Clemens Küpper
@chorlnev.bsky.social
Interested in Biodiversity and why there is so much variation out there. Evolution, Genetics, Behaviour, Ecology, Conservation, nowadays also Physiology. Studying Waders/Shorebirds. Currently at Max Planck BI.
The diversity in plumage and behaviors of #ruffs is stunning and probably an underused asset for their #conservation @simonvandepitte.bsky.social #IWSG2025 #shorebirds #ornithology
September 28, 2025 at 3:04 PM
The diversity in plumage and behaviors of #ruffs is stunning and probably an underused asset for their #conservation @simonvandepitte.bsky.social #IWSG2025 #shorebirds #ornithology
Something to look for in #wader nests. Blue eggs are becoming increasingly common in #ruff clutches @jellybb.bsky.social #IWSG2025 #shorebirds #conservation
September 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Something to look for in #wader nests. Blue eggs are becoming increasingly common in #ruff clutches @jellybb.bsky.social #IWSG2025 #shorebirds #conservation
Time is up for my brief fieldwork stint at #Liminganlahti. I have to leave right at the hatching peak of the #ruffs but the work is left in the capable hands of a wonderful team.
June 16, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Time is up for my brief fieldwork stint at #Liminganlahti. I have to leave right at the hatching peak of the #ruffs but the work is left in the capable hands of a wonderful team.
A handful of cuteness that improves our survival estimates. Usually, we only ever see chicks in the field when they are still near their nest. After that they stay hidden in the vegetation. Last night we found this complete #ruff brood with ~7 day chicks in great shape with a thermal camera.
June 16, 2025 at 9:07 AM
A handful of cuteness that improves our survival estimates. Usually, we only ever see chicks in the field when they are still near their nest. After that they stay hidden in the vegetation. Last night we found this complete #ruff brood with ~7 day chicks in great shape with a thermal camera.
Capture season at Liminganlahti. When we ring the #ruff chicks, we can often also catch their mums. Reeves (female ruffs) lead a very secret life. Thanks to our long term monitoring we learned that many return to breed in the next year to the same meadow.
June 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Capture season at Liminganlahti. When we ring the #ruff chicks, we can often also catch their mums. Reeves (female ruffs) lead a very secret life. Thanks to our long term monitoring we learned that many return to breed in the next year to the same meadow.
Brimming with life during the day time, coastal meadows in Northern Botnia are soothingly calm and peaceful for the few hours the sun is gone. #fieldwork #delights
June 11, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Brimming with life during the day time, coastal meadows in Northern Botnia are soothingly calm and peaceful for the few hours the sun is gone. #fieldwork #delights
A woodcock mum feeding with her chicks in front of our kitchen window. Very rare treat to see such chicks in the open 🐥🐥🐥
June 8, 2025 at 6:03 AM
A woodcock mum feeding with her chicks in front of our kitchen window. Very rare treat to see such chicks in the open 🐥🐥🐥
Ruff clutches are expertly hidden, the eggs are camouflaged and very difficult to find. But this year’s field crew with @jellybb.bsky.social @simonvandepitte.bsky.social @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social is on 🔥 and found already plenty of them.
June 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Ruff clutches are expertly hidden, the eggs are camouflaged and very difficult to find. But this year’s field crew with @jellybb.bsky.social @simonvandepitte.bsky.social @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social is on 🔥 and found already plenty of them.
ethoges.bsky.social 2025 Meeting Tutzing is about to take off. First, will be a symposium on Evolutionary Behavioural Genetics this morning, organised with @dickmerrill.bsky.social and featuring diverse taxa. Looking forward to exciting contributions and a stimulating discussion.
February 19, 2025 at 5:53 AM
ethoges.bsky.social 2025 Meeting Tutzing is about to take off. First, will be a symposium on Evolutionary Behavioural Genetics this morning, organised with @dickmerrill.bsky.social and featuring diverse taxa. Looking forward to exciting contributions and a stimulating discussion.
It has been a fantastic collaborative effort with many brains and skilled hands. In addition to those in the thread: Janina Tokarz, Gabi Möller, Christoph Sager, Barbara Bastos, Manfred Gahr, @fusanilab.bsky.social @dyarken.bsky.social. A lot more to learn from those beautiful ruffs! (12/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
It has been a fantastic collaborative effort with many brains and skilled hands. In addition to those in the thread: Janina Tokarz, Gabi Möller, Christoph Sager, Barbara Bastos, Manfred Gahr, @fusanilab.bsky.social @dyarken.bsky.social. A lot more to learn from those beautiful ruffs! (12/n)
To me, this is a beautiful example how for evolution at work. Changes to a single gene can cause dramatic effects and create new phenotypes. Faeders & Satellites had wholesale changes to their HSD17B2, e.g. sequence, total and allele-specific expression plus it became active in new tissues (11/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
To me, this is a beautiful example how for evolution at work. Changes to a single gene can cause dramatic effects and create new phenotypes. Faeders & Satellites had wholesale changes to their HSD17B2, e.g. sequence, total and allele-specific expression plus it became active in new tissues (11/n)
Testosterone has many effects in the body but its not always helpful. Faeders and Satellites pursue chilled mating strategies and can limit testosterone actions to their testes e.g. for sperm production. They then turn it off in the blood to starve target tissues from this critical ligand. (10/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Testosterone has many effects in the body but its not always helpful. Faeders and Satellites pursue chilled mating strategies and can limit testosterone actions to their testes e.g. for sperm production. They then turn it off in the blood to starve target tissues from this critical ligand. (10/n)
We didn’t find any obvious errors and as a last throw of the dice, we decided to look at expression in the blood, a tissue where HSD17B2 is usually not expressed… And, yes, it was not expressed in Independents, but of all tissues, HSD17B2 was strongest expressed in Faeders and Satellites!!! (9/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
We didn’t find any obvious errors and as a last throw of the dice, we decided to look at expression in the blood, a tissue where HSD17B2 is usually not expressed… And, yes, it was not expressed in Independents, but of all tissues, HSD17B2 was strongest expressed in Faeders and Satellites!!! (9/n)
Frankly, this made little sense as the testosterone differences in the testes were completely opposite to the differences we had observed in the blood. At this stage, I got seriously concerned that something went very wrong in our analyses. (8/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Frankly, this made little sense as the testosterone differences in the testes were completely opposite to the differences we had observed in the blood. At this stage, I got seriously concerned that something went very wrong in our analyses. (8/n)
There were still a lot of gaps. So, we (that is @coucal.bsky.social) next examined the tests, the main production site of testosterone. We were in for a big surprise; we learned that those peaceful Satellites and Faeders produced 7-8x more testosterone than those aggressive Independents (7/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
There were still a lot of gaps. So, we (that is @coucal.bsky.social) next examined the tests, the main production site of testosterone. We were in for a big surprise; we learned that those peaceful Satellites and Faeders produced 7-8x more testosterone than those aggressive Independents (7/n)
Faeders and Satellites preferably expressed derived HSD17B2 variants and computer models and enzymatic tests with colleagues @www.helmholtz-munich.de showed that the new variants are much more powerful enzymes than the original one. The #ruff supergene has changed to produce “super enzymes” (6/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Faeders and Satellites preferably expressed derived HSD17B2 variants and computer models and enzymatic tests with colleagues @www.helmholtz-munich.de showed that the new variants are much more powerful enzymes than the original one. The #ruff supergene has changed to produce “super enzymes” (6/n)
The biggest expression differences were in the supergene region with one stand-out-gene: HSD17B2. HSD17B2 encodes a hydroxysteroid-dehydrogenase that turns testosterone into androstenedione, a less potent androgen. And Satellites and Faeders have lots of androstenedione in their blood (5/n).
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
The biggest expression differences were in the supergene region with one stand-out-gene: HSD17B2. HSD17B2 encodes a hydroxysteroid-dehydrogenase that turns testosterone into androstenedione, a less potent androgen. And Satellites and Faeders have lots of androstenedione in their blood (5/n).
To begin with, we (rather @jasmineloveland.bsky.social ) sampled brain areas associated with social behaviors, androgen regulation/production from breeding males. This allowed @alexzemella.bsky.social, Vladi Jovanovic and Katja Nowick to test for differences in gene expression between morphs (4/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
To begin with, we (rather @jasmineloveland.bsky.social ) sampled brain areas associated with social behaviors, androgen regulation/production from breeding males. This allowed @alexzemella.bsky.social, Vladi Jovanovic and Katja Nowick to test for differences in gene expression between morphs (4/n)
Ruffs are exceptionally diverse and feature three male mating morphs that differ in their social behaviours. Aggressive Independents, sneaky Faeders and flashy Satellites. (2/n)
January 24, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Ruffs are exceptionally diverse and feature three male mating morphs that differ in their social behaviours. Aggressive Independents, sneaky Faeders and flashy Satellites. (2/n)
Hats off! (or rather PhD hat on?). James Tolliver overcame a lot of personal challenges to successfully defend his PhD today. Like the title of his thesis: "Ruff persistence...". Very proud that he has fledged!
January 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Hats off! (or rather PhD hat on?). James Tolliver overcame a lot of personal challenges to successfully defend his PhD today. Like the title of his thesis: "Ruff persistence...". Very proud that he has fledged!
Overall, activity in #ruffs has all the characteristics of a personality traits in ruffs and becomes reasonably stable during the first winter. This work provides a rare example for how personality traits develop in early life. (6/7)
January 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Overall, activity in #ruffs has all the characteristics of a personality traits in ruffs and becomes reasonably stable during the first winter. This work provides a rare example for how personality traits develop in early life. (6/7)
Despite the age-related changes, activity was highly repeatable in individual juveniles. But beside the individual variation, there are strong differences between sexes with females moving further than males. And only subtle differences between morphs. (5/7)
January 8, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Despite the age-related changes, activity was highly repeatable in individual juveniles. But beside the individual variation, there are strong differences between sexes with females moving further than males. And only subtle differences between morphs. (5/7)
Veronika used automated tracking to calculate walking distances of hand-raised chicks in an open field test to examine whether #ruff 🐥 🐥 🐥 differ in “activity in an unfamiliar environment”, a proxy for #exploration behaviour. (3/7)
January 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Veronika used automated tracking to calculate walking distances of hand-raised chicks in an open field test to examine whether #ruff 🐥 🐥 🐥 differ in “activity in an unfamiliar environment”, a proxy for #exploration behaviour. (3/7)
Ruffs are phenotypically and genetically diverse with large differences between males and females. A supergene contributes to further variation within the sexes, especially in reproductive behaviour but little is known whether the supergene also underlies further behavioural variation. (2/7)
January 8, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Ruffs are phenotypically and genetically diverse with large differences between males and females. A supergene contributes to further variation within the sexes, especially in reproductive behaviour but little is known whether the supergene also underlies further behavioural variation. (2/7)