and theoretical approach”. XXI International Ethological Conference, 2009, Rennes, France.

2008
Michelena P., Sibbald A., Erhard H.W., McLeod J.E. 2008. “The effect of of group size and personality on social foraging : The distribution of sheep across patches”. In: Proceedings of the 42sd International Society for Applied Ethology Conference, Dublin 5-9 Août.

Michelena P., Jeanson R., Deneubourg J.L., Sibbald A. 2008. “The effect of personality on collective decision-making in sheep foraging on patchy environnements”. In: Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Behavioural Biology, Dijon 18-20 Juillet.

2006
Michelena P.
, Gautrais J., Gerard J.F., Bon R., Deneubourg J.L. 2006. “Activity synchrony in sheep. Linking experiment to model”. In: Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Behavioural Biology: Physiological Mechanisms in Behavioural Ecology, Belfast 4-6 Septembre.

2004
Michelena P.
, Henric K., Gautrais J., Deneubourg J.L., Bon R. 2004. “Discrimination sociale et distances interindividuelles chez le mouton mérinos”. In: Acte du Colloque annuel de la Société Française pour l’Etude du Comportement Animal: Comportement, cognition et adaptation, Caen, 17-19 Mars.

2003
Michelena P.
, Gabory A., Deneubourg J.L., Bon R. 2003. “Influences sociales et collectives sur les distances et les activités individuelles, chez le mouton mérinos (Ovis ariès L.)”. In: Acte du Colloque annuel de la Société Française pour l’Etude du Comportement Animal: L’individu dans son environnement, Tours, 6-8 Avril.

2002
Michelena P.
, Bon R., Fourcassié V. 2002. “Mécanismes comportementaux et sociaux générant la ségrégation sexuelle chez les ongulés. Le cas du mouton mérinos”. In: Actes du Colloque conjoint de la Société d’Ecophysiologie et de la Société Française pour l’Etude du Comportement Animal : Adaptation et Auto-organisation”, Strasbourg, 2-6 Avril.


Curriculum Vitae
 


2008-2010

Collective decision-making in ungulates: linking experiments to models
in collaboration with Jean-Louis Deneubourg. Postdoctoral position funded by the Post-doctoral fellow of the University Libre de Bruxelles and the Research Price of the fundation “Les Treilles’’
Unit of Social Ecology, Belgium.

2007-2008
Lecturer at the University Paul Sabatier of Toulouse
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, France.

2006-2007
An experimental study of the formation of groups in heterogeneous environments by Scottish Blackface sheep (Ovis aries)
in collaboration with Angela Sibbald and Hans Erhard. Postdoctoral position funded by the LAVOISIER program of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères de France.
The Macaulay Institute, Ecology Group, U.K.

2002-2006
Spatio temporal organisation in groups of ungulates: an experimental study of sexual segregation in merino sheep (Ovis aries)
PhD Thesis supervised by Richard Bon and Jean-Louis Deneubourg
and funded by by the LEURRE project of the Future and Emerging Technologies program of the European Community (IST-2001-35506).
Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, France.