Lara Keicher

Lara Keicher is a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, specializing in the energetics and physiology of small mammals, particularly bats. She holds a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior (2023) and has extensive fieldwork experience in Poland and Germany. Her work focuses on understanding how small mammals adapt energy-saving strategies to seasonal environmental challenges. As the International Fieldwork Coordinator in the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, she oversees field studies and integrates lab-based metabolic measurements with field observations.

Education highlights include a Bachelor’s (University of Constance, 2014) and Master’s (2017) in Biological Sciences, with thesis topics on Dehnel’s Phenomenon and shrew energetics. She received a prestigious PhD stipend from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes in 2018. Her research bridges physiology, ecology, and conservation, with a focus on bats like Nyctalus noctula, exploring sex-based differences in migration, torpor use, and reproductive energetics.

Her publications analyze torpor mechanisms, energetic trade-offs, and domestication effects, contributing to understanding climate adaptation and biodiversity. Her work often combines field studies with lab experiments to quantify metabolic strategies in free-ranging animals. She collaborates internationally, as seen in studies in Białowieża Forest (Poland) and Lake Constance (Germany).