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Marlen Kücklich

Position: Post-doc researcher

Research Group "Primate Behavioural Ecology"
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution
Deutscher Platz 6 
D-04103 Leipzig 
Germany

and

University of Leipzig Faculty of Life Science 
Institute of Biology 
Behavioral Ecology Research Group 
Talstrasse 33 
D-04103 Leipzig 
Germany

e-mail: marlen_kuecklich@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

Research Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Publications

Current research

Various species use olfactory cues for social communication and there is increasing evidence even for primates, which possess smaller olfactory structures in comparison to other mammals, that they use odours to communicate in various contexts as well. I am mainly interested in females communicating their menstrual cycle state to male conspecifics using their odours. During my PhD project, I validated suitable sampling techniques for collecting odour samples from (free-ranging) mammals and contributed to the understanding of olfactory fertility cues in two primate species: common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In my future work, I will focus on the verification of putative identified substances using chemical standards and on unravelling their metabolic origin.

Curriculum Vitae

Present position

since 12/2019 Scientific Assistant at the Institute of Biology,
Behavioral Ecology Group,
University of Leipzig
in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (MPI EVA)

Education

02/2015-12/2019PhD student at the University of Leipzig
in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (MPI EVA)
Dissertation title: “Olfactory fertility cues in primates
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Anja Widdig (University of Leipzig)
10/2012-09/2014Master of Science in Biology (with focus on Neurobiology and Behavior, in particular Behavioral Ecology in Primates)
Thesis title: "Is there a difference in olfactory profiles of chimpanzee females (Pan troglodytes) regarding menstrual cycle phases?"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Anja Widdig and Prof. Dr. Almuth Einspanier (University of Leipzig)
10/2009-09/2012Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg
Thesis title: "Der Einfluss von Gehegewechsel auf das Verhalten von Brillenpinguinen (Spheniscus demersus) im Leipziger Zoo"
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dietmar Weinert and Dr. Peter Fritzsche (Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

Work experience

10/2014-01/2015Research Assistant at the University of Leipzig
Organization for a research project on olfactory communication in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

Publications

2022

Jänig, S. *., Kücklich, M. *., Kulik, L., Zetzsche, M., Weiß, B. M. ǂ., & Widdig, A. ǂ. (2022). Olfactory inspection of female reproductive states in chimpanzees. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10: 884661.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Kücklich, M., Jänig, S., Kulik, L., Birkemeyer, C., Weiss, B. M., & Widdig, A. (2022). Towards an understanding multimodal traits of female reproduction in chimpanzees. Primates, 63, 365-376.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2019

Kücklich, M., Weiß, B. M., Birkemeyer, C., Einspanier, A., & Widdig, A. (2019). Chemical cues of female fertility states in a non-human primate. Scientific Reports, 9: 13716.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Kücklich, M. (2019). Olfactory fertility cues in primates. PhD Thesis, Universität, Leipzig.
BibTeX   Endnote   

2018

Peters, K., Worrich, A., Weinhold, A., Alka, O., Balcke, G., Birkemeyer, C., Bruelheide, H., Calf, O. W., Dietz, S., Duehrkop, K., Gaquerel, E., Heinig, U., Kuecklich, M., Kücklich, M., Macel, M., Mueller, C., Poeschl, Y., Pohnert, G., Ristok, C., Rodriguez, V. M., Ruttkies, C., Schuman, M., Schweiger, R., Shahaf, N., Steinbeck, C., Tortosa, M., Treutler, H., Ueberschaar, N., Velasco, P., Weiss, B. M., Widdig, A., Neumann, S., & van Dam, N. M. (2018). Current challenges in plant eco-metabolomics. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(5): 1385.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

Weiß, B. M., Kücklich, M., Thomsen, R., Henkel, S., Jänig, S., Kulik, L., Birkemeyer, C., & Widdig, A. (2018). Chemical composition of axillary odorants reflects social and individual attributes in rhesus macaques. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 72(4): 65.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2017

Kücklich, M., Möller, M., Marcillo, A., Einspanier, A., Weiß, B. M., Birkemeyer, C., & Widdig, A. (2017). Different methods for volatile sampling in mammals. PLoS One, 12(8): e0183440.
Open Access    DOI    BibTeX   Endnote   

2016

Birkemeyer, C. S., Thomsen, R., Jänig, S., Kücklich, M., Slama, A., Weiß, B. M., & Widdig, A. (2016). Sampling the body odor of primates: Cotton swabs sample semivolatiles rather than volatiles. Chemical Senses, 41(6), 525-535.
DOI    BibTeX   Endnote