Group-living organisms invest a huge proportion of their energy into social behavior and interactions with group-mates. These social behaviors emerge from a complex interplay between external factors (e.g., resource availability, predation pressure), social variables (e.g., relationships among group-mates), and internal states (e.g., an individual's genetic makeup and endocrine physiology). I use a combination of classical behavioral ecology approaches and novel remote sensing technologies in two long-term studies of wild mammals to deliver an integrative understanding of the physiological and ecological underpinnings of social behavior.
Physiology of behavior
Societies are made up of individuals with different and varying physiological states, but clear links between physiology and social structure in natural populations are limited to a few specific contexts.
I use non-invasive fecal and salivary endocrine sampling to understand how hormones shape social behavior, and how the social environment feeds back to affect endocrine physiology. |
Ecology of behavior
Ecological variables such as resource availability, competition, and predation influence individual fitness and the adaptive value of sociality.
I conduct shorter-term intensive collective behavior studies that use biologging and remote sensing technologies to sample in high resolution the behavior of many individuals and groups simultaneously, along with the changing dynamics of their ecological conditions. |
Long-term field studies of social mammals
I work in two long-term field systems whose different ecologies and socio-spatial behaviors offer complementary lenses into links between animal societies and the physiological processes that regulate organismal function.