I’m a zoologist, studying animal social behaviour and hormones. My collaborators, students, and I follow wildlife that we individually mark and end up with huge datasets that include hundreds of animals, their morphometrics, social, sexual, and maternal behaviours, vocalizations, and proximity.
ABOUT MY WORK
What mediates the trade-offs between reproduction and fitness?
Are there sex differences in the associations between testosterone and fitness-related behaviours such as copulation success? Risk-taking behaviour? Parental behaviour? Vocal communication?
Do animals communicate their attribute in an honest manner? Does it matter who they are ‘speaking’ with?
Sexual allocation theories and do they apply in utero as well?
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1. Koren, L., Weissman, Y., Shnitzer, I., Beukboom, R., Bar Ziv, E., Demartsev, V., Barocas, A., Ilany, A. & Geffen, E. 2019. Testosterone is associated with male and female copulation success in opposite ways in wild rock hyrax. Behavioral Ecology 30(6): 1611-1617. DOI:10.1093/beheco/arz125
2. Weissman, Y., Demartsev, V., Ilany, A., Barocas, A., Bar-Ziv, E., Geffen, E. & Koren, L. 2019. Social context mediates testosterone’s effect on snort acoustics in male hyrax songs. Hormones and Behavior. DOI:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.05.004
3. Fishman, R., Vortman, Y., Shanas, U. & Koren, L. 2019. Non-model species deliver non-model results: Nutria female fetuses neighboring males in utero have lower testosterone. Hormones and Behavior 111: 105-109. DOI:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.02.011
4. Koren, L., Bryan, H., Matas, D., Tinman, S., Fahlman, A., Whiteside, D., Smits, J. & Wynne-Edwards, K.E. 2019. Towards the validation of endogenous steroid testing in wildlife hair. Journal of Applied Ecology 56: 547-561. DOI:10.1111/1365-2664.13306
5. Schonblum, A., Arnon, L., Salzer, L., Hadar, E., Meizner, I., Wiznitzer, A., Weller, A. & Koren, L. 2018. Can hair steroids predict pregnancy longevity? Reproductive Biology 18: 410-415. DOI:10.1016/j.repbio.2018.09.004
RESEARCH PROJECTS
• Do wild groups that are more cohesive live longer? Do ‘stress’ hormones mediate that relationship?
• Is there sperm competition in wildlife groups where females mate with multiple males? Are sperm characteristics related to male social status? Testosterone levels?
• Are hyrax counter-song characteristics related to the counter-singer?
• Is wildlife personality related to the microbiome? Risk-taking behaviour?
• Do wildlife in polluted areas (i.e., cities) behave and communicate differently that those in nature reserves? Is it related to sex differences?