Heike Iris Vester
My research interests are on mechanisms of social intelligence and vocal behaviour in marine mammals; influences and adaptions to changing environments with focus on conservation.
1) Social and vocal behaviour of social matrilineal whales, such as killer whales and pilot whales in northern Norway. Investigations of phonetic structures in animal communication.
2) Behaviour and occurrences of marine mammals in northern Norway, Patagonia in Chile and West Papua with interspecies comparisons and human interferences.
3) AI supported automated data analysis of large data set of Photo-ID and bio-acoustics.
PhD / Dr.rer.Nat in Biology (2017)
from the Georg-August University of Göttingen, in cooperation with the German Primate Centre and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-organisation in Germany.
Dissertation: “Vocal repertoire of matrilineal social whales: Long-finned Pilot whales & Killer whales in northern Norway”
Link: http://ediss.uni-goettingen.de/handle/11858/00-1735-0000-0023-3E3F-5
2003 Master in Biology, University of Tromsø, Norway. Department for Arctic Biology, Animal physiology.
Thesis title: “Do Arctic seals use echolocation?”
2005 - ongoing: Director and independent Researcher at Ocean Sounds, a non-profit organisation dedicated to research and conservation of marine mammals. Marine mammal studies in the Vestfjord since 2003, in Patagonia, Chile 2008-2010, in Raja Ampat, Indonesia since 2015 for Ocean Sounds. www.ocean-sounds.org