Research priorities
The director’s office and technical-economic department at the Brno research facility is responsible for the organisation and technical management of the whole institute.
Research facilities at Brno include a library, zoological collections and an accredited breeding facility for experimental fish.
Research teams at Brno use model vertebrate groups to study basic questions in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, ethology, applied zoology, the roles of parasites and invasive species, and protection and management of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The main topics studied include:
- reproductive strategies in fish and birds,
- adaptation and coevolution between parasites and hosts (e.g. cuckoo vs. passerine birds; bitterling vs. bivalves),
- population biology, ecology and biogeography of annual fishes (e.g. Nothobranchius, Cynolebias),
- relationship between metazoan parasites and their hosts (fish, birds),
- fish communities and populations of key species in various aquatic habitats,
- invasive species,
- migration connectivity and seasonal interaction of long-distance migrants,
- ecology and behaviour of bats, especially during hibernation,
- population genetics and interspecies hybridisation in deer (red deer, sika),
- genetic conservation of large carnivores,
- spatial activity and migration of large carnivores in fragmented landscapes,
- food ecology of herbivorous mammals and their impact on the environment food biology of primates.