Christian Rutz

Research Interests

I have broad interests in the fields of animal ecology (behavioural ecology, population ecology) and animal cognition (tool use, animal cultures, comparative cognition), and actively link both areas in my current research on New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). These crows manufacture and use tools for extractive foraging, and are notable for being the most prolific and sophisticated tool users amongst birds, and potentially all non-human animal species. Over the past five years, I have set up, and run, a field project in New Caledonia, studying these crows’ remarkable tool-use behaviour in its full ecological and social context. While I commit most of my time to this project, I keep pursuing another, established line of research on the predation ecology and population dynamics of northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), using long-term datasets from my urban study population in the city of Hamburg, Germany (1995–ongoing). I am a keen fieldworker and enjoy exploring innovative techniques for collecting data from wild, free-ranging animals. Most recently, we have developed, and successfully deployed, miniaturised animal-borne video cameras to study the undisturbed behaviour of wild birds (‘video-tracking’).

Other Interests

I have recently been awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship (2009–2014) for setting up an independent research group at Oxford, and for further developing my research project on the ecological, social and cognitive context of tool use in New Caledonian crows. Furthermore, I have been appointed to a Visiting Fellowship at the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2009–2011). Other recent awards include: finalist at the UK’s Technology and Innovation Awards (category: Environmental Technology; 2008); Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College, Oxford (2006–2008); Rhodes Scholarship (2001–2004); Oxford University Vice Chancellors’ Fund Award (2004); and scholarship of the ‘Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes’ (1995–2001).

Contacts

Selected Publications

• Bluff, L.A., Troscianko, J., Weir, A.A.S., Kacelnik, A., and C. Rutz (2010). Tool use by wild New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides at natural foraging sites. Proc. R. Soc. B, published online.
• von Bayern, A.M.P., Heathcote, R.J.P., Rutz, C., and A. Kacelnik (2009). The role of experience in problem solving and innovative tool use in crows. Curr. Biol. 19, 1965–1968.
• Rutz, C., and G.C. Hays (2009) New frontiers in biologging science. Biol. Lett. 5, 289–292.
• Rutz, C. (2008) The establishment of an urban bird population. J. Anim. Ecol. 77, 1008–1019.
• Rutz, C., Bluff, L.A., Weir, A.A.S., and A. Kacelnik (2007) Video cameras on wild birds. Science 318, 765.
• Rutz, C., and R.G. Bijlsma (2006) Food-limitation in a generalist predator. Proc. R. Soc. B 273, 2069–2076.
• Rutz, C., Whittingham, M.J., and I. Newton (2006) Age-dependent diet choice in an avian top predator. Proc. R. Soc. B 273, 579–586.
• Kenward, B., Weir, A.A.S., Rutz, C., and A. Kacelnik (2005) Tool manufacture by naive juvenile crows. Nature 433, 121.