My name is Hanna Bensch, I am a PhD candidate at the Linneus University, Kalmar, Sweden. I am interested in animal- and evolutionary ecology, and most of my experience within the field before starting my PhD come from working with birds and insects. For my PhD, I have moved on to mammals and mole-rats as my study system, a fascinating group of animals for studying benefits of group living and evolution of sociality. One the side, I am still working on some data from my master’s and time as research assistant in Lund studying ostrich chicks and transmission of gut microbiome. The work on gut microbiome is also a major focus of my PhD where I focus on a wild population of Damaraland mole-rats in South Africa.
