Group Leader/Principal investigator
Hsi-Cheng Ho
何熙誠
Assistant Professor
My academic interest lies at the intersection of animal behaviour and community ecology. Specifically, I am particularly curious about how behaviours could scale up to determine community-level ecological phenomena such as the structure and dynamics of complex ecological networks. I received my PhD from Imperial College London, where I studied how foraging behaviour influences food webs with Profs Samraat Pawar and Jason Tylianakis. I was subsequently a postdoctoral researcher at EAWAG with Prof Florian Altermatt, studying multiple types of ecological networks at the landscape scale in Switzerland and Germany. I joined IEEB National Taiwan University as an Assistant Professor in 2023.
Current Members
Yun-Chen Hsieh
謝昀臻
PhD Student & Research Assistant
How plants have evolved to interact with the environment, especially their pollination and seed dispersal, have always piqued my curiosity. The scope of my research interest has been expanded to community level during my assistant career in Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. I joined Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab in 2023 to study network ecology for my PhD research. The aim of my research is to disentangle the forming mechanism of the structure of pollination networks, based on the behavioral decisions of the pollinators, as well as the spatial and temporal distribution of flowers. Besides my scientific interests, I am a natural history enthusiast.
Wei-Min Wu
吳偉民
Master's Student
Geckos are one of the most common reptiles you can come across in daily life, sometimes they even live in your house. Yet, we don’t know much about them. For example, an invasive gecko species, Hemidactylus frenatus, thrives in Taiwan. Through time, they have expanded from southern Taiwan to Northern Taiwan and became the most common geckos in Taiwan. But how exactly they achieved this remains unknown. As a reptile lover and a shutterbug of animals, I joined Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab in 2023 to work on resolving how H. frenatus succeeds by studying gecko behaviour and urban ecological networks within which gecko species reside.
Po-Yen Fei
費柏諺
Master's Student
As a strong invasive species, Hemidactylus frenatus has significantly impacted local native geckos in various countries, leading to observable competition and displacement. While the Taiwanese native gecko, Gekko hokouensis, is the most common native forest species, it is rarely seen in urban areas where the invasive H. frenatus is prevalent. Therefore, I joined Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab in 2023 to investigate whether there is exclusion or hostile behavior when H. frenatus and G. hokouensis forage under artificial light sources, trying to explain one possible reason that G. hokouensis may struggle to adapt to co-foraging with H. frenatus in urban areas.
Dai-Fang Lin
林岱芳
Master's Student
As a biology major with a strong interest in human-related topics, my master's study aims to uncover the dynamics of the social-ecological system through a network perspective. Joining Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab at the beginning of 2024, my focus lies in the social-ecological network research of Kongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, Taiwan. This area is notable for traditional water terraces (水梯田), providing habitats for numerous lowland rare and highly endangered species. I will receive support from Dr. Kuo-Fang Chung of BRCAS, my co-advisor, while conducting research in the Kongliao area. Apart from the academic interests mentioned above, my curiosities extend to topics bridging the natural and human realms: I am also fond of natural history, paleontology (especially artiodactyls), zooarchaeology, and ecological anthropology.
Yun Ho
何昀
Part-time Research Assistant
Freshly graduated from the IEEB department, my Master's work focused on the development of a portable tool set for detecting illegal cetacean products based on DNA technique. My personal interest is in human-wildlife interactions, especially providing insights for human-wildlife conflict. Joining Dr. Ho’s team in collaboration with Dr. Ting-Chun Kuo in NTOU , our project aims to examine whether fishermen’s fishing decisions match with marginal value theorem. By combining theory-based models with empirical data, we look forward to finding out certain pattern regarding fishermen’s strategy. Besides research, I’m also a bookworm addictive to war novels.
Ming-Yang (Megan) Chang
張明陽
Part-time Research Assistant
I previously worked as a research assistant in the Department of Entomology, NTU. My master's degree focused on honey bee's foraging behaviour changes under global warming, and I earned my bachelor's degree majoring in marine biology and resources. I have a keen interest in animal behaviour and ecology, both in terrestrial and marine environments. In Dr. Ho's lab, I will mainly assist the fieldwork of pollination studies as well as some indoor experiments. I am also looking forward to further enhancement of my skills in drawing and English communication. I aspire to pursuing advanced studies in cognitive ethology and animal emotions in the future.
Wan-Ting Lu
呂宛庭
Master's Student
I am a Master's student in the Department of Life Science at NTNU. I have always been very interested in the behavioral ecology of amphibians and reptiles. I joined Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho's lab in 2024, and I am co-supervised by Dr. Si-Min Lin, an expert in Herpetology at NTNU. I would like to resolve the folklore about "the calling gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) is found in the south, while the non-calling gecko (Hemidactylus bowringii) in the north; due to human activities, H. frenatus has expanded northward and its population has significantly increased." I hope to investigate the behavioral traits related to animal personalities, such as boldness, to understand the successful invasion of H. frenatus in Taiwan, and whether there are innate behavioral differences between H. frenatus and H. bowringii.
Jin-Yen (Gillian) Chen
陳瑾妍
High-school Intern
As a high school student with a passion for reptiles, ecology, and animal behavior, I joined Prof. Hsi-Cheng Ho’s lab in the summer of 2024. Hemidactylus frenatus, an invasive species commonly found in urban areas, has expanded its range from southern to northern Taiwan, while the population of the native species Hemidactylus bowringii is declining. Inspired by the widely discussed issue of global warming, my research focuses on investigating the distinction of temperature-affected mobility and distribution between these two gecko species.
Trachusa formosanum is a solitary leaf-cutting bee and the largest of its kind in Taiwan. This species remains largely understudied, particularly with regard to its intraspecific behavior and reproductive biology. I am studying these topics as a master’s student in Prof. Ho’s lab, with Dr. Sheng-Shan Lu (TFRI) being my co-advisor. My research aims to determine whether their behavioral strategies would change under different environmental conditions, using a series of game-theoretic models. Meanwhile, I expect that these models also help explain the behavioral differences between T. formosanum and another little-known cogener species, T. longicornis. Moreover, I hope to fill the knowledge gaps in our understanding of the natural history of both species. My primary academic interest lies in animal behavior. I studied how environmental conditions may influence behavioral strategies in Eocanthecona furcellata when I was an undergraduate student. Beyond my research, I am an enthusiastic otter admirer and reptile lover.
Chu-Hong Liao
廖珠宏
Part-time Research Assistant
I am grateful for the opportunity to work in Dr. Ho's lab as a part-time molecular technician, starting 2025, where I primarily conduct environmental DNA analysis and support field surveys. I was initially trained as a field herpetologist in my early academic career, then shifted my main focus to public education and promoting the conservation of freshwater turtles and biodiversity in Taiwan.
Yu-Han Lin
林鈺涵
Master's Student
Microplastics are common pollutants that disrupt feeding, reproduction, and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems, and their impacts may even affect the structure and dynamics of food webs. In 2025, I joined Dr. Ho’s lab to study how microplastics affect freshwater micro-organism communities. I am working to further cultivate my passion for ecology, and I find particular motivation in studying organisms such as water fleas, which I think are cute. Outside of research, I love small animals, especially hamsters.
Coffee
咖啡
Postdog
With her approval, the following is narrated in the third person: Coffee joined the Ho's lab alongside with Yun Ho, and has ever since served as a mental supporter to the lab members. As a postdog, her non-research interests lie in the intersection of "3S"—Sniffing, Sleeping, and Scratching, and she has superb proficiency at doing such. She also did a bit of modelling. Her current project is to explore a proper way of applying animal behaviour (of her own) to strengthen the connections between members in a social network (i.e., the Ho's lab), thereby improving the whole system's output. Apparently, this project aligns perfectly with the lab's overarching focus.
Lab Gallery
Alumni
Chen-Hsiang Chen
陳振翔
Summer Intern 2025
As an undergraduate student, I am interested in species interactions, biodiversity, and behavior across animals and humans. I am particularly curious about the underlying principles of these behaviors and eager to learn scientific approaches to explain them. In 2025, I joined Dr. Ho’s lab to study the escape behavior of Hemidactylus frenatus. My research focuses on how environmental factors such as human disturbance and perch height influence its escape responses, using a controlled experimental setup. I aim to determine whether flight initiation distance (FID) and emergence time after entering shelter vary across environments with different levels of human disturbance, whether these traits change through habituation in captivity, and how perch height correlates with escape behaviors.
Yan Wah Chung
鍾欣樺
Master's Student 2023-2025
Why bird is so attractive? The beautiful feather and cute behavior always catch my attention. The bird appears everywhere in our daily life. From the urban park to the rural, different bird species can live in. But why some birds can live in urban but some of them still stay in rural? What are the factors behind this phenomenon? My main interest is bird behavior and how urbanization affects them. I joined Dr. Hsi-Cheng Ho's Lab in 2023. Also, I have two co-advisors Prof. Chun-Chia Chou and Dr. Chih-Ming Hung who support me in the master study. My major research direction is to compare the aggressiveness of the Blue magpie in Taiwan and the Red-billed blue magpie in Hong Kong.
Shan-Dar Tao
陶善達
Collaborator/Research Assistant
2024-2025
I am set to graduate from my PhD study in March 2025 from the Graduate School of Engineering and Science, University of the Ryukyus. I have recently joined Dr. Ho’s team as a research collaborator and an assistant. My research primarily focuses on the ecological and evolutionary consequences of tropical-origin invasive geckos, while I also maintain a broad interest in field ecology and conservation biology of reptiles. Our current project aims to answer a key question: "How has the Hemidactylus genus become so successful as invasive species?" To address this, we are employing network analysis that integrates multiple aspects, such as ecological niche modeling, habitat preference, and behavioral interaction studies.
Wayne Liang
梁瑋恩
Summer Intern 2024
Fascinated by how the marriage between fields may can generate novel insights, previously I have worked on using linguistic tools to investigate bird song and how they may correlate between their ecology. This summer, I joined Prof. Ho’s lab to investigate the effect of phenotype space topology on ecological network assembly for an internship. In the longer run, I am intrigued by the vision supplied by Price, in a general theory of selection. On a more applied side, I am interested in how cooperation with the humanities may provide ecologists with better understanding on cultural ecosystem services. This can potentially allow culture engineering through intriguing research to persuade public to conserve ecosystem that are valuable in the sense that they preserve other services.
Wayne is now conducting his Master's study at University of Cambridge, UK, with Prof. Rufus Johnstone.
