My research activities mostly focus on acoustic communication of various small mammals (e.g., rodents, insectivores, primates or marsupials) and include free-living populations as well as populations in human care. Considering the free-living populations, my research is mostly centred around alarm calls of the critically endangered European ground squirrel. Since now, most of my work included recording and analysing these alarm calls and investigating the patterns of intra-species variability (e.g., individual variability, geographic variability and differences between sexes and age groups). A dedicated and talented student is needed to further investigate how the ground squirrels perceive these differences, and how, for example, these differences may affect anti-predatory behaviour of reintroduced colonies.
Regarding the ex-situ populations, my research is mostly focused on using the bioacoustics as a tool to improve husbandry and breeding efforts for zoo housed animals. I'm also promoting science and evidence-based practices in husbandry of zoo animals.
I keep a long-term cooperating with the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic as this agency runs the Management plan for the European ground squirrel in the Czech Republic. My research has also been conducted at zoos, especially the Prague Zoo. Here I've been working with European ground squirrels, bush babies or slow lorises.
