Teaching staff

NORBERTO ASENSIO HERRERO

Knowledge area

Methodology of Behavioural Sciences

Department

Centre

Faculty of Psychology

Electronic mail

norberto.asensio@ehu.eus

I completed a PhD on animal behaviour shared by the Autonomous University of Madrid and Veracruz University (Mexico) in 2003, followed by a postdoc position on primate ecology at John Moores Liverpool University, UK (2008), and a second postdoc position on primate cognition at Mahidol University, Thailand (2011), where I also lectured on conservation ecology and biodiversity until 2017. My research has centered in the behavioral ecology of wild animals, particularly primates, with fieldwork set in the tropical forests of Mexico, Costa Rica and Thailand. Aside of traditional approaches to animal behaviour such as food competition or play behaviour, my research includes how animals perceive and navigate through the landscape and also how human activities affect their behavior, health, and conservation. I am also investigating the ecology and association of two closely related species of gibbons and hybrids co-occurring in one of the few remaining contact zones in the world between apes. This research poses some important ecological and evolutionary questions such as what mechanisms mediate species coexistence and limit geographical distributions.