Panagiotis Nikolaou

I am an ornithologist interested in behavioral adaptation and the conservation of birds in temperate and tropical regions.I completed my BSc in Biology at Lancaster University with a strong focus on ecological subjects. My bachelor’s thesis concerned the behavioral ecology of the Eurasian blue tit. Between my bachelor’s and master’s degrees I completed an internship with the Ministry of the Interior Game and Fauna Wildlife Service of Cyprus, conducting research on the endemic Cyprus coal tit. I went on to complete an MRes in Ecology and Environmental Biology at the University of Glasgow. My master’s thesis examined the effects of habitat degradation on understory birds in Equatorial Guinea, with a focus on ant following birds and understory insectivores. Following my MRes, I worked two seasons in the Scottish highlands as a fieldwork assistant with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) on a project looking at the relationship between mountain hare populations and the tick burden on grouse chicks. Recently, I won a PhD grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) to study the spatial use of ant-following birds in primary and disturbed forests in the Gulf of Guinea as part of the greater Gulf of Guinea Research Project (GGRP).