I am a behavioural ecologist broadly interested in the evolution of social behaviour. My previous work has explored social interactions in “solitary” species and used this to test important questions about the mechanisms underlying conflict resolution and the evolution of cooperation. I am currently interested in how social behaviour might contribute to our understanding of senescence by exploring how and why social behaviour changes across the lifespan and the consequences of this for demographic, morphological, and physiological patterns of aging.
My research is primarily focused on free-living populations of mammals, and uses a combination of long-term data analysis, behavioural observations, and field experiments to address these questions.
My research is primarily focused on free-living populations of mammals, and uses a combination of long-term data analysis, behavioural observations, and field experiments to address these questions.
Current Research
Understanding the role of social behaviour in the aging process
Why this matters to YOU:
The question of how and why we age and what can be done to prevent it is a question of substantial import for sociologists, health care professionals and policy makers alike. Given the central importance of social relationships to health and well-being, in recent years the rising epidemic of social isolation among the elderly has become a pressing concern. Understanding how social relationships change across the lifespan and what the consequences of these changes are for other aspects of biological aging may be central to ensuring longer, healthier lifespans. Non-human primates provide a highly tractable model system in which to study these questions outside the cultural and medical confounds of modern human society. Macaques have 'friendships' that strongly resemble those of their human counterparts and additionally have lifespans 3-4x shorter, allowing for the assessment of age-related changes in behaviour, morphology, physiology and genomics over a much longer period of the lifespan than typically possible in humans. Investigating these questions in our wild primate counterparts may enable the identification of social factors contributing to the aging process and the associated development of important aging interventions. |
Social relationships commonly play a key role in the health and longevity of many social, and even solitary, organisms. There is good reason to expect then that the maintenance of social relationships into later life may be central to the process of healthy aging. However, social behaviour and social relationships are not static but can change in form and function across the lifespan. As a postdoc in the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter I am interested in understanding how and why social behaviour changes with age, and what the consequences of these changes are for fitness outcomes later in life. Additionally, I am interested in understanding how the positive social relationships and/or social adversity that individuals experience throughout their lives can either buffer or exacerbate other aspects of demographic, morphological or physiological senescence. My research uses a long-term study of rhesus macaques on the island of Cayo Santiago to investigate these questions and offer insight into the role of social relationships in the aging process in humans.
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Previous Research
Effects of the social environment on behaviour and fitness in a solitary, territorial species
Interactions with conspecifics are an important component of the daily life of most organisms. While for group-living organisms this social environment is well established to have important effects on behaviour and fitness, the extent to which the social environment can also influence solitary species, typically perceived to be 'asocial', is less understood or appreciated.
My PhD research used the North American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) as a model system to investigate the effects of the composition of the social environment in an solitary, territorial species. Red squirrels defend exclusive territories and rarely physically interact with their neighbours, relying instead on territorial vocalizations, called ‘rattles’, as their primary form of communication and interaction. Rattles are individually unique and therefore carry important information about the local social environment. Such acoustic interactions allow for the establishment of a rich social network without physical contact between neighbours. I was interested, in particular, in understanding the relative importance of kin-selection mechanisms versus mutually-beneficial interactions in facilitating conflict resolution and enhancing fitness. As such, my research looked at: (1) how characteristics of territorial neighbours, such as relatedness and familiarity, affected risk of territory intrusion; (2) the ability of squirrels to adjust their behaviour in response to these characteristics of their social environment, and (3) the fitness consequences of having kin or familiar neighbours in the social environment. My research involved a combination of long-term data analysis, behavioural observations, and field experiments, and was all conducted as part of a long-term research initiative, the Kluane Red Squirrel Project. |
Why this matters to YOU:
My study site is located in the Yukon Territory, Canada, near the Alaska border. In this northern location, red squirrels are a great 'model system' to understand how organisms are changing in response to their environment. By 'model system' I mean an animal that is easy to study (we can trap squirrels with peanut butter and follow individuals through their entire lives). We can therefore use red squirrels to better understand other northern animals that are hard to see or capture. Social interactions might affect an animal's ability to respond to environmental changes. For example, warmer temperatures might mean a squirrel needs to reproduce earlier in the spring, but aggressive interactions with a neighbour might prevent a squirrel from having babies earlier. Studying these social interactions may help us to understand the ability of northern animals to adapt to changing environments. |
Porcupines as ecosystem engineers?
Why this matters to YOU:
Porcupines are commonly viewed as as nuisance species, and subject to poisoning and bounty-hunting programs due to their bark gnawing behaviour, which can incur considerable commercial costs. However, it is important to recognize that porcupine foraging may be contributing to more richly diverse and healthy forest communities. Our research so far suggests that commercially important species, such as sugar maple, do NOT appear to be functionally eliminated by porcupine feeding behavior. Instead, the diversity of forest stands is enhanced through intermediate levels of disturbance. Other effects of porcupine foraging, such as habitat provisioning, may also enhance the abundance and diversity of small game for North Country hunters. |
The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) is a commonly occurring herbivore in northern hardwood forests, but little is known about the ecological significance of porcupine foraging. During the summer, porcupines feed on a variety of forage. However, porcupines become much more selective during the winter months due to restricted home ranges and reduced food availability. Winter forage consists primarily of the inner cambium of trees and evergreen needles. The "bark-stripping" that occurs to access the inner cambium can cause lethal or sub-lethal damage to trees and may significantly affect tree growth or survival. This browsing pressure has the potential to cause shifts in the vegetative composition of forest communities and affect the vertical complexity of forest stands by creating canopy gaps. As part of my senior honors thesis at St. Lawrence University, I studied the effects of porcupine foraging on forest composition in northern New York, under the supervision of Dr. Erika Barthelmess. I carried out extensive vegetation sampling around porcupine dens and found that porcupine feeding creates patches of small-scale disturbance which appear to facilitate succession and new growth by increasing the density of saplings and subdominant tree species around den sites compared to random forest plots. The increase in snags (standing dead trees) found in den sites might also provide important habitat for birds and small mammals.
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