 He was national president of LIPU (Lega italiana protezione uccelli, Italian League for the defence of birds, founded in 1965 and Italian partner of Birdlife International), and later became its honorary president.Mainardi studied the social and sexual behaviour of animals, and its evolution, starting from the relationships between parents and offspring (particularly the importance of the "imprinting").His studies demonstrate that also the animals can transmit - to a certain extent - the capacity to transfer solution to problems from one individual to another