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 (459 Kb)

Map of Tovetorp (201 Kb)