Staff

Research Interests

Our research group is focused on ecology, behaviour, distribution and taxonomy of terrestrial vertebrates, mainly bats and their ectoparasites. In our lab we have a long experience with field investigation of roosting and foraging biology of bats and related instrumental techniques. Our lab is well equipped by modern techniques like audio detection techniques – bat detectors, playback equipments, loudspeakers, microphones, cameras, stereomicroscopes, softwares for PC acoustic and video analyses etc.

During the last years we focused our efforts on understanding:

• Coevolution of acoustic systems between bats and moths
• Interaction between bats and their roost ectoparasites
• Roost selection in bats with respect to olfactory clues
• Special ectoparasite avoiding strategies
• Migration of bats along the river valleys and through the mountain saddles.
• Automated radiotelemetry system

Academic Education

• 2004
  Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno, PhD topic: Flight activity and echolocation behaviour of Pipistrellus pygmaeus (Leach, 1825) with respect to P. pipistrellus (Schreber, 1774).
• 2000
  Faculty of Science, Palacký University in Olomouc, M.Sc. thesis: Flight activity of some bat species in the urban habitats revealed by bat detector.

Professional Career

• since 2005
  Assistant Professor in Biodiversity Research Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University.
• 2002-2004
  Research assistant, Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University.

Professional Experience

Mammalogy and animal ecology, i.e. ecological monitoring and behavioral ecology of bats, population ecology of bats; biogeography of Western Palearctic bats; forest dwelling bat communities; bats of Eastern Mediterranean; bat conservation in the Czech Republic.
He has been known as an experienced bat researcher of the distribution, taxonomy and mainly ecology of bats, including bat-netting and bat-detectoring also in the Mediterranean region.
Membership: Secretary of Czech Bat Conservation Trust.

Past projects

• The role of sperm adaptation and sperm plasticity in ecological speciation
• Bat adaptations to the fungal disease geomycosis
• Evolutionary biogeography of a fruit-bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus, in the Mediterranean region
• Intraspecific variability of populations of two cryptic bat species of genus Pipistrellus in Central Europe
• Parasitation by bed bugs (Cimicidae): a possible cause of roost switching by bats
• Situation Pipistrellus pipistrellus superspecies in Czech Republic

Selected publications

• Lučan R. K. & Bartonička T. 2024: Diurnal activity in an insectivorous bat during migration period. Journal of Mammalogy: gyae006.
• Bartonička T., Křemenová J., Balvín O., Šimek Z. & Otti O. 2023: Age-related mating rates among ecologically distinct lineages of bedbugs, Cimex lectularius. Frontiers in Zoology 20: 25.
• Bíl M., Andrášik R., Kušta T. & Bartonička T. 2023: Ungulate-vehicle crashes peak a month earlier than 38 years ago due to global warming. Climatic Change 176: 84.
• Blažek J., Konečný A., Andreas M. & Bartonička T. 2023: Morphological size determination of moths in bat faeces opens possibilities to prey quantification. Biologia 78: 3179–3187.
• Křemenová J., Bartonička T., Balvín O., Massino C., Reinhardt K., Sasínková M., Weig A. R. & Otti O. 2021: Male diet affects female fitness and sperm competition in human- and bat-associated lineages of the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius. Scientific Reports 11: 15538.

Research Interests

• Population history of European and African rodents and other vertebrates (phylogeography, invasion genetics and speciation; inferring population history through Approximate Bayesian Computations using genetic markers)
• Interactions between rodents and their gut helminths and ectoparasites
• Distribution and dynamics of rodent-borne viruses (LCMV, hantaviruses)
• Social network analyses revealing small mammal social structure, behaviour and parasite/pathogen dynamics
• How global environmental changes affect wild small terrestrial mammal populations and communities

Academic Education

• 2009
  Université Montpellier 2 (Montpellier, France) and Faculty of Sciences (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) – PhD thesis: Consequences of Anthropogenic Changes on Rodent Communities and Populations: Study Cases on Native and Introduced Species in Eastern Senegal.
• 2005
  Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University Brno – MSc thesis: Litter Sex Ratio Variation in Natural Populations of Common Vole (Microtus arvalis).

Professional Career

• since 2013
  Assistant Professor in Vertebrate Research Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
• 2010-2013
  Post-doc researcher at Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy
• 2008-2010
  Research assistant, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno

Professional Experience

Training and professional experience received in the Czech Republic, France, Italy and UK in sampling small mammals (rodents, shrews, bats) both in Europe and Africa (through a range of habitats and countries); laboratory experience (DNA analyses at various levels and screening of rodent helminths); and a range of statistical data analyses in population genetics (various classic and Bayesian methods including Approximate Bayesian Computation), population and community ecology, host-parasite interactions and social networks of animals.

Participation of Research Projects

• 2010 – 2013: Rodent Communities in a Changing Environment: Implications for Human Health in the Alps (holder of the FP7 European project).
• 2010: Comparative Phylogeography of Zambezian Region in Southeastern Africa Using Small Mammals as Model.
• 2005 – 2008: The Diversity and the Ecology of Vertebrates of the West Africa.
• 2002 – 2004: Sex Ratio in Voles – Can Mothers Manipulate Sex of Their Offspring?

Selected publications

• Dianat M., Konečný A., Lavrenchenko L. A., Kerbis Peterhans J. C., Demos T. C., Nicolas V., Ortiz D. & Bryja J. 2024: How to cross the desert if you are small and need mountains? Out-of-Ethiopia dispersal in Afromontane shrews. Journal of Biogeography 51: 230–245.
• Hánová A., Bryja J., Goüy de Bellocq J., Baird S. J. E., Cuypers L., Konečný A. & Mikula O. 2023: Historical demography and climatic niches of the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) in the Zambezian region. Mammalian Biology 103: 239–251.
• Voet I., Denys C., Colyn M., Lalis A., Konečný A., Delapré A., Nicolas V. & Cornette R. 2022: Incongruences between morphology and molecular phylogeny provide an insight into the diversification of the Crocidura poensis species complex. Scientific Reports 12: 10531.
• Mikula O., Nicolas V., Šumbera R., Konečný A., Denys C., Verheyen E., Bryjová A., Lemmon A. R., Moriarty Lemmon E. & Bryja J. 2021: Nuclear phylogenomics, but not mitogenomics, resolves the most successful Late Miocene radiation of African mammals (Rodentia: Muridae: Arvicanthini). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 157: 107069.
• Konečný A., Hutterer R., Meheretu Y. & Bryja J. 2020: Two new species of Crocidura (Mammalia: Soricidae) from Ethiopia and updates on the Ethiopian shrew fauna. Journal of Vertebrate Biology 69: 20064.1.