Behavioural Ecology
Rebecca Kilner
University Reader
Email: rmk1002@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0)1223 331766
We use animal families as model systems for addressing key topics in evolutionary and behavioural ecology, such as:
- Social evolution (e.g. sexual conflict, parent-offspring conflict, cooperative breeding)
- Animal communication (e.g. social, sensory and environmental influences on the evolution of begging displays and bird egg coloration)
- Life history evolution (e.g. developmental, social and ecological factors affecting the cost of reproduction)
- Coevolution and coadaptation (e.g. arms races between cuckoos and their hosts)
- Development (e.g. how early life environments influence eventual offspring and adult phenotypes)
Most of our current work focuses on burying beetles, which are remarkable for their complex social arrangements during reproduction, their ease of breeding in the lab and their abundance at local field sites. Within Cambridge, we have current projects with Dr Martin Welch (Dept of Biochemistry), Dr Michelle Oyen (Dept of Engineering) and Drs Rufus Johnstone and Nick Mundy (both from Dept of Zoology).
We also have long-term collaborations with Dr Naomi Langmore (Australian National University) analysing interactions between the Australasian bronze-cuckoos and their hosts, and Dr John Ewen (Institute of Zoology, London) investigating the biology of Hihi (or stitchbirds), an endangered songbird endemic to New Zealand.
Selected publications
- Thorogood, R., Ewen, J. & Kilner, R. M. 2011 Sense and sensitivity: responsiveness to offspring signals varies with the parents’ potential to breed again. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278:2638-2645
- Langmore, N. E., Stevens, M., Maurer, G., Heinsohn, R., Hall. M. L., Peters, A. & Kilner, R. M. (2011) Visual mimicry of host nestlings by cuckoos. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278:2455-2463
- Cotter, S. C., Topham, E., Price, A. J. P. & Kilner, R. M. 2010 Fitness costs associated with mounting a social immune response. Ecology Letters 13:1114-1123
- Hinde, C. A., Johnstone, R. A & Kilner, R. M. (2010) Parent-offspring conflict and coadaptation. Science 327: 1373-1376
- Russell, A. F., Langmore, N. E., Cockburn, A., Astheimer, L. B. & Kilner, R. M. 2007 Reduced egg investment can conceal helper effects in cooperatively breeding birds. Science 317:941-944
- Kilner RM, Madden JR, Hauber ME 2004 Brood parasitic cowbirds use host young to procure food. Science 305: 877-879.
- Langmore NE, Hunt S, Kilner RM. 2003 Escalation of a coevolutionary arms race through host rejection of brood parasitic young. Nature 422 (6928): 157-160.
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