Photo: D. Wheatcroft

Tovetorp is ideally situated in the heart of Södermanland, surrounded by woodland, lakes, and wetlands, providing abundant opportunities for field studies in ecology and behaviour. In addition, Tovetorp maintains outdoor animal enclosures and climate-controlled indoor animal rooms for short- and long-term studies.

Field work

Tovetorp itself consists of roughly 150 hectares of land, including open fields, marsh, and woodland habitats. There are multiple enclosures of various sizes (from 2 to 20 hectares), which have been used for exclusion experiments and housing a variety of mammal species. In addition to Tovetorp’s own research land, we maintain strong contacts with Svenska Jägareförbundet (Swedish Association for Hunting) at Öster Malma, whose land surrounds Tovetorp, providing additional possibilities for short- and long-term research projects.
Öster Malma

Research facilities

Aviaries
Tovetorp has a variety of outdoor enclosures, located in the immediate proximity of the station adapted for housing a variety of bird species, including fowl, corvids, and other songbirds.

Indoor animal rooms
The indoor facilities at Tovetorp are divided into Gamla Labbet and the Signhild Engkvist lab.

Gamla Labbet consists of 12 animal rooms, capable of housing rodents, fish, and insects. Four rooms are equipped with humidifiers, while all rooms are equipped with heaters, running water, lighting, and observation windows.

The Signhild Engkvist lab consists of 6 climate-controlled animal rooms capable of housing fish, songbirds, psittacines, rodents, and snakes. All rooms are equipped with floor-heating, cooling systems, running water, lighting, and observation windows.

Other facilities
Other facilities include various rough lab space, storage rooms, a walk-in freezer , a well-equipped workshop, a bioacoustics room, and a large observation hall.

Research staff
Tovetorp’s permanent research staff  can assist with your research project. These staff include a research engineer who can help research, design, construct, and maintain equipment and facilities, and an animal caretaker who provides daily care and feedings to animals housed at Tovetorp. Animals kept currently include fish, large mammals, and a variety of birds.

Current research projects

Tovetorp currently hosts research projects on guppy brain-size evolution (Niclas Kolm), pied flycatcher song learning (David Wheatcroft), bumblebee sensory ecology (Emily Baird), as well as a variety of seasonal projects.

Link to Niclas Kolm's homepage

Link to David Wheatcroft's homepage

Link to Emily Baird's homepage

Staying at Tovetorp

Researchers at Tovetorp can stay in 10 comfortable bedrooms located in five separate houses (see map of Tovetorp). Most bedrooms contain multiple beds and, all together, there are more than 20 beds in researcher housing. A fully equipped self-service kitchen , laundry, dining, shower, and lounging facilities are located in “Mässen” and simpler facilities for smaller groups are located in “Villan”/”Bostadshuset” (see map). There are, in addition, office space and printers in “Skrivhuset”. Long-term researchers at Tovetorp can access the gym and sauna in the course building, under agreement. WiFi access is included during your stay.

Price examples

Information for researchers (278 Kb)

Map of Tovetorp (201 Kb)
 

Photo: C.Kullberg

Tovetorp is an idyllic location for smaller conferences, workshops, meetings, and staff training courses, as well as university and external courses. For such events, we welcome groups of 15-50 people to stay overnight in comfortable rooms. On special occasions, it may be possible to host larger groups up to 80 people. We have a modern lecture hall capable of accommodating up to 80 people with on-site IT support and the possibility to present hybrid zoom-meetings. In the course building we also have a smaller lecture hall for 30 people and four smaller group meeting rooms. In addition, courses have access to a variety of habitats in Tovetorp’s natural surroundings and a chemistry lab. Our skilled and appreciated restaurant chefs in the Course Building serve everything from classic Swedish dishes to three-course dinner menus, based on local ingredients and products as far as possible.

Facilities and resources

Costs and availability of facilities and resources for meetings and courses will be agreed on depending on availability and need:

The Course Building

• 12 rooms each with three beds and common showers and bathrooms in the corridor
• Two single, ”teacher’s” rooms with in-room shower and bathroom (one adapted for wheelchair access)
• Two cabins with two bedrooms each with three beds
• Lounge with TV, fireplace (kakelugn), and beautiful views
• Lecture room for up to 30 people with ceiling projector
• Four group rooms with space for up to 10 people
• Equipped chemistry lab for 12 people with fume hood, microscopes, etc.
• Sauna with space for up to 12 people
• Training room with ping-pong table
• Wood-heated outdoor hot tub

Skrivhuset

• Modern lecture hall for up to 80 people with wireless microphones, ceiling projector, speakers, computer for loading presentations and a variety of connection possibilities, including zoom conferences

Other resources in the vicinity

• Small rowing boats stationed at nearby lakes
• Tame fallow deer for up-close animal encounters

Price examples

Map of Tovetorp (201 Kb)

Photo: M. Carlsson

Since 1994, most of the field courses in ecology, ethology, faunistics and floristics at Stockholm University spend around 5-10 days at Tovetorp every year. In our Course Building we can house around 40 students and teachers. The nature around Tovetorp provides great opportunities for students to research different habitats and, in addition, the course lab provides facilities for experiments.

Every year we are visited by hundreds of undergraduate students from the Department of Biology education (BIG), and the number of student-days is around 2000 per year. Students visiting Tovetorp with a course arranged at BIG pay a reduced fee for food; which should be paid in advance to the BIG administration (see information for BIG-courses).

The Course Building

In the Course Building you find the following facilities:

• 12 rooms each with three beds and common showers and bathrooms in the corridor
• Two single, ”teacher’s” rooms with in-room shower and bathroom (one adapted for wheelchair access)
• Two cabins with two bedrooms each with three beds
• Lounge with TV and beautiful views
• Lecture room for up to 30 people with ceiling projector
• Four group rooms with space for up to 10 people
• Equipped chemistry lab for 12 people with fume hood, microscopes, etc.
• Sauna with space for up to 12 people
• Training room with ping-pong table

Food during BIG-courses

Our skilled restaurant staff in the Course Building serve the students during their stay. Breakfast buffet, lunch, afternoon coffe/tea and dinner are based on local ingredients and products as far as possible. A week before the arrival of the course, the course leader should report eventual allergies and vegan/vegetarian orders to the chef.

What to bring when on a BIG course at Tovetorp

Always check with your course leader what to bring; but here are some general suggestions:

• Bedding, towel and toiletries
• Clothes for field work (depending on weather and temperature)
• Water bottle and sun protection if it is warm and sunny; warm winter clothes if it is cold
• Indoor shoes (no outdoor shoes in the building)
• Notebook and pen
• Small backpack to bring personal stuff into the field
• Swimwear (the lake Likstammen is a nice clear-water lake)

BIG-bikes

Students normally move around in the vicinity with bikes. We have around 30 bikes with 7 gears and good tires for biking on the gravel roads around the station. You can also find helmets and a yellow safety wests in the Course Building.

Information for BIG courses (407 Kb)

Information for course administrator (196 Kb)

Map of Tovetorp (201 Kb)

Tovetorp is located 95 km southwest of Stockholm, in the heart of Södermanland (58.9478, 17.1486).

Address:
Tovetorps forskningsstation
SE 646 94 Björnlunda
Sweden

Map of Tovetorp (201 Kb)

Tovetorp Research Station is run by the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University. The station was inaugurated in 1969 based on buildings converted from a family farm. Building and expansions have regularly occurred over the years, including an office building, lecture hall, course building, and, most recently, the Signhild Engkvist laboratory in 2004. Both the buildings and grounds are managed by Statens Fastighetsverk.

Thanks to generous donations from two foundations (Stiftelsen Signhild och Olle Engkvist Byggmästare and Stiftelsen Marianne och Marcus Wallenbergs Stiftelse), our Course Building was built and inaugurated in 1994. Since then, most of the field courses in ecology, ethology, faunistics and floristics at Stockholm University spend around 5-10 days at Tovetorp every year. In our Course Building we can house around 40 students and teachers. The nature around Tovetorp provides great opportunities for students to research different habitats and, in addition, the course lab provides facilities for experiments.

Tovetorp consists of both research and education units, focused on animal ecology and behaviour. Every year, Tovetorp is visited by up to 600 students who live and study between 2-10 days at the station. Around 20 researchers actively conduct research at Tovetorp. The results from these research projects are regularly published in international research journals and are regularly publicized in newspapers, radio, and TV.

Cecilia Kullberg (accomondation, conference and courses)
Phone: 08-16 47 13
cecilia.kullberg@zoologi.su.se

David Wheatcroft (research facilities and animals)
Phone: 07-222 38 327
david.wheatcroft@zoologi.su.se

Thomas Giegold (research engineer, safety officer)
Phone: 08-16 46 44
thomas.giegold@zoologi.su.se

Yvonne Silfverblad (animal care and cleaning)
Phone: 08-16 47 21
yvonne.silfverblad@zoologi.su.se

Anna Lagerqvist (chef)
Phone: 08-16 48 01
anna.lagerqvist@zoologi.su.se

Susanne Åhlund (chef)
Phone: 08-16 40 09
susanne.ahlund@zoologi.su.se