SOCIAL EVOLUTION

There are evolutionary conflicts of interest within the family between provisioning parents, between parents and their dependent young, and among members of the current brood, over the amount of parental investment each offspring should receive. We investigate how these social conflicts arise, how they show themselves and how they are resolved. Current research questions include:

How does maternal provisioning of the avian egg influence the outcome of family conflicts?
People involved: Camilla Hinde, Rufus Johnstone, Andy Russell
Recent papers: Russell et al 2007, Buchanan et al 2007, Kilner & Hinde 2008, Hinde et al 2009

CO-EVOLUTION

With Naomi Langmore at the Australian National University, we are studying co-evolutionary arms races between Australian bronze-cuckoos and their hosts. We have discovered that Australian bronze-cuckoo hosts are unusual because their chief line of defence against cuckoos involves rejecting cuckoo chicks, rather than cuckoo eggs. Current research questions include:

What behavioural rules govern cuckoo chick desertion?
Recent papers: Langmore et al 2003, 2009a

What counter-measures have cuckoos evolved?
Recent papers: Langmore et al 2007, 2008, 2009b, Langmore and Kilner 2007, 2009, Broom et al 2008

SENSORY ECOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION

Bird nests provide a quantifiable, constant signalling environment for communication between offspring and their parents, which is ideal for investigating the evolution of animal signals. Signals sent in this environment include the patterning and colour of eggshells, as well as the visual and acoustic nestling begging displays. Current research questions include:

How do colourful displays develop?
People involved: John Ewen, Naomi Langmore, Martin Stevens, Rose Thorogood, Leila Walker
Recent papers: Thorogood et al 2008