January 05, 2026

Gabrielle publishes the first scientific paper from her Ph.D. work!

We are thrilled to announce that Gabrielle Ladurée, a PhD student in our department, has just published her very first scientific article, under the supervision of Stefán Óli Steingrímsson, in collaboration with Laura K. Weir and David Benhaïm.
Titled “Do personality traits measured in the lab correlate with corresponding behaviours in the wild? Insights from stream-dwelling Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus)”, the article was published on January 5, 2026 in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Without further ado, here’s an explanation of her research work:
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In 2022, we studied wild juvenile Arctic charr to explore whether behaviours measured in the laboratory reflect how fish behave in more natural conditions. The same individuals were tested for traits such as boldness (e.g., propensity of an individual to take risk) and aggressiveness (e.g., how aggressive an individual is towards others) in controlled lab experiments and later observed in stream enclosures in their natural environment. While fish showed consistent behaviour within each setting, behaviours in the lab were not correlated with how they behaved in the stream. These findings suggest that laboratory tests may not fully capture how animals behave in complex natural environments, highlighting the importance of combining laboratory and field measurements when studying animal behaviour.

To discover all the exciting details of this study, don’t hesitate to read the full article.