In an unexpected turn of events, I recently found myself writing an article for The Conversation, Canada ...about Narwhals no less! While Narwhals are far from my area of expertise, the article is a short piece exploring why we see adoption so frequently in the animal kingdom, even though it poses an evolutionary dilemma. The story stemmed from an unusual sighting this past summer in Canada's St. Lawrence River. Researchers from GREMM (the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals) spotted a narwhal swimming with a pod of belugas more than 1,000 km south of his Arctic home. If you're curious what the cause of this unlikely alliance might be, you can read more about it in my article here! The story has also been picked up by The Narwhal and The University of Guelph News.

I am thrilled to announced that I was selected as the winner of the ABS Warder Clyde Allee Competition. This competition involved the submission of a 7-page manuscript as well as a 30-minute presentation to a panel of judges at the 2018 Animal Behaviour Society Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconson. I am grateful to the Animal Behaviour Society for this opportunity to present my work with so many other talented young scientists and honoured to have been chosen as the recipient of this award.

You can read more about the competition and the amazing runners-up in the Animal Behaviour Society newsletter here!

Thanks for dropping by my new website! I will be using this news page to try to keep things fresh and exciting and to keep folks updated on recent accomplishments as well as less formal happenings in my life. Your comments and thoughts are most welcome!