General Research Interests:
I am interested in the ecology and evolution of animal behaviour with a specific focus on social behaviour. I am particularly interested in the links between social behaviour, movement ecology, and space use and how these behaviours relate to one another within the context of disease ecology.
1. Integrating animal social and spatial behaviour: Individuals that are connected in their social network are also connected spatially in the sense that they must share space to interact with one another. Investigation into the relationship between social and spatial behaviour is relatively novel and I am broadly interested in the empirical, conceptual, and methodological synthesis of social and spatial behaviour.
2. The social environment and pathogen dynamics. Among the most important costs of social behaviour is an increased risk of transmitting parasites and pathogens. In theory, animals living at higher population densities or in larger social groups tend to face greater risk of acquiring and transmitting pathogens. My ongoing work in this area is to develop research questions using free-ranging animals and test hypotheses grounded in behavioural and ecological theory that are relevant for transmission dynamics.
3. The ecology of collective movement: The ability for an animal to adjust their behaviour to changing environmental conditions is critical for their survival and reproduction. Environmental traits can drive patterns of behavioural plasticity, or flexibility, and therefore have potential to be adaptive. Movement behaviour is particularly important because movement is a dynamic process, for which environmental variation influences where an animal can go, but the distribution of resources on a landscape can influence movement decisions. Similarly, variation in the social environment can influence animal movement.
I am interested in the ecology and evolution of animal behaviour with a specific focus on social behaviour. I am particularly interested in the links between social behaviour, movement ecology, and space use and how these behaviours relate to one another within the context of disease ecology.
1. Integrating animal social and spatial behaviour: Individuals that are connected in their social network are also connected spatially in the sense that they must share space to interact with one another. Investigation into the relationship between social and spatial behaviour is relatively novel and I am broadly interested in the empirical, conceptual, and methodological synthesis of social and spatial behaviour.
2. The social environment and pathogen dynamics. Among the most important costs of social behaviour is an increased risk of transmitting parasites and pathogens. In theory, animals living at higher population densities or in larger social groups tend to face greater risk of acquiring and transmitting pathogens. My ongoing work in this area is to develop research questions using free-ranging animals and test hypotheses grounded in behavioural and ecological theory that are relevant for transmission dynamics.
3. The ecology of collective movement: The ability for an animal to adjust their behaviour to changing environmental conditions is critical for their survival and reproduction. Environmental traits can drive patterns of behavioural plasticity, or flexibility, and therefore have potential to be adaptive. Movement behaviour is particularly important because movement is a dynamic process, for which environmental variation influences where an animal can go, but the distribution of resources on a landscape can influence movement decisions. Similarly, variation in the social environment can influence animal movement.
