Julia Ostner

Behavioral Ecology
Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute for Zoology & Anthropology

Research Interests


  • Evolution of sociality
  • Hormone-behaviour interactions
  • Primate sexual selection



Education and Employment

2014 - Professor, Behavioral Ecology, Göttingen University, Göttingen
2008 - 2014Junior Professor, Göttingen University, Göttingen
2005 - 2010Group Leader, Max Planck Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
2003 - 2005Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, Stony Brook Univ., USA
1999 - 2003 Dr.rer.nat (Biology): University Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
1992 - 1998Studies of Biology (Diploma), University of Göttingen, Germany
1990 - 1992 Studies of Psychology (Vordiplom), University of Trier, Germany



Selected honours and awards

2011 -Entry into Academia Net, Robert Bosch Foundation
2003 - 2005Feodor-Lynen Postdoctoral Scholarship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation


Selected publications

Müller N, Heistermann M, Strube C, Schülke O*, Ostner J* (2017). Age, but not anthelminthic treatment, is associated with urinary neopterin levels in semi-free ranging Barbary macaques. Scientific Reports 7: 41973

Berghänel A, Heistermann M, Schülke O, Ostner J (2016). Prenatal stress effects in a wild, long-lived primate: predictive adaptive responses in an unpredictable environment. Proceedings of the Royal Society London B 283: 20161304

Berghänel A, Schülke O, Ostner J (2015). Locomotor play drives motor skill acquisition at the expense of growth: a life history trade-off. Science Advances 1: e1500451

Bissonnette A, Franz M, Schülke O, Ostner J (2014). Socioecology, but not cognition, predicts male coalitions across primates. Behavioral Ecology 25: 794-801

Fürtbauer I, Heistermann M, Schülke O, Ostner J (2014). Low female stress hormone levels are predicted by same- or opposite-sex sociality depending on season in wild Assamese macaques. Psychoneuroendocrionology 48: 19-28

Schülke O, Bhagavatula J, Vigilant L, Ostner J (2010). Social bonds enhance reproductive success in male macaques. Current Biology 20: 2207-10

Young C, Majolo B, Schülke O*, Ostner J* (2014). Male social bonds and rank predict supporter selection in cooperative aggression in wild Barbary macaques. Animal Behaviour 95: 23-32

Young C, Majolo B, Heistermann M, Schülke O, Ostner J (2014). Responses to social and environmental stress are attenuated by strong male bonds in wild macaques. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111: 18195-200

Ostner J, Vigilant L, Bhagavatula J, Franz M, Schülke O (2013). Stable heterosexual associations in a promiscuous primate. Animal Behaviour 86: 623-31

Ostner J, Heistermann M, Schülke O (2011). Male competition and its hormonal cor-relates in wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis). Hormones and Behavior 59: 105-13

* shared last authorship